IMMIGRATION LAWYER - REMOVAL AND DEPORTATION

February 2008

The Visa Bulletin for February 2008.

Senseless Deportations - washingtonpost.com

Link: Rachel E. Rosenbloom - Senseless Deportations - washingtonpost.com.

Next Sunday will mark 10 years since the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act went into effect. This broad legislation, together with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, took away the power of immigration judges to exercise discretion in most types of deportation proceedings. Now, anyone convicted of an "aggravated felony" is barred from all forms of discretionary relief. Congress broadened the definition of this term so much that it includes many crimes that are considered misdemeanors under state law and that result in no jail time. In the decade since mandatory deportation began, people have been deported for shoplifting, jumping subway turnstiles, drunken driving and petty drug crimes. Some of those deported came to the United States as infants and have never known life elsewhere.

Churches Plan New Sanctuary Movement - washingtonpost.com

Link: Churches Plan New Sanctuary Movement - washingtonpost.com.

Churches in a handful of U.S. cities are preparing to launch a "sanctuary" movement to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation and unite faith-based groups in a push for immigration reform.

The "New Sanctuary Movement" is based on the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees who were fleeing wars in their home countries, said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an interfaith association spearheading the plans.

Panel probes detainee conditions - OC Register

Link: Panel probes detainee conditions - OC Register.

The federal government and human rights and legal advocates Thursday painted vastly different pictures of immigrants in detention in testimony to Rep. Loretta Sanchez's subcommittee on border issues.

The subcommittee on border, maritime and global terrorism held the first of two hearings on issues surrounding border, detention and human trafficking issues. The panel is focusing first on how the Department of Homeland Security is dealing with the large increase in illegal immigrants being held while the federal government decides whether to deport them.

The number of illegal immigrants being detained has risen from 18,000 in July, 2006 to about 28,000 today.

Mass. Wants Immigration Detainees Freed - (AP)

Link: Mass. Wants Immigration Detainees Freed - washingtonpost.com.

The head of Massachusetts' social services on Monday called for the release of about 20 factory workers arrested in an immigration raid, saying many have children with no one else to care for them.

They were among the 361 people taken into custody following the raid March 6 at a Michael Bianco Inc. factory that makes equipment and apparel for the U.S. military.

Many of the suspected illegal immigrants were shipped to detention centers in Texas before a federal judge ordered the rest to remain in Massachusetts because advocates said the raid created a "humanitarian crisis."

Escaping a Painful Past To Find a Shaky Future - washingtonpost.com

Link: Escaping a Painful Past To Find a Shaky Future - washingtonpost.com.

An immigration officer in Newark believed his story and let him stay. But an immigration judge in Arlington County, who heard final arguments on his case 10 days after Sept. 11, 2001, did not believe him.

She ordered him deported.

But, like 165 others, the Northern Virginia man cannot be deported. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, the United States has followed a United Nations directive not to forcibly return Iraqis to their country because it is too dangerous.

'Return to Sender' sweeps begin

Link: Inside Bay Area - 'Return to Sender' sweeps begin.

Two children walked out the door of their Redwood City elementary school last week, expecting their mother to pick them up. Only, she was nowhere to be found.

Between the start of the school day and the ring of the final bell, the woman had been taken into custody by federal immigration agents.

The kids, both U.S. citizens, are among dozens of family and friends feeling the brunt of a recent federal immigration sweep targeting Latinos in San Mateo County, according to the International Institute of San Francisco, an immigrants-rights group with an office in Redwood City.

Deportation cases soar as L.A. jails screen more - LA Times

Link: Deportation cases soar as L.A. jails screen more - Los Angeles Times.

The number of Los Angeles County jail inmates identified as suspected illegal immigrants nearly doubled in the year since the Sheriff's Department started investigating their legal status.

The number red-flagged to face possible deportation once they serve their sentences went from 3,050 in 2005 to 5,829 last year.

The numbers skyrocketed from 658 in the second quarter of 2005 to 1,685 in the third quarter of 2006.

"The benefit is these people who are committing crimes aren't being released onto our streets to commit more crimes. They are being removed from the United States," said Jim Hayes, director of the Los Angeles field office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The sharp increase in potential deportees is believed to be the result of more screening, rather than an increase in the number of illegal immigrants in the jails.

Immigration Detention & Removal Guide.Feb 06.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Link: Immigration Detention & Removal Guide.Feb 06.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Courtesy of Bender's Immigration Bulletin Daily, the Guide provides a basic overview of  detention and removal procedures. It was produced by Bryan Lonegan & the Immigration Law Unit of the Legal Aid Society, and updated in February 2006.

Detained Palestinian woman and four children released | Chron.com

Link: Detained Palestinian woman and four children released | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

A Palestinian woman and four of her children were released Saturday morning from the Texas immigration detention center, where they've been held for three months.

Immigration officers arrested Salaheddin Ibrahim, his wife, Hanan, and four of their children in November at their Richardson home more than two years after their petition for asylum was denied.

Hanan Ibrahim, 34, who is five months pregnant, has been incarcerated since then at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, near Austin.

Four of her children, Hamzeh, 15; Rodaina, 14; Maryam, 8, and Faten, 5, also were detained at the center.

Meanwhile, her husband, 37, is being held at the Rolling Plains Regional Jail in Haskell, near Abilene. Attorneys for the family expect him to be released soon.

Escalating violence in their homeland swayed a federal immigration panel Friday to reconsider the family's asylum request, nullifying the order for removal from the U.S.