'Just News' Blog

Columbus Dispatch Special Report: The Immigration Crackdown

2008-10-11T01:37:24Z

"The crackdown on immigrants living here illegally has spread to nearly every corner of the United States. States, counties and private citizens frustrated by federal inaction have taken matters into their own hands.

Here in Ohio, state lawmakers this fall must decide: Will this state crack down, back down or find some middle ground on an issue that has befuddled Congress for years?

In this four-day series, The Dispatch and its Spanish-language weekly, Fronteras de la Noticia, examine the issue."

America's promise to protect asylum-seekers gets lost in the paperwork

2008-10-10T01:00:37Z

"Secrecy is an essential part of America's promise to refugees.

When they apply for asylum, they are by definition seeking to escape persecution on the basis of their race, religion, nationality or political views. The law says that everything they write will be kept private. "No information indicating that you have applied for asylum will be provided to any government or country from which you claim a fear of persecution," the instructions for asylum applications state.

When refugees have face-to-face interviews with immigration officials, the promise is repeated, says one local expert on the process. "Everything you tell me will be kept confidential. It won't be shared with your home government," says Regina Germain, legal director of the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center in Denver. "It doesn't say 'unless you're rejected.'"

Sometimes, though, secrets leak out. Especially for those refugees the government decides to send back home. In Peter's case, it began with a mere paperwork error."

LISA RAB in Westword.

Detainees’ entry to U.S. blocked, for now

2008-10-09T14:38:24Z

"The D.C. Circuit Court blocked, for at least eight days, the entry of 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees into the U.S., putting on hold a federal judge’s order for their release. In a three-paragraph order, the Circuit Court said it was issuing a stay only to give it more time to consider the Bush Administration’s not-yet-filed plea for a delay of the entry until it can pursue a full appeal. The Court said its order “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits” of the issue of a longer delay pending the appeal."

LYLE DENNISTON in ScotusBlog.

Family tangled up in immigration system divided between two countries

2008-10-09T14:21:32Z

DURHAM, N.C. - "Angela Guerrero knew she might be overwhelmed for a few weeks, possibly a month, juggling work, child care and the daily grind of family life when her husband set out for the U.S. consulate offices in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

She never expected to be in the predicament she is in - her husband of five years banned from this country for at least a decade, her family torn between two countries and a tangle of immigration issues to unsnarl."

ANNE BLYTHE for McClatchy Newspapers.

Immigration Judge: Let’s Hear If ICE Raids Violated Rights

2008-10-07T16:55:45Z

"Sixteen immigrants and seven lawyers from New Haven burst into applause outside of the Hartford Federal Court building, celebrating a small victory in their battle against deportation. ... The targets argue that the feds violated their constitutional rights in the raids. Now they’ll have the chance to make that case in court."

THOMAS MACMILLAN in the New Haven Independent.

After life in U.S., migrant children struggle with return to Mexico

2008-10-06T14:59:42Z

CIUDAD HIDALGO, Michoacan: "After nearly seven years in the United States, Edgar Gutiérrez was back in a hometown he hardly recognized.

Returning as a 16-year-old, Gutiérrez found relatives he couldn't remember. Kids thought he was stuck up because he had lived in the U.S. Teachers scolded him when he pronounced his name with an American accent.

Gutiérrez had spent his early life in these mountains of Central Mexico, but now he felt like a stranger."

JEREMY SCHWARTZ in the Mexico City Bureau of the Austin American-Statesman.

Persecuted in Senegal, Finding Refuge in New York

2008-10-05T21:10:24Z

"In February, a Senegalese magazine published photographs of what was reported to be an underground gay marriage and said that Mr. Mbaye, who appeared in the photos and is gay himself, had organized the event. In the ensuing six months, Mr. Mbaye said, he was harassed by the police, attacked by armed mobs, driven from his home, maligned in the national media and forced to live on the run across West Africa.

In July, the United States government gave him refugee status, one of the rare instances when such protection has been granted to a foreigner facing persecution based on sexual orientation."

KIRK SEMPLE and LYDIA POLGREEN in the New York Times.

The Profit of Detention

2008-10-05T12:19:08Z

"The 1,040-bed facility will be unique not only because it will dwarf many of Virginia's jails but also because it is a private venture aimed at capitalizing on the massive influx of detainees into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement system over the past year. A small group of Richmond investors looks to reap millions of dollars in profit by building what has been described as the "mid-Atlantic hub" for ICE operations in a town just three hours south of the nation's capital."

JOSH WHITE and NICK MIROFF in the Washington Post.

Rights group investigates T. Don Hutto immigrant detention center

2008-10-02T14:35:51Z

"A delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was in Austin on Wednesday on a fact-finding mission on the treatment of immigrant families and asylum seekers at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor and other Texas facilities.

The commission, a body of the Organization of American States, monitors compliance by members, including the U.S., with human rights obligations established by international law."

JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

68-year-old woman - a U.S. citizen for 40 years - terrorized by ICE in South Texas

2008-10-01T16:32:56Z

"The 68-year-old woman told Action 4 News that she heard a knock at her door Tuesday morning.

But before she had a chance to get up she said U.S. Immigration & Customers Enforcement (ICE) agents were inside her home.

“They came in with guns, grenades and holding their pistols,” Savage recalled.

When she asked them why they came into her home they allegedly responded, "Show us your papers."

Savage complied by showing them documentation proving that she's been a United States citizen for 40 years."

JACKIE DIAZ for KGBT4.com in Harlingen, Texas. [Click here for video.]

Feds say Wash. immigration guards weren't checked

2008-10-01T12:42:17Z

"A privately run immigration lockup in Tacoma hired security guards without required preliminary background checks and then lied about it, according to authorities.

Sylvia Wong, a human relations specialist with GEO Group Inc., the private contractor that runs the Northwest Detention Center, was charged in U.S. District Court on Tuesday with lying to federal investigators when she claimed in April she did not falsely generate documents."

GENE JOHNSON for the Associated Press.

Human papillomavirus vaccination requirement for immigrants raises concerns

2008-09-28T02:30:39Z

"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.

Mukasey: BIA Must Reconsider FGM Decision

2008-09-23T00:47:42Z

"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.

Profiling Persists in Providence

2008-09-22T20:37:16Z

"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.

In Chicago, Carry Your Passport

2008-09-20T12:18:07Z

"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.