'Just News' Blog

As Desert Deaths Soar, a Morgue Grows Crowded

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:12:08 -0800

"The Pima County morgue is running out of space as the number of Latin American immigrants found dead in the deserts around Tucson has soared this year during a heat wave."

JAMES C. McKINLEY, Jr. in the New York Times.

Arizona Girds For Long Legal Fight Over Immigration

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:51:53 -0800

"In blocking the heart of the bill, Judge Susan Bolton's ruling could not have been clearer, says Gabriel Jack Chin, a professor of law at the University of Arizona. "It's basically a complete victory for the United States," Chin said."

TED ROBBINS on NPR.

Hollman Morris Granted Visa

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:07:51 -0800

"The U.S. State Department has reversed its decision to deny a visa to a leading Colombian journalist whose reporting has been highly critical of the country's U.S.-allied president. "Happy, happy! This was terrible," a relieved Hollman Morris, an independent TV producer and reporter, told The Associated Press after he and his family picked up their visas at the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday. Morris, his wife and their two children can now travel to Harvard for a yearlong Nieman Foundation fellowship for mid-career journalists."

FRANK BAJAK for the Associated Press.

Arizona Law Needs U.S. Cooperation

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:20:53 -0800

"Arizona authorities battling the Obama administration over the state's new immigration law may face an unforeseen obstacle in enforcing the measure: While local police can arrest illegal immigrants, only the federal government can deport them."

MIRIAM JORDAN in the Wall Street Journal.

Dallas County is part of Secure Communities program that raises immigrant profiling concerns

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:35:44 -0800

"More than half of Texas counties are now part of the program known as Secure Communities. The program relies on an FBI database and a fingerprint database of anyone who has had contact with federal immigration authorities.

Dallas County was the second county in the nation to sign up for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program."

DIANNE SOLÍS in the Dallas Morning News.

Deportation Madness

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:23:10 -0800

"Carlos Roybal always thought of himself as an American. Born in Chile, he’d lived in the United States legally since he was five months old, growing up in a middle-class Miami neighborhood. In 2006, Roybal was studying to become a sound engineer at Miami Dade College. “That was my dream,” he says.

When Roybal—who asked that a pseudonym be used for this story—returned to the United States from a vacation in January 2006, things turned nightmarish. After Roybal presented his permanent resident card to U.S. immigration authorities, they checked it against a Department of Homeland Security database and found that he had a criminal record—dating back almost a decade—of two misdemeanor convictions for possessing half a marijuana joint and a single tab of LSD. That August, Roybal was ordered to appear in immigration court. He was deported to Chile, a country he had not visited since infancy—and where only a few of his relatives remained."

MELISSA DEL BOSQUE in the Texas Observer.

No Visa, No School, Many NY School Districts Say

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:45:48 -0800

"Three decades after the Supreme Court ruled that immigration violations cannot be used as a basis to deny children equal access to a public school education, one in five school districts in New York State is routinely requiring a child’s immigration papers as a prerequisite to enrollment, or asking parents for information that only lawful immigrants can provide.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, which culled a list of 139 such districts from hundreds of registration forms and instructions posted online, has not found any children turned away for lack of immigration paperwork. But it warned in a letter to the state’s education commissioner on Wednesday that the requirements listed by many registrars, however free of discriminatory intent, “will inevitably discourage families from enrolling in school for fear that they would be reported to federal immigration authorities.”"

NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.

For Those Deported, Court Rulings Come Too Late

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:09:48 -0800

"Vincenzo Donnoli was 9 when his family immigrated legally to Brooklyn. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, married and divorced in Flatbush, ran a landscaping business and had five children. But at 51 he is back — alone and jobless — in Pomarico, the hill town in southern Italy where his father was a shepherd, as a deportee banned for life from returning to the United States."

NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.

Brave DREAMers

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:20:58 -0800

"On a patch of asphalt outside the White House this week, Renata Teodoro, Maricela Aguilar and scores of other students are risking deportation simply by sharing their full names and immigration status with anyone who asks.

In an act of defiance unimaginable to many in their parents' generation, they are publicly declaring that they are in the United States illegally as a way to push for change that would help thousands of undocumented young people like them. And they are doing so in one of the most highly patrolled -- and politicized -- spots in the country."

TARA BAHRAMPOUR in the Washington Post.

Seeking A Better Life

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:16:11 -0800

"While the Census Bureau does not track immigration status, Kansas' foreign-born population has risen from 2.5 percent in 1990 to about 6 percent currently. Similarly in the heartland states, communities are rapidly diversifying, a relatively new phenomenon in the Midwest caused by an influx of refugees and other immigrants who work in labor shortages."

SHAJIA AHMAD in the Garden City Telegram.

Groups Help Refugees Assimilate

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:01:54 -0800

"When GCCC's Adult Learning Center first began providing services to a growing number of refugees in southwest Kansas at the start of last year, the program in its infant stages was servicing a few hundred each month who sought assistance filling out job applications, visiting doctor's offices, or help with child care or legal issues.

In just more than a year, that number has doubled: Between 500 and 600 refugees in Garden City now seek help every month at the small office located in the basement of the Student and Community Services Building, according to the refugee program's coordinator, Velia Mendoza."

SHAJIA AHMAD in the Garden City Telegram.

Immigration Caseload Is Growing

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:55:58 -0800

"Oklahoma's immigration court, which is part of the regional Dallas office, is experiencing a decade-high number of cases and an increasing backlog.

Immigrants will wait at least nine months to a year between the initial appearance and a hearing date. In some larger cities, the wait can be up to three years."

GINNIE GRAHAM in the Tulsa World.

Officer Sues Over Arizona Immigration Law

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:50:25 -0800

""If he enforces the law, he can be sued. If he doesn't enforce the law, he can be sued" by a private citizen, said Stephen Montoya, the attorney for Mr. Salgado. His client "is caught between a rock and a hard place," he said."

MIRIAM JORDAN in the Wall Street Journal.

Twin West Texas Border Towns Endure Despite Drug War Hardships

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:04:34 -0800

BRANDI GRISSOM in the Texas Tribune provides an excellent three-part series "examining life in three pairs of sister cities along the Texas-Mexico border and how residents on both sides of the line are affected by the bloody drug war."

Tragedy in Juárez Spurs Economy in El Paso - July 14, 2010.

Town Bolsters Security as Mexican Deaths Continue - July 15, 2010.

Isolation Poverty Keep Tiny Towns Safe - For Now - July 16, 2010.

Native Americans Trapped...In America

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:02:02 -0800

You can't make this stuff up:

"The State Department may have given its OK, but the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team still needs clearances from the Canadian and British governments before it can take off for the world championships in England, making it doubtful whether the team can fly today."

MIKE McANDREW in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

""They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,'" Frichner said Wednesday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating." The team's 23 players - who are all eligible for passports issued by those nations - say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity."

SAMANTHA GROSS for the Associated Press.

"[T]he crux of the problem: the Iroquois do not recognise either the US or Canadian governments and regard themselves as a sovereign nation. The Iroquois team chairman, Oren Lyons, said the team was now unlikely to board a flight in time for the opening game of the two-week tournament. The Iroquois, who helped invent the game more than 1,000 years ago, had hoped to have a few days in the UK to practise. "This has not been the best preparation for a world tournament," Lyons said."

EWEN MacAKSILL in the Guardian.

[Link to U.S. Department of State briefing, fyi.]