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September 27, 2008

Human papillomavirus vaccination requirement for immigrants raises concerns

"Federal immigration authorities now require immunization against human papillomavirus for female immigrants ages 11 to 26 who are seeking permanent residence.

The mandate by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services went into effect July 1, but advocacy groups were largely left in the dark about the new requirements, said Priscilla Huang, Reproductive Justice Project director and women's law fellow at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum."

THALIA I. LONGORIA in the Dallas Morning News.

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September 22, 2008

Mukasey: BIA Must Reconsider FGM Decision

"Attorney General Michael Mukasey has rebuked [the Board of Immigration Appeals] on behalf of a Mali woman who fears genital mutilation if sent home. It's rare for the nation's top law enforcement officer to reject rulings issued by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals. But Mukasey did just that on Monday, overruling the panel's decision to deny asylum to the unidentified woman who opposes tribal customs in Mali that force genital mutilation upon its women. The appeals panel had spurned the Mali woman's request in April, in part because her genitals already have been mutilated. Mukasey called the decision flawed and sent it back to the judges to reconsider. "The board based its analysis on a false premise: that female genital mutilation is a one-time act that cannot be repeated on the same woman," Mukasey wrote in his order. "As several courts have recognized, female genital mutilation is indeed capable of repetition.""

LARA JAKES JORDAN for the Associated Press.

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Profiling Persists in Providence

"Eight years after studies began suggesting that race affects which cars Rhode Island police stop and search, racial profiling continues because the police haven’t acted to end the practice, witnesses told the state branch of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights yesterday."

BRUCE LANDIS in the Providence Journal.

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September 20, 2008

In Chicago, Carry Your Passport

"Rev. José Landaverde is pastor of an Anglican mission in Little Village called Our Lady of Guadalupe. As raids on five neighborhood locations got underway Thursday, Landaverde says he was visiting his alderman’s office to pick up a block-party permit.

LANDAVERDE: When I walked outside the office, three officers of Immigration approached me and put me on top of my car, and then searched me. And they said, ‘I want to see your documents, mica.’ And then I said, ‘I don’t have any mica, but I have my United States passport because I’m a United States citizen.’ When he saw the passport, he gave it back to me right away and he said, ‘Go away.’"

CHIP MITCHELL for Chicago Public Radio.

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September 19, 2008

1 in 10 Latinos profiled

"Nearly one in 10 Hispanics in the U.S. reported that in the last year police or other authorities have stopped them and asked them about their immigration status, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released Thursday."

DIANNE SOLíS in the Dallas Morning News.

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September 17, 2008

In California, Uncertainty on Immigrant Student Tuition

"“We will fight it as long as it is necessary to clarify this,” said Michael A. Olivas, a professor and expert on higher education and immigration law at the University of Houston. He faulted the California appeals court for misreading laws relative to residency."

ELIZABETH REDDEN in Inside Higher Ed.

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DOJ Falls Short on Promised Immigration Judge Reform, Report Says

"The U.S. Department of Justice has failed to implement most of 22 reforms of the immigration judge system promised two years ago, including establishing a discipline system, more oversight of judges and improving the appeals process, according to a study released last week."

PAMELA A. MacLEAN in the National Law Journal.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 07:03 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

September 16, 2008

Undocumented students' college aid in jeopardy

"A state appellate court has put a financial cloud over the future of tens of thousands of undocumented California college students, saying a state law that grants them the same heavily subsidized tuition rate that is given to resident students is in conflict with federal law."

TANYA SCHEVITZ in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Voters will have chance to toss out Florida's obsolete 'alien land law'

"Florida is the last state in the nation still to have a constitution marked with one remnant of the Jim Crow era: a rule allowing legislators to ban Asian immigrants from owning land.

This November, voters have a chance to remove the so-called "alien land law" of 1926 from Florida's Constitution. That would complete a nationwide purging of the rules once in force in more than a dozen states."

JOSH HAFENBRACK in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

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September 15, 2008

Police accused of racially profiling of Latinos in suburban Pa.

"Sister Janice Vanderneck, director of social service ministry at the Latino Catholic Community, a diocesan-sponsored center in Oakland, said suburban police departments are stopping Latino immigrants for "doing nothing" at least several times a week."

JEROME L. SHERMAN in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 09:09 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

Latinos could swing election in key states

"[T]heir concentration and growth in a handful of hotly contested states — Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico among them — lead some analysts to think their votes could tip the election one way or the other."

JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

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September 14, 2008

On the lookout for immigration raids

"Reeling from work-site raids that have jailed thousands of illegal workers, immigration organizations are quietly assembling informal networks to gather advance information about federal enforcement operations and to help locals and laborers prepare."

NICOLE GAOUETTE in the Los Angeles Times.

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September 13, 2008

Farmers Branch rental ban blocked from implementation

"So far, the third time is not the charm for Farmers Branch.

U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle issued a temporary restraining order Friday barring the city from implementing its latest ordinance aimed at halting housing rentals to illegal immigrants.

Under the new measure, which city attorneys said would have gone into effect today, apartment and home renters would have to obtain a city occupancy license by stating that they were U.S. citizens or were in the country legally."

STEPHANIE SANDOVAL in the Dallas Morning News.

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September 12, 2008

Battered Immigrant Women Fear Going to Police

"Immigrants account for a disturbingly high share of domestic violence deaths in Massachusetts, advocates say, raising fears that the nation's heated immigration debate is deterring abuse victims from seeking help."

MARIA SACCHETTI in the Boston Globe.

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Feds Eyeball Sheriff Joe

"Three federal agencies are examining the Maricopa County sheriff's anti-illegal immigration enforcement effort to determine if deputies have followed civil rights and other regulations."

PAUL GIBLIN, RYAN GABRIELSON for the East Valley Tribune.

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September 09, 2008

Midwife Delivery Can Lead to Passport Denial

"The State Department is denying passports to people born in southern Texas near the border with Mexico if they were delivered by midwives, citing a history of birth certificate forgeries there for Mexican-born children dating to the 1960s, according to U.S. officials.

In a lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges that the government is systematically discriminating against U.S.-born citizens on the basis of ethnicity and national origin."

SPENCER S. HSU in the Washington Post.

[Here are links to podcasts and documents related to the lawsuit.]

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September 08, 2008

Effort on Immigration Courts Faulted

"A two-year-old Bush administration effort to improve the nation's backlogged immigration courts has not adequately increased oversight of immigration judges, tightened the appeals process or consistently sought funding for new judges, according to a report."

SPENCER S. HSU and CARRIE JOHNSON in the Washington Post.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 08:29 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

Border tribe: no water for migrants

"Wilson said he's been threatened with banishment by the tribe's public safety director and attorney general's office if he doesn't stop putting water out for migrants."

ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN for the Associated Press.

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

September 03, 2008

Lawyers difficult to obtain in immigration cases

"Unlike defendants in criminal courts, individuals in immigration court do not have the right to free representation. Though there are no local statistics on the number of people who appeared in immigration court without lawyers, 58% of respondents nationwide were unrepresented, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the courts."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 05:19 AM | | TrackBacks (0)