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March 30, 2009

Immigration courts face huge backlog

"The nation's immigration courts are now so clogged that nearly 90,000 people accused of being in the United States illegally waited at least two years for a judge to decide whether they must leave, one of the last bottlenecks in a push to more strictly enforce immigration laws.

Their cases — identified by a USA TODAY review of the courts' dockets since 2003 — are emblematic of delays in the little-known court system that lawyers, lawmakers and others say is on the verge of being overwhelmed. Among them were 14,000 immigrants whose cases took more than five years to decide and a few that took more than a decade."

BRAD HEATH in USA Today.

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March 29, 2009

Will Napolitano Relax on Workplace Raids?

"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute -- increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers."

SPENCER S. HSU in the Washington Post.

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Binational, same-sex couples face immigration problems

"Shirley Tan's calm and happy life — San Mateo County housewife, mother of twin 12-year-old boys, singing in the church choir — blew up at 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, with a knock on the front door.

Within minutes, the immigration agent standing there had the 43-year-old Tan in handcuffs. She is scheduled to be deported to her native Philippines on Friday."

MIKE SWIFT for the Mercury News.

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March 27, 2009

Feds Pay Undocumented Prisoners $1/day for Work

"If you were to stop on a street corner anywhere in America and knowingly hire an illegal immigrant to do your laundry or clean your basement, you would be breaking the law.

But for years, the federal government has been paying immigration detainees $1 a day to perform menial work in the nation’s public and private detention centers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials insist there is no double standard, saying the Voluntary Work Program offers detainees a break from the monotony of incarceration and a chance to earn money while they are locked up.

Rutgers University criminal justice professor Michael Welch called the program a “paradox.”

“It’s ironic that these undocumented immigrants are barred from working legally in the community, but while behind bars, they are not only allowed but encouraged to work for a dollar a day,” Welch said."

SUSAN CARROLL in the Houston Chronicle.

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March 25, 2009

Mexico Blocks Border Patrol's "Scorched Earth" Pesticide Plan for Rio Grande

"The U.S. Border Patrol has halted a controversial pilot project to poison and eliminate all plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank to make it easier to spot criminals.

The $2.1 million project, which was to begin today, was stopped indefinitely over concerns raised by Mexican government officials, said Roque Sarinana, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Laredo Sector."

Two stories by DANE SCHILLER in the Houston Chronicle, on 3-24-09 and 3-25-09.

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ACLU seeks deportation data

"The N.C. American Civil Liberties Union says programs that allow local sheriffs to help deport illegal immigrants need more scrutiny, and it is demanding scores of records from the 13 state departments that are checking their inmates' immigration status.

Legal Director Katy Parker says the ACLU wants to see whether departments with immigration programs are arresting more Hispanics and setting up more driver's license checkpoints than in the past.

"All of the sheriffs will tell you that [the program] doesn't affect how law enforcement is operating on the streets," Parker said Monday. "But what we're hearing is that the tail is wagging the dog, that checkpoints start going up and immigrants are being arrested for things like driving without a license and minor traffic issues.""

KRISTIN COLLINS in the News & Observer.

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New report blasts U.S. on immigrant detainees

"More than 400,000 people a year are detained by immigration officials in the United States - including undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants who run afoul of the law and asylum seekers who come fleeing persecution - but according to a report released today by Amnesty International, conditions are often deplorable and detainees are routinely denied due process.

It's the second major human rights report in a week to indict the nation's immigration detention system. The system is attracting increased attention in part because the number of people in detention has grown exponentially in recent years and in part because of dozens of in-custody deaths and a lawsuit over the treatment of children."

TYCHE HENDRICKS in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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March 23, 2009

Drug cartels raise the stakes on human smuggling

"The business of smuggling humans across the Mexican border has always been brisk, with many thousands coming across every year.

But smugglers affiliated with the drug cartels have taken the enterprise to a new level -- and made it more violent -- by commandeering much of the operation from independent coyotes, according to these officials and recent congressional testimonies."

JOSH MEYER in the Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times.

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March 19, 2009

After arrests of indigenous immigrants, questions about translation and deportations emerge

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - "When immigration agents arrested 16 farmworkers in a mass arrest of illegal immigrants early this year, legal advocates raced to find interpreters for some of the men, a few who spoke only a language called Mixtec.

But by the time an interpreter was found, most of the men were on their way out of the country after signing away their rights to contest deportation — a procedure they might not have understood.

The deportations alarmed immigrant advocates in this agricultural city 60 miles north of Seattle. It also raised questions about the deportation proceedings for people who speak little Spanish or English.

"There is no way they knew what they were signing. No way," said the Rev. Jo Beecher of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Mount Vernon, one of the advocates who tried to help the men."

MANUEL VALDES for the Associated Press.

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March 17, 2009

Cities and counties rely on U.S. immigrant detention fees

"For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and saving positions."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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March 16, 2009

A deportation case against a dead man

"Nasin Mauricio Rivera died in San Bernardino County in August and his body was shipped to his native El Salvador for burial.

Seven months later, the federal government is still proceeding with the deportation case against him. A hearing is scheduled for this summer."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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March 13, 2009

In City of Lawyers, Many Immigrants Fighting Deportation Go It Alone

"In the heart of Manhattan, amid one of the greatest concentrations of legal muscle in the world, hundreds of New York’s immigrant poor are locked up with no access to a lawyer as they fight deportation."

NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.

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March 10, 2009

Immigrants face lengthy detention with few rights

"America’s detention system for immigrants has mushroomed in the last decade, a costly building boom that was supposed to sweep up criminals and ensure that undocumented immigrants were quickly shown the door.

Instead, an Associated Press computer analysis of every person being held on a recent Sunday night shows that most did not have a criminal record and many were not about to leave the country — voluntarily or via deportation."

MICHELLE ROBERTS for the Associated Press.

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March 09, 2009

Driving While Latino

"In many communities with a recent surge in immigrant population, Latino drivers are being stopped at a higher rate by the police than their share of the driving-age population, and they are more likely to have their cars searched than their white counterparts, shows a Chicago Reporter analysis of 2007 traffic stop data collected by the Illinois Department of Transportation."

FERNANDO DíAZ in the Chicago Reporter.

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Feds Fail to Prevent Police Abuse

"Although the 287(g) program has existed for more than a decade, it’s only recently come under serious scrutiny. At least three separate studies plus Congressional testimony in just the last month have concluded that a lack of regulations or clear directions to local law enforcement and insufficient oversight by federal authorities has permitted the program’s widespread abuse."

DAPHNE EVIATAR in the Washington Independent.

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March 07, 2009

Immigration courts struggle as number of cases climbs

"Nationally, the number of immigration prosecutions has increased significantly in recent years. Immigration judges received more than 334,000 matters — including bonds, motions and removal proceedings — in 2007, up from roughly 290,000 in 2002. Meanwhile, the number of immigration judges has remained flat, with 224 today compared with 225 in 2002."

SUSAN CARROLL in the Houston Chronicle.

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March 06, 2009

Politics of the Plate: Florida’s Slave Trade

"A little slavery is okay, just not too much of it.

At this writing, that appears to be the official government position in the state of Florida, and it could explain why the fields of the Sunshine State provide such fertile ground for modern-day slavery. In the past dozen years, police have broken up and prosecuted seven slave operations there, freeing more than 1,000 men and women who were kept captive and forced to work for little or no money and threatened with death if they tried to escape."

BARRY ESTABROOK in Gourmet Magazine.

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Mexican Journalist Wants U.S. To Grant Him Asylum

"As Mexico's drug war grinds on, the number of Mexicans fleeing to the United States is growing. And the number requesting asylum in the U-S has more than doubled. Political asylum is usually reserved for refugees claiming religious or political persecution, or fear of torture. But in a test case, a Mexican journalist has asked for asylum because, he says, the military has threatened to kill him."

JOHN BURNETT on National Public Radio.

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March 04, 2009

Mexico's drug war creates new class of refugees

"The Juarez police lieutenant was recovering from three gunshot wounds, the result of an assault by hit men for a drug cartel. His name was on a death list brazenly posted at a monument for fallen peace officers. Lt. Salvador Hernandez Arvizu didn't like his odds of surviving in Mexico. So he fled his hospital bed, hoping to take refuge in the U.S.

At a border post in El Paso, he filled out immigration paperwork, made a formal request for political asylum -- and was taken directly to jail.

The Juarez policeman is part of a new breed of would-be refugees -- business owners, law enforcement officers, journalists and other professionals -- on the run from Mexico's vicious drug wars. Increasingly, they are seeking safe haven in the U.S. by filing for asylum."

ANDREW BECKER and PATRICK J. McDONNELL in the Los Angeles Times.

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Immigrant Busts Faulted

"An Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that trains local police to arrest illegal immigrants suspected of committing serious crimes has expanded without appropriate oversight, leading to the arrest of thousands for minor infractions, according to a study scheduled to be released Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office report comes amid calls from human-rights organizations and immigrant advocates for former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, in her new role as secretary of Homeland Security, to bring down the curtain on the so-called 287g program. The program has been a symbol of the Bush administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

The GAO review, requested by the House and Senate homeland-security panels, found that program participants used their 287g authority "to process individuals for minor crimes, such as speeding, contrary to the objective of the program.""

MIRIAM JORDAN in the Wall Street Journal.

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March 01, 2009

Is the Border Patrol racially profiling, far from the border?

"As the Border Patrol's ranks have increased in the San Diego area, so have reports of immigration-related traffic stops well away from the border. Since late last year, there have been at least four reports of motorists stopped by immigration officials and questioned in the interior of the county and beyond. Those who were stopped include a San Diego-born citizen who said she was pulled over by a marked Border Patrol vehicle Feb. 20 on southbound Interstate 5 in Oceanside. “As soon as I got on the freeway, I noticed a car following me,” said Maricela Orozco, 26, a student and telephone operator who was headed home to Escondido late at night after visiting her boyfriend. “A short time afterward, I noticed the lights on.” Orozco, who was driving a 1989 Honda Accord, said she pulled off the freeway. After she handed the agent her driver's license, “he asked me if I was born in Escondido.” After what she described as an unpleasant exchange, Orozco was allowed to continue."

LESLIE BERESTEIN in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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