Annals of Detention
A three-part series by SANDRA HERNANDEZ in the Daily Journal:
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December 31, 2008
Immigrant from Senegal tells of being sedated on commercial flight
"Amadou Lamine Diouf was in the San Pedro detention center on Terminal Island near Los Angeles when he heard the rumor from other immigrants: Sometimes, they drug you to deport you."
DIANNE SOLíS in the Dallas Morning News.
December 29, 2008
Mass. wage laws protect all workers
"Super 88 agreed to pay $200,000 in back wages and fines this summer, divided among the fish man and more than 300 other workers, a major victory in a burgeoning statewide effort to curb increasing workplace abuses against immigrants. Increasingly, officials are enforcing a state law that requires that all workers, even those here illegally, are paid for their labor."
MARIA SACCHETTI in the Boston Globe.
Foreign children exploited on U.S. soil; Egyptian girl kept as slave for years in California
"Shyima was 10 when the wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home, arriving in the U.S. in August 2000.
They brought her back to their spacious five-bedroom, two-story home, decorated in the style of a Tuscan villa with a fountain of two angels spouting water through a conch.
She was told to sleep in the garage. It had no windows and was neither heated nor air-conditioned. Soon after she arrived, the garage's only light bulb went out. The Ibrahims didn't replace it. From then on, Shyima lived in the dark."
RUKMINI CALLIMACHI for the Associated Press.
Immigration officials curtail sedation of deportees after criticism, lawsuits
"Federal immigration officials, over the past year, have dramatically curtailed the controversial practice of sedating deportees with powerful anti-psychotic medication.
The move followed court challenges and a public outcry over the practice, which often involved the use of Haldol, a drug used to treat schizophrenia."
DIANNE SOLíS in the Dallas Morning News.
December 27, 2008
City of Immigrants Fills Cells With Its Own
"[T]he people of Central Falls saw [the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility] as the economic engine that city fathers had promised, a steady source of jobs and federal money to pay for services like police and fire protection. Even that, it turns out, was an illusion."
NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.
[Be sure to check all the multimedia features; map, graphic, video, slide show.]
*** Poster's Note: This is among the "Top Five" justice journalism stories filed in 2008. ***
December 24, 2008
Bush Pardons Texas Rancher Who Hired Undocumented Workers
"A South Texas rancher got a good-news phone call Tuesday about a presidential pardon that wipes away a felony conviction for hiring undocumented workers to harvest his watermelons 16 years ago.
"I really don't know why or anything," said John Allen Aregood, of Riviera, a ranching town about 11 miles south of Kingsville. "It's just a good Christmas present."
He was one of 19 people granted pardons Tuesday by President George W. Bush.
The only Texan on the list, Aregood paid a modest fine and served two years of probation after his conviction for aiding and harboring unauthorized immigrants.
Aregood, 64, is no longer is in the watermelon business and said he has never met Bush.
But quite a few people wrote to the Justice Department supporting his pardon application, which a friend inside the agency helped advance, he said.
"I had high hopes that it would happen, but I wasn't sure because it was getting close to time for Bush to leave office."
The pardon will restore Aregood's voting rights, which is the Christmas gift he wanted."
GARY SCHARRER in the Houston Chronicle, Austin Bureau.
Immigrants reshape post-disaster New Orleans
"In the three years since Hurricane Katrina, immigrant laborers drawn to the construction and service industry jobs created by the storm have transformed this rebuilding city. In an accelerated version of the already rapid Latino migration to the South, they are forging their own support networks, establishing businesses, packing churches and starting families — a process that usually takes a decade or more."
JOHN MORENO GONZALES for the Associated Press.
December 22, 2008
Texas officials accused of harassing detained Somalis
"Attorneys for 10 Somali men held in an immigration detention center in South Texas allege that federal immigration officials segregated and interrogated their clients after they left a Muslim prayer service, saying they were subject to "discriminatory and unethical" questioning."
SUSAN CARROLL in the Houston Chronicle.
December 19, 2008
Congressman, faith and labor leaders urge release of jailed workers
"Imagine you sell your home, even borrow money, to move to another community where you are promised a good job. But when you get there, you're forced to live in near-slavery conditions.
When you report the situation to the authorities, you're arrested and put in jail. The employer, meanwhile, faces no penalties and continues to reap profits from your work.
That – in a nutshell – is the situation faced by 23 workers from India currently held in the Fargo, N.D., jail by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
BARB KUCERA in Workday Minnesota.
December 18, 2008
Report Finds Some Federal Judges Put Off Swearing-in New Citizens
"Federal judges in some parts of the United States are delaying the swearing-in of new citizens, apparently so that courts can keep millions of dollars in naturalization fees paid by immigrants, according to a new government report and immigration analysts."
SPENCER S. HSU in the Washington Post.
December 17, 2008
Prisoners Riot For Better Medical Treatment
"An uprising at a privately run prison in West Texas ended Saturday morning after two hostages were released, authorities said.
The inmates, who include immigration detainees, were asking for better medical treatment, DPS Trooper John Barton told the Pecos Enterprise."
December 16, 2008
Silenced By Fear
"[I]n Hawai'i's immigrant communities, which have grown substantially in recent years, many battered women face not only the general barriers to reporting but an additional one: The fear of deportation.
Abusers often use the threat of deportation, even if not credible, to try to keep their victims from speaking up. Wang's abuser threatened to report her to immigration authorities even though she was in the country legally.
Some women erroneously believe if they report abuse, they'll be deported."
ROB PEREZ in the Honolulu Advertiser.
Settlement opens up amnesty for tens of thousands of immigrants
"Thanks to a recent legal settlement, the chance to apply for amnesty is finally open to Aydin and tens of thousands of others who entered the country on a valid visa but fell out of legal status between 1982 and 1988."
TERESA WATANABE in the Los Angeles Times.
[The case is Northwest Immigrant Rights Project v. USCIS, No. 88‐379 (W.D. Wash.), formerly known as Immigrant Assistance Project v. INS.]
December 14, 2008
Rules will allow DNA samples from federal detainees
"Immigration detainees and others arrested for federal crimes will be forced to provide DNA samples beginning in January under new rules promulgated by the Justice Department this week, raising the ire of immigrant rights advocates and other groups."
EVELYN LARRUBIA in the Los Angeles Times.
December 10, 2008
Go Directly to Jail...and Die
"Despite these deaths, the American Civil Liberties Union and prison advocacy groups have had to fight the perception that immigrant detainees are being coddled in detention and that people who are in this country illegally don’t deserve medical care."
THOMAS LARSON in the San Diego Reader.
December 08, 2008
Tennessee immigrants fight back fear, sue for rights
"For Enrique Bautista, a turning point came last year at a Franklin driver's license office.
A worker took his Tennessee-issued ID and U.S. government-issued green card and disappeared for 20 minutes. When she came back, it was to say she'd be keeping the documents on suspicion they were fake.
Bautista, a legal permanent resident, was stunned. He'd never been in trouble with the law. He'd raised five children in the United States, working hard here for decades.
But with no ID of any kind, Bautista would be unable to visit family in Mexico for Christmas or even leave the house without fear.
So, last month, he sued the Tennessee Department of Safety and joined the ranks of Tennessee Latinos filing civil rights lawsuits against state and local governments. They're claiming policies and actions are directly aimed at making Tennessee a less attractive place to settle, even for legal immigrants."
JANELL ROSS in the Tennessean.
December 04, 2008
NYC restaurant owners charged with cooking books to hide wage violations for immigrant workers
"Prosecutors charged the owners of a group of Vietnamese restaurants Wednesday with allegedly cooking their books to hide the pay and hours of immigrant workers, sending a stern warning to eateries that commit similar violations.
Simon and Michelle Nget, owners of the Saigon Grill restaurant group, are accused of failing to pay legal wages to dozens of employees at their popular Vietnamese restaurants in Manhattan and then fabricating records to conceal the violations.
In some cases, the restaurant tried to make it look like workers were being paid legally by having them cash regular paychecks, prosecutors said. Once the check cleared, however, the workers were required to give the money back, they said.
Over time, employees were cheated out of millions of dollars, officials said, adding that the state's unemployment insurance program was also cheated."
DAVID B. CARUSO and SAMUEL MAULL for the Associated Press.
December 03, 2008
Hurricane Ike cleanup workers say they were victimized by wage theft, poor working conditions
"Hundreds of workers hired to clean up debris, repair damaged roofs and restore flood-soaked buildings say they were robbed of wages, stranded with nowhere to stay and injured on the job."
MONICA RHOR for the Associated Press.
The U.S.-Mexican Border: A Changing Frontier
A five-day series featuring a multimedia trek along the border.
JASON BEAUBIEN on NPR.
December 01, 2008
Hiding in Plain Sight
"They steer clear of hospitals until they are too sick to stand. The undocumented are muted when landlords withhold heat, or bosses refuse to pay, or Feds search their bedrooms without warrants. When you are “out of status,” you learn to keep quiet. To dodge exposure. To stay to work another day."
JEFF COPLON in New York Magazine.