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July 31, 2008

Feds join probe of Mexican slain in Pa. coal town

"The Justice Department said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into the fatal beating of a Mexican immigrant in a small northeastern Pennsylvania town.

The federal involvement comes less than a week after local officials in Schuylkill County charged three white teens in this month's attack in Shenandoah on Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old father of two."

MARYCLAIRE DALE for the Associated Press.

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July 30, 2008

Politically Connected Immigration Judges Unlikely to Face Consequences

"Justice Department officials likely broke the law in getting Francis Cramer his job. But that doesn't mean he's going to have to give it up any time soon."

EMMA SCHWARTZ for ABC News.

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July 28, 2008

Justice report finds aides illegally discriminated against career hires who weren't Republican

A new Justice Department report concludes that politics illegally influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges, and largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

LARA JAKES JORDAN for the Associated Press.

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July 27, 2008

New hires bring new problems to Postville

"Ten weeks after the largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, this is the new Postville: Drunken brawls. A food pantry that is almost bare. Women afraid to walk alone at night.

Postville is now home to hundreds of men and women from tough towns and tough lives, brought to this northeast Iowa community by recruiters who entered homeless shelters in dusty Texas border towns offering $15 and a one-way bus ticket.

The impact is evident: New laborers are changing Postville. The Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant, the site of the immigration raid, once employed men and women with families. Now, its workers are mostly young, single people with no stake in the community and nothing to lose."

NIGEL DUARA in the Des Moines Register.

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July 26, 2008

U.S. citizens claim profiling, join lawsuit against Sheriff Arpaio

"In one case, a brother and sister say deputies unnecessarily stopped them in front of their north Phoenix auto-repair shop and forced them out of the car with weapons raised. In another, a husband and wife say sheriff's deputies improperly asked for a Social Security card after they encountered a roadblock while leaving Bartlett Lake with their two children.

The accusations were added Wednesday to a federal lawsuit that alleges the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is targeting Latinos to investigate immigration status by using unfounded traffic stops, racially motivated questioning and baseless arrests in a series of crime sweeps."

DANIEL GONZáLEZ in the Arizona Republic.

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July 25, 2008

Delivered by Midwives, Fighting for Passports

Imagine being born, growing up and living your entire life in one place, yet being denied a U.S. passport because the government doesn't trust your birth certificate.  That's the problem faced by countless people in rural areas along the U.S. - Mexico border, especially South Texas, a.k.a. "the Valley."

Brownsville Herald reporter KEVIN SIEFF filed a pair of stories (June 19th and June 20th, 2008) exposing the problem, and produced a slide show including photographs by BRAD DOHERTY and G. DANIEL LóPEZ.

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July 24, 2008

When Americans Get Deported Illegally

"A man named Robert, who has an Hispanic last name, served nearly two years in prison, was deported, got caught re-entering, was sentenced to three years in prison, served more time, and then was finally sent to an immigration judge. He was later informed that he had been a citizen since 1983."

ADRIAN CASTAñEDA in the Santa Barbara Independent.

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Immigrants Face Jail, Then Deportation

"For years, the chief punishment for immigrants caught working illegally in the United States has been deportation. But prosecutors are now bringing criminal charges that include aggravated identity theft, which can bring a hefty prison sentence. Immigrant rights groups and some members of Congress are challenging the practice."

JENNIFER LUDDEN for NPR.

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July 23, 2008

Hispanic leaders fear for safety

"For North Carolina's Hispanic leaders, the biggest hazards of the job were once long hours. Now, they include death threats.

A pair of the state's most prominent advocates, Andrea Bazán and Tony Asion, say that for the past several months, each time they have spoken publicly, they have gotten a raft of profanity-laced messages, some of them exhorting them to return to their home countries and others denigrating Hispanics. Several legislators say they have also gotten messages recently that cross the line into racism, and one got a menacing voice mail."

KRISTIN COLLINS at the News & Observer.

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What's Clogging the Courts? Ask America's Busiest Judge

"A typical case is a 22- or 23-year-old father of two who was brought here when he was 2 or 3, lived here his entire life, went to Las Cruces High school and has two kids who are American citizens. He gets, say, a DWI, and all of a sudden his lack of status is discovered and he is sent back to Mexico, even though he knows nothing about the country, has no family there, and barely speaks Spanish. What else is he going to do but turn around and cross the border again? And if he does and he gets caught, that's a felony with real prison time and another deportation," he said.

"I sentence a kid matching that profile five times a week. Those cases hurt, they break your heart."

RUSSELL GOLDMAN for ABC News.

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Zirkle Fruit reaches labor settlement

"Approximately 600 foreign guest workers employed by Zirkle Fruit in 2007 will be entitled to $170 each under the terms of a settlement announced Monday. The total settlement is $102,000.

Zirkle fired nine Mexican farm workers last year for allegedly failing to meet productivity requirements. The men had been brought to the U.S. on H-2A visas as part of a federal program that allows American farmers to hire foreign workers when there's a local shortage.

The farm workers sued the Selah-based fruit company in federal court in January, alleging that Zirkle failed to adequately disclose production standards in the labor contract, which is approved by the U.S. Department of Labor."

LEAH BETH WARD in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

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July 22, 2008

Immigration law means a borderline existence for U.S. wife of Mexican

"[I]f immigrants want to follow the law, families -- often including U.S. spouses and children -- are left with two difficult choices: Live apart or move to Mexico. Mautino said she knows of a few U.S. citizen spouses who have made the same decision as Heather Suarez, but more choose not to move because of concerns about safety, education, medical care or finances."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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July 21, 2008

L.A. Immigration Court caseload soars

"The number of foreigners landing in Los Angeles Immigration Court has surged in recent years, while the number of judges has remained about the same, causing crushing caseloads and lengthy delays."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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July 20, 2008

Breaks in border fence have residents suspicious of DHS's plans

The fence's trajectory, incontiguous and largely unexplained, has left many border residents suspicious of the federal government's plans. ... The exemptions have fed suspicions that money and political connections dictated DHS' construction plans."

KEVIN SIEFF in the Brownsville Herald.

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July 19, 2008

States balk at checking farm workers' documents

"Some states are balking at a federal effort to require them to screen potential farm hands for immigration violations before referring them to jobs, another conflict in the long-running dispute over the states' role in immigration enforcement."

SHANNON DININNY for the Associated Press.

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July 17, 2008

"I am afraid … that they will deport me."

"Sandra Diaz was nearing the end of her shift cleaning at the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal in Cranston Tuesday evening when an immigration agent approached her and asked her to come into a small room."

JENNIFER D. JORDAN and KAREN LEE ZINER in the Providence Journal.

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Arpaio's sweeps are targeted in lawsuit

"Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration and crime sweeps are being targeted in a lawsuit that alleged his officers have racially profiled countless Hispanics.

The attack on the sweeps alleged the officers based some traffic stops on the race of Hispanics who were in vehicles, had no probable cause to pull them over and made the stops so they could inquire about their immigration status."

ASSOCIATED PRESS.

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July 15, 2008

Charity clinics cropping up to serve Dallas-area immigrant workers

"A few of the clinics have funding restrictions tied to immigration status. But doctors, nurses and clinic support staffers say checking for disease and injuries – not immigration documents – is their mission."

DIANNE SOLÍS in the Dallas Morning News.

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July 14, 2008

Escondido tries to rid itself of undocumented immigrants

"The city's policies have also attracted criticism from some residents who said the city is blurring distinctions between illegal immigrants and Latinos here legally.

"It's not about immigration," said resident Bill Flores, spokesman for a community organization called El Grupo. "It is about brown people. . . . They are looking for a way to reduce the number of brown people."

Flores, a retired assistant sheriff in San Diego County, said he believed city leaders were reacting to a dramatic demographic shift.

More than 62,000 Latinos lived in Escondido in 2006, making up 44% of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That marks a significant jump since 1990, when roughly 25,000 Latinos lived in the city and were 23% of the population. The non-Latino white population, meanwhile, dropped between 1990 and 2000 by nearly 11%."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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July 12, 2008

Nebraska town proposes occupancy license aimed at immigration

"A proposed law aimed at banishing illegal immigrants from Fremont, Neb., would require every renter — whether they were born in the United States or immigrated here — to obtain an occupancy license through the city.

The proposal has sparked an outcry among advocates for Latinos. Nebraska Appleseed attorney Norm Pflanz said he is confident that many Fremont citizens will join in opposition once they understand the full impact of the ordinance — on their lives as well as those of immigrants.

Fremont's is the first city council in the state to propose an ordinance that would ban harboring and renting to illegal immigrants. Lawmakers in other U.S. localities have introduced similar initiatives, often later struck down by the courts, according to national immigration groups."

CINDY GONZALEZ and JUDITH NYGREN in the Omaha World-Herald.

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More Mexicans seeking asylum on U.S.-Mexico border

"Dozens of Mexicans - including police officers, businessmen, at least one prosecutor and a journalist - are asking for political asylum in the U.S. in a desperate and probably hopeless bid to escape an unprecedented wave of drug-related killings and kidnappings south of the border."

ALICIA A. CALDWELL for the Associated Press.

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July 10, 2008

An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants

"In 23 years as a certified Spanish interpreter for federal courts, Erik Camayd-Freixas has spoken up in criminal trials many times, but the words he uttered were rarely his own.

Then he was summoned here by court officials to translate in the hearings for nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers arrested in a raid on May 12 at a meatpacking plant. Since then, Mr. Camayd-Freixas, a professor of Spanish at Florida International University, has taken the unusual step of breaking the code of confidentiality among legal interpreters about their work.

In a 14-page essay he circulated among two dozen other interpreters who worked here, Professor Camayd-Freixas wrote that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing or the rights most of them had waived."

JULIA PRESTON in the New York Times.

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Bus, train passengers: Border Patrol racial profiling at times

"Border patrol agents upstate are increasingly arresting New York City undocumented immigrants aboard Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, raising questions that the government sometimes resorts to racial profiling, immigration advocates and attorneys said.

The arrests have been an authorized practice for decades but seem to have hit a fevered pitch recently, according to advocates.

The patrols have sparked protests in the city as well as upstate, most recently last weekend in Syracuse, where a group said that agents have even targeted U.S. citizens who look "foreign". Immigration attorneys say witnesses have said that agents sometimes question only people of color."

MARLENE NAANES in amNew York.

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July 09, 2008

When An Immigrant Mom Gets Arrested

"Immigration and child welfare advocates say that Mitrohina’s story — the loss of her child, her incarceration and detention, and her struggle to care for her child — represents a new and dangerous terrain at the intersection of three government systems — deportation, incarceration and foster care — that are tearing apart poor families and families of color."

Julianne Ong Hing and Seth Wessler in ColorLines.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 07:22 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

July 07, 2008

Dallas-area students cling to American dream

"Cristina Gamez quotes Albert Einstein, plays the piano and knows basic Japanese. Monica Ibarra Rodriguez enjoys Guitar Hero and plans to one day work as a substance abuse counselor. Her cousin, Jose de Jesus Ibarra, wants to be a mechanical engineer.

The Dallas-area young adults are typical of many college-age students – full of hopes and plans for the future. But all three are living in the country illegally and last year became subjects of deportation proceedings.

The students recently learned that U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, has taken up their cause. On June 20, Ms. Johnson filed a private bill that seeks to keep them from being deported."

STELLA M. CHÁVEZ in the Dallas Morning News.

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July 03, 2008

Federal Report Recommends Improvements in Reporting Deaths of Immigrant Detainees

"The federal immigration agency should report all deaths in detention promptly, not only to the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, but also to state authorities where required by law, the inspector general has recommended after a “special review” of the deaths of two immigrant detainees."

NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.

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July 02, 2008

Advocates rally after raid, arrests

"The 6 a.m. call jolted Nicolas Ramos out of bed. His cousin Veronica Ramos was on the other end sobbing. Armed federal immigration agents had broken down her apartment door and hauled away her husband, Eduardo Delgado, as their three children hid under their beds."

KELLY BREWINGTON in the Baltimore Sun.

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July 01, 2008

Feds Bust Down Doors Looking For...Painters

"[I]n the Hillsmere Shores community, four immigrants who did not speak English showed reporters damage that they said was caused during a raid there in which one man was arrested. Inside the home, a sparsely furnished, middle-class dwelling, a door frame had been splintered and paperwork was strewn about a room.

A woman, who said she was five months pregnant, said she had been handcuffed and shoved as her boyfriend was arrested. His family said he had a work permit that had recently expired.

A cousin, who would only give his first name of Nelsar, said he believes immigration agents are looking for him as well even though he says he has proper documentation.

"I don't know why they accept this application, they take your money, and then come looking for you," he said, clutching a certificate that says he is permitted to work in the United States. Surveying a hole in a bedroom door, he said, "This is completely wrong.""

JUSTIN FENTON and KELLY BREWINGTON in the Baltimore Sun.

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