IMMIGRATION LAWYER - ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

San Jose Mercury News - LA police sued for not seeking immigration status of suspects

Link: San Jose Mercury News - LA police sued for not seeking immigration status of suspects.

Opponents of illegal immigration on Wednesday sued the Los Angeles Police Department, taking aim at its long-standing "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding suspects' immigration status.

The Superior Court lawsuit seeks to force officers to inform federal immigration officials when illegal immigrants are arrested on drug charges.

Department policy prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of suspects, a policy strongly supported by Police Chief Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The suit was brought on behalf of unidentified police officers who are afraid to speak out but argue the policy creates a situation where the same illegal immigrants are repeatedly arrested when they could have been deported, said lawyer David Klehm.

Looking the Other Way on Immigrants - washingtonpost.com

Link: Looking the Other Way on Immigrants - washingtonpost.com.

In the aftermath of a series of raids in 2004, the town council in this historic borough of 5,300 -- transformed in recent years by an influx of at least 1,300 Latin Americans -- unanimously approved a sort of immigrant bill of rights. Joining a growing list of cities enacting a no-questions-asked policy on immigration status, Hightstown now allows its undocumented residents to officially interact with local police and access city services without fear of being reported to federal authorities.

Bush Ties Drop in Illegal Immigration to His Policies - New York Times

Link: Bush Ties Drop in Illegal Immigration to His Policies - New York Times.

President Bush said Monday that tougher enforcement and a new fence at the Mexican border had sharply reduced the influx of illegal immigrants, and he pressed Congress to pass a sweeping revision of the nation’s immigration laws.

“It’s amazing progress that’s been made,” Mr. Bush said on a return visit to a section of the border that he inspected 11 months ago.

In the last six months, the White House said, Border Patrol reports showed that apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the Mexican border fell by 30 percent, to 418,184, from 594,142 in the comparable period a year earlier. In the Yuma sector, which spans parts of Arizona and California, apprehensions fell by 68 percent, to 25,217, from 79,131 in the comparable period a year earlier.

Pleading to Stay a Family - washingtonpost.com

Link: Pleading to Stay a Family - washingtonpost.com.

As the government's crackdown on illegal immigrant workers has intensified in recent months, so have the consequences for a large subgroup of U.S. citizens: American-born children of illegal immigrants.

Numbering at least 3.1 million, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute and the Pew Hispanic Center, such children range from teenagers steeped in iTunes and MySpace to toddlers just learning their ABCs.

Lawmakers push pro-immigrant bill - MiamiHerald.com

Link: Lawmakers push pro-immigrant bill - 03/12/2007 - MiamiHerald.com.

Two Miami lawmakers will join several pro-immigrant groups today to urge passage of a bill in Congress that could help thousands of undocumented immigrant students attend college and become legal residents.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and his brother, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., will team up with the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups to promote ``The American Dream Act.''

The bill, if passed, would grant in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students and permit those students, along with those serving in the military, to obtain a green card and legally remain in the United States.

Immigration Raids Can Divide Families - (AP)

Link: Immigration Raids Can Divide Families - washingtonpost.com.

They are the hidden side of the government's stepped-up efforts to track down and deport illegal immigrants: Toddlers stranded at day care centers or handed over to ill-equipped relatives. Siblings suddenly left in charge of younger brothers and sisters.

When illegal-immigrant parents are swept up in raids on homes and workplaces, the children are sometimes left behind _ a complication that underscores the difficulty in enforcing immigration laws against people who have put down roots and begun raising families in the U.S.

Three million American-born children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant; one in 10 American families has mixed immigration status, meaning at least one member is an immigrant here illegally, according to the Pew Center for Hispanic Research and the office of U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano. Children born in the U.S. are automatically American citizens and are not subject to deportation.

Trial tests law on illegal immigration - (Reuters)

Link: Trial tests law on illegal immigration - washingtonpost.com.

A Pennsylvania town's anti-illegal-immigration law created a climate of fear in which businesses failed and people moved out, a lawyer argued on Monday as a trial seen as a test of U.S. immigration policy began.

The result of the case, the first federal trial over whether local jurisdictions can make their own laws on illegal immigration, is expected to affect cities and towns across the United States as the country debates what to do with the 12 million illegal aliens estimated to be inside its borders.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Vic Walczak said the city of Hazleton and its mayor, Lou Barletta, violated the U.S. Constitution in passing the ordinance because only the federal government has the right to make immigration law.

Immigration raids split families - AP

Link: Immigration raids split families - Yahoo! News.

They are the hidden side of the government's stepped-up efforts to track down and deport illegal immigrants: Toddlers stranded at day care centers or handed over to ill-equipped relatives. Siblings suddenly left in charge of younger brothers and sisters.

When illegal-immigrant parents are swept up in raids on homes and workplaces, the children are sometimes left behind — a complication that underscores the difficulty in enforcing immigration laws against people who have put down roots and begun raising families in the U.S.

Chamber takes on law aimed at illegal workers - USATODAY.com

Link: Chamber takes on law aimed at illegal workers - USATODAY.com.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Monday threw its considerable weight behind efforts to eliminate a groundbreaking Hazleton, Pa., law penalizing businesses that hire illegal workers and landlords who rent to them.

The Hazleton ordinance, which also makes English the official language of the small town, has not been implemented because a federal judge issued an order preventing it from going into effect. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit challenging it on behalf of a group local residents. A trial is set for next week.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a legal document Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania backing the ACLU position and calling the law unconstitutional on two grounds.

Mohave Daily News: Safford Republican lawmaker tells colleagues of threats over immigration

Link: Mohave Daily News: Safford Republican lawmaker tells colleagues of threats over immigration.

A state representative who has urged his colleagues to show restraint in what mandates they impose on businesses to help curb illegal immigration said Tuesday that he and his family have received threats in connection with the issue.

‘‘I never thought that I would fear for my safety or the safety of my family when I took a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives,'' said Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a Safford Republican who owns several restaurants and other businesses.

‘‘None of us should fear for our safety or of those we love,'' Konopnicki said during a floor speech. He paused several times during the speech to maintain his composure.

Konopnicki is the second Arizona legislator this year to publicly report receiving threats in connection with immigration and border issues.

NPR : Colorado Report Finds Anti-Immigration Law Costly

Link: NPR : Colorado Report Finds Anti-Immigration Law Costly.

Colorado passed one of the toughest set of anti-immigration laws in the country six months ago. Now, a state panel reports that illegal immigrants really didn't use state services, and that the new laws are costing more to implement than they're saving for the state.

NPR : Bank Defends Credit Cards for Illegal Immigrants

Link: NPR : Bank Defends Credit Cards for Illegal Immigrants.

In Los Angeles, immigrants who don't have credentials to work in the United States can still get a credit card, thanks to a pilot program run by Bank of America. The bank is hoping to tap a fast-growing market by offering credit cards to illegal immigrants without Social Security numbers.

Bank of America is testing the new credit-card program at about 50 Los Angeles branches. Applicants don't need a Social Security number or a traditional credit check to qualify. But they do need to have a Bank of America checking account with no recent history of bounced checks.

Critics are condemning the program, saying the bank is knowingly marketing credit cards to illegal immigrants.

Under the pilot program, cardholders typically put up a deposit to guarantee payment of their credit card bills. They also pay a relatively high interest rate — in some cases, more than 21 percent.

Illegal Immigrants Slain in an Attack in Arizona - NYT

Link: Illegal Immigrants Slain in an Attack in Arizona - New York Times.

Three illegal immigrants were shot to death, three were wounded and others were missing Thursday near Tucson after gunmen accosted them as they traveled north from the Mexican border, the authorities said.

The shootings came a day after gunmen in ski masks and carrying assault-style rifles robbed 18 people who had illegally crossed the border 70 miles to the south, near Sasabe. On Jan. 28 a man driving illegal immigrants from the border several miles from the scene of Thursday’s killings was ambushed and shot to death as the immigrants fled.

Immigration battle ends for gifted teen

Link: United Press International - NewsTrack - Immigration battle ends for gifted teen.

Immigration officials, after a nine-year deportation battle, say a Reno, Nev., family with a gifted daughter will be allowed to remain in the United States.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that illegal immigrants Ben and Londy Cabrera, who emigrated from Mexico and Guatemala respectively in the 1980s, will be able to remain in their new homeland with their two daughters, who were born in Los Angeles.

County Tries, and Fails, to Find the Costs of Illegals

Link: NPR : County Tries, and Fails, to Find the Costs of Illegals.

In the immigration debate, activists often cite the cost of illegal migrants to U.S. taxpayers. In Prince William County, Va., near Washington, D.C., local officials have been trying to calculate the exact cost of a booming illegal immigrant population.

But they found it was impossible. The county supervisor who requested the study hopes to make a point that localities need more help from the federal government.

Measures targeting illegal immigrants face early legal setbacks

Link: SignOnSanDiego.com  -- Measures targeting illegal immigrants face early legal setbacks.

When it comes to illegal immigration, Mayor Lou Barletta has led the way, and towns and cities around the nation have followed him – some right into the courtroom.

Since last summer, when the Republican mayor began his high-profile campaign to rid this small northeastern Pennsylvania city of illegal immigrants, more than 100 other municipalities in 27 states have considered laws ranging from penalizing companies that employ illegal immigrants to making English the official language.

 

Opponents of the crackdowns have fought back, mounting a half-dozen legal challenges – all successful – in Hazleton and places like Valley Park, Mo., and Farmers Branch, Texas. None of those municipalities is enforcing its law.

In some of the cases, state and federal judges have blocked the laws. In the others, the towns themselves have backed down, unwilling or unable to mount expensive legal battles.

After a federal judge blocked Escondido, Calif., from fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, the city council killed the measure and agreed to pay $90,000 to the opposing lawyers.

Jury Spares Driver in Smuggling Deaths Case - NYT

Link: Jury Spares Driver in Smuggling Deaths Case - New York Times.

The truck driver who carried 19 illegal immigrants to their deaths in his suffocating trailer in 2003 was spared execution on Thursday and sentenced instead to life in prison without parole.

In a punishment verdict after five days of deliberations, the federal jury that last month convicted the driver, Tyrone M. Williams, on all charges in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling case rejected the government’s calls for the death penalty but meted out the stiffest possible life sentence.

Yet another lawsuit (the fourth to be exact) against Farmers Branch

Link: Merchants sue to stop anti-immigration rules | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

Business owners have filed suit against Farmers Branch saying they have been hurt by the Dallas suburb's push to stop apartments from renting to illegal immigrants and make English the city's official language.

It was the fourth suit filed against the city since the anti-illegal immigration measures passed in November.

Thirty-one named merchants contend the rental ban and English resolution have hurt their businesses by driving away Hispanic customers.

Their complaint, filed Thursday, calls the plaintiffs' businesses "the very life blood of Farmers Branch" and contends that the ordinance "has cut off the oxygen supply to that life blood: Latino and immigrant clientele."

The merchants, who contend the city is improperly attempting to enforce federal laws, are seeking damages for loss of revenue and future profits.

Texas city's immigration law put on hold

Link: Texas city's immigration law put on hold - Yahoo! News.

An ordinance that requires landlords to verify the citizenship of potential tenants was blocked by a judge Thursday, a day before it was to go into effect in this Dallas suburb.

A judge granted a temporary restraining order following a claim saying the state open-meetings laws were violated when the ordinance was approved and adopted.

The ordinance, passed unanimously by the City Council in November, requires property managers or owners to verify the immigration or citizenship status of apartment renters. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.

A hearing was set for Jan. 22 to determine whether the order should be made a temporary injunction pending a trial.

Gov: Mass. police won't arrest illegals

Link: Gov: Mass. police won't arrest illegals - Yahoo! News.

Newly elected Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday he is rescinding a month-old policy imposed by his predecessor that allowed state troopers to arrest illegal immigrants.

The Democrat said he is replacing it with a program to deport convicted criminals serving time in state prisons.

Patrick said the shift would free troopers to focus on gun, gang and drug crimes, while removing illegal immigrants after they complete their sentences.

"I think that strikes the right balance between our responsibility to assure public safety and our responsibility to respond to the concerns about illegal immigration," he said.

Border Patrol riles critics with change in stats reports

Link: Border Patrol riles critics with change in stats reports | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®.

The U.S. Border Patrol says it will no longer provide death and apprehension statistics on a daily basis, instead delaying their release until end-of-month reports. The move angers critics who say the agency must be more responsive to the public.

The agency made the change to save time, said Mario Martinez, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, D.C.

"We've been overwhelmed by media requests," he said.

Streamlined information would allow Border Patrol agents to focus more on details of individual events, and not spend unnecessary time accessing statistics, he said.

Are you a citizen? Prove it

Link: Are you a citizen? Prove it - Stateline.org.

When Colorado state Sen. Andy McElhany (R) championed adoption of the strictest identification requirements in the country, his aim was to keep illegal immigrants off state welfare rolls. He didn’t anticipate making it harder for his 15-year-old daughter to get a learner’s permit.

Hundreds join protest of migrant-tuition law

Link: Hundreds join protest of migrant-tuition law.

Nearly 600 students and their supporters marched toward the site of the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale on Monday to protest a recently passed law denying in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants.

They chanted, "We are students, not criminals," and hours before the game they were turned back by Glendale police a mile from University of Phoenix Stadium.

Illegal to serve in the military?

Link: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State :: Illegal to serve?.

With war raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is struggling to get enough people in uniform.

Yet recruiters in Chicago and other cities across the United States are turning away potential applicants who are illegal immigrants -- despite a special wartime provision President Bush signed into law after Sept. 11 allowing them to serve.

Hazleton up for challenge to immigration laws

Link: Times Leader - Hazleton up for challenge to immigration laws.

Barletta said he recently addressed the issue on two segments of CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”

“The first segment talked about Escondido backing down and repealing their ordinance under pressure from the ACLU, and how Hazleton is continuing its fight and my position that I have no intentions of backing down,” Barletta said.

Barletta said the second segment of the program was an interview about Hazleton.

“It addressed the lawsuit and fact that Hazleton has been called ‘The Alamo’ by opponents who are suing us. Both sides agreed (Hazleton) will be battleground for the United States on this issue (and) that it could go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Barletta said.

The Hazleton mayor said he didn’t care what the ACLU had to say about bankrupting the city.

In Mexico, 'People Do Really Want to Stay'

Link: In Mexico, 'People Do Really Want to Stay' - washingtonpost.com.

The demographic wave that has carried unprecedented numbers of Mexicans to the United States is the consequence of a baby boom that began in Mexico four decades ago, when improvements in rural health care allowed more infants to survive.

From 1993 to 2006, as those born during the boom reached adulthood, Mexicans of working age swelled from 34 million to 44 million, according to Agustin Escobar, a sociologist at the Center for Higher Research in Social Anthropology in Guadalajara. Over the same period, Mexico's businesses added only 8 million jobs that pay decent wages and benefits, exacerbating a backlog of about 15 million Mexicans needing work, Escobar said.

Population pressure, combined with the lifting of subsidies on the farm, sent rural Mexicans in search of higher wages. They moved within Mexico in vast numbers. Many crossed the border. By 2002, 14 percent of all people born in Mexican villages were living in the United States, according to J. Edward Taylor, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Davis. Mexicans in the United States sent home nearly $17 billion in 2004, according to the Bank of Mexico.

"If you want to buy a house, you have to go to the States," Escobar said. "People go to America to make their Mexican dream come true."

NAFTA, as the politicians sold it, was supposed to make Mexican dreams attainable at home.

Mexico's government promised that the pact would add 1 million jobs a year. But jobs have been created at roughly half that rate.

Mexico's economy has grown less than 3 percent a year since NAFTA. Not even a sustained expansion of 5 percent a year would have been enough to stem the surge of immigrants headed north, given the numbers of Mexicans entering the workforce, declared the 1997 Mexico-U.S. Binational Migration Study.

NAFTA did bring Mexico foreign investment. Jobs at its maquiladoras -- export factories set up in the 1960s, mostly near the border -- more than doubled from 540,000 to 1.13 million between 1993 and 2004. But in other factories, employment has slipped and average wages have dropped by 5 percent.

Sat Nav for Mexicans illegally entering US

Link: Telegraph | News | Sat Nav for Mexicans illegally entering US.

Illegal immigrants planning to cross the desert and enter the US on foot are to be given hand-held satellite devices by the Mexican authorities to ensure they arrive safely.

Those who get lost or fall sick during the dangerous four-day crossing will be able to activate the device, to alert frontier police on both sides of the border.

The satellite tracking service will require would-be illegals to register their intentions before setting off — a paradoxical move, given that secrecy is necessary for success — but Mexican authorities are predicting that about 200,000 devices will be handed out when the project is launched formally in the coming year.

"Our intention is to save lives," said Jaime Obregon, the co-ordinator for the state commission for migrants in Puebla, the Mexican state which is behind the project. "There are lots of people looking to cross and we are working with the US authorities to make sure they do not die on the way."

County retreats on illegal migrant tenant law

Link: County retreats on illegal migrant tenant law - Yahoo! News.

A suburban county in Georgia has halted enforcement of a law passed in December to penalize landlords who fail to verify the immigration status of tenants, lawyers who challenged the ordinance said on Friday.

The move marks an apparent setback for local governments trying to crack down on illegal immigrants in the absence of successful attempts by the U.S. Congress to legislate comprehensive immigration reform.

Cherokee County will delay enacting the ordinance until legal challenges to similar laws in Hazelton, Pennsylvania and Valley Park, Missouri, are resolved, the lawyers said.

Its decision could deter other local authorities from attempting to set similar laws before action by Congress, which failed to make progress on the immigration last year, the lawyers said.

Critics attack Social Security pact with Mexico | Chron.com

Link: Critics attack Social Security pact with Mexico | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

A confidential 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico could require Social Security to pay billions of dollars in benefits to Mexicans who paid payroll taxes in this country, according to a senior citizens' group that forced the document's disclosure.

The Social Security Administration insists that the agreement — which has yet to be signed by President Bush and sent to Congress for consideration — would cost the retirement and disability fund a relatively scant $105 million annually for the first five years.

But the TREA Senior Citizens League, an offshoot from a group of retired military personnel, and some members of Congress contend the agreement opens the door to paying benefits to millions of Mexicans who have worked illegally in the United States, as well as their dependents, even if they now reside in Mexico.

Tunnels act as highways for migrants - LAT

Link: Tunnels act as highways for migrants - Los Angeles Times.

As the United States prepares to fence much of the border above ground, the situation below ground could grow increasingly chaotic. Authorities have discovered dozens of illegal tunnels in recent years, including a nearly half-mile passage connecting Tijuana with San Diego.

Illegal immigrants have breached drainage systems all the way along the border, from El Paso to San Diego. Most of them are of the claustrophobic crawl-through variety that prevents large-scale incursions.

The Nogales tunnels, by comparison, are superhighways.

Immigration may dominate Texas Legislature

Link: Immigration may dominate Texas Legislature | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

They work as maids and busboys. They build homes and highways. They bone chickens on the way to market.

They are worth billions of dollars to the Texas economy, but as members of the working poor they also are a drain of hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers.

They are the 1.4 million illegal immigrants that the federal government estimates live in Texas.

Half are divided evenly between the Dallas and Houston areas, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, with an additional 20 percent in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Less than 5 percent live in the traditional Hispanic capital of Texas: San Antonio.

Stung in the Search for Work - NYT

Link: Stung in the Search for Work - New York Times.

DANBURY - From the look of things, Juan Barrera’s real crime seems to have been trying to find work.

As he does six mornings a week, he showed up on Sept. 19 outside Kennedy Park and, bracing his cup of coffee, mingled with the other day laborers waiting for job offers from landscapers or contractors. A gray car approached and a driver wearing a hard hat said he needed three fellows to tear down a fence. He offered them $11 an hour. Mr. Barrera and two others squeezed into the car.

Minutes later, in a nearby parking lot, the three laborers stepped out and were seized and handcuffed by a half-dozen men in green jackets. The hard-hatted driver and men in green turned out to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

...The question hovering over the sting — one that a group of Yale Law School students are asking — is, how did the man in the hard hat know that Mr. Barrera and the others were illegal aliens?

The students, who work in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, a training clinic, filed a Freedom of Information request this month for documents about the arrests. They want to know what “reasonable suspicion” the federal agents had for assuming that the 11 men were illegal aliens. Standing on a street corner while being Hispanic is not enough, the courts have ruled.

Border crackdown fuels smugglers' boom

Link: Border crackdown fuels smugglers' boom - Yahoo! News.

Toughened U.S. border enforcement has prompted substantially more illegal immigrants to hire smugglers to help them cross over from Mexico — and competition among sophisticated criminal networks for customers has spawned violence and sometimes death.

Immigrants Wary of Banks Put Faith in New Card - NYT

Link: Immigrants Wary of Banks Put Faith in New Card - New York Times.

Since coming to this country eight years ago, Jose Dimas has bristled at the $8 fee he often must pay to cash his paycheck. He stews over the $10 charge he faces whenever he wires $150 home to his parents in Mexico.

Daunted by the requirements to open a bank account, Mr. Dimas had long kept his savings hidden in his apartment, and had worried that his money would be stolen.

But now Mr. Dimas, 32, a food preparer at a catering company, has a new tool that has eased his discomfort with all things financial. It is a special debit card, provided not by a bank but by a nonprofit worker center here, enabling hundreds of immigrants without checking accounts or credit cards to keep their cash somewhere safer than beneath their mattresses. The card also makes it easier to shop at stores as well as online.

Immigrant suit gets 2nd chance

Link: Immigrant suit gets 2nd chance: South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

A South Florida lawsuit that seeks to temporarily block deportations of immigrants with children who are U.S. citizens was given a chance to go forward Friday.

The lawsuit argues that U.S.-born children are deprived of their civil rights when authorities send their undocumented parents to their home countries. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are 3.1 million children in that situation nationally.

Although U.S. District Judge Paul Huck dismissed the original complaint, he gave lawyers until Jan. 16 to fine-tune their case and resubmit it.

Lawsuits challenge Texas town's immigration law - Los Angeles Times

Link: Lawsuits challenge Texas town's immigration law - Los Angeles Times.

A Dallas suburb that has barred landlords from renting to illegal immigrants was sued Tuesday by two civil rights groups that allege the controversial ordinance turns property owners into immigration agents and violates federal law.

The challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund seeks to derail a new law that would require property managers to check the immigration status of apartment renters in Farmers Branch, Texas. The ordinance, approved last month, is set to take effect Jan. 12.

Brokaw: Indisputable points in the immigration debate - MSNBC.com

Link: Brokaw: Indisputable points in the immigration debate - Tom Brokaw Reports - MSNBC.com.

"In an upcoming "Tom Brokaw Reports," airing Tues., Dec. 26 at 8 p.m., Brokaw travels to an unlikely place where the debate over illegal immigration is raging — the Colorado Rockies. NBC News spent eight months reporting on the myths and truths about illegal immigration in this pristine stretch between Aspen and Vail, a historically white population that has seen an influx of thousands of Hispanics, mostly from Mexico. The hour-long documentary follows a booming economy attracting illegal workers willing to do unskilled labor, questioning what happens to American culture and America's laws when hundreds of thousands of people enter the country illegally."

While the title of the piece claims its facts are indisputable, viewers should tune in and judge for themselves.

KRT Wire | Display of force at Swift plants scrutinized

Link: KRT Wire | 12/25/2006 | Display of force at Swift plants scrutinized.

While American citizens were sent to a room where cardboard boxes were kept, the others were sent to company training rooms, she said. DeVries estimated there were at least 100 ICE agents in blue jackets "all over the place."

When you got upstairs, all you saw was people in blue," she said. "They were guarding every doorway. And you could see (through the window) down to the parking lot. They were there too - along with the charter buses with the dark windows that said `Homeland Security.'"

The number of ICE officials at the Worthington plant, their demeanor and their weapons created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, charged Minneapolis attorney Bruce Nestor, who was in the plant for the last hour of the raid.

JURIST - Paper Chase: Texas apartment owners sue over local illegal immigration laws

Link: JURIST - Paper Chase: Texas apartment owners sue over local illegal immigration laws.

Three Texas landlords filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the constitutionality of strict measures against illegal immigrants passed last month in their Dallas suburb [JURIST report; Dallas Morning News report]. The defendants in the federal court action are the city of Farmers Branch [official website] and key members of the city's government, including the mayor, the city council, and the city's building inspector. The lawsuit seeks to stop the measures from going into effect as scheduled on January 12th.

Traditional Round Trip for Workers Is Becoming a One-Way Migration North - New York Times

Link: Traditional Round Trip for Workers Is Becoming a One-Way Migration North - New York Times.

"In the crossings at the United States’ southern border, tens of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants head each year in the direction of Mexico. While no statistics are kept on this reverse migration, researchers in both countries suggest that the numbers have declined as border controls have tightened."

Immigration issue swirls anew at summit

Link: Immigration issue swirls anew at summit.

In an issue known for its complexities, one question seems to cut to the heart of the debate over immigration reform: Are illegal immigrants a burden or a benefit for the economy?

As elected officials and Texas employers debated that point Thursday at an immigration reform summit organized by business lobby groups, a new state comptroller's report provided fodder for both advocates and opponents of relaxing immigration law.