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Daily news updates from CIS
September 10, 2009
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[For CISNEWS subscribers --
1. E-Verify now required for federal contractors (story, link)
2. Immigration judges struggling under caseload strain
3. Obama official tapped to run NYC jails (link)
4. FL Sen. Martinez departs with regrets
5. SC Rep’s dissent spurs general outrage
6. Somali leader to visit ex-pats in U.S.
7. MPI report urges better detention record keeping
8. AZ immigration enforcement has had busy year so far
9. New Orleans police pledge against enforcement
10. AL mayor suspends immigration forum
11. TX detention center ends family housing
12. Detainees move into FL jail
13. Economic planners urge NJ city to drop enforcement (link)
14. Activists urge caution on Census boycott (story, link)
15. CA Minutemen protest illegals, health care
16. MA center to aid foreign workers
17. CA activists join forces with Mexican counterparts
18. Green Bay business selling unofficial ID
19. Man ordered deported jailed for traffic deaths (link)
20. CA police arrest man deported eight times (link)
21. Three jailed for holding illegals hostage in TX (link)
22. Imposter attorney charged in NY (link)
23. Three drop houses raided in AZ (link)
24. Illegal accused of AZ stabbing (link)
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
E-Verify Program
By Jessica Duff
The KTHV News (Little Rock), September 9, 2009
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/natInt/story.aspx?storyid=90625&catid=288
Federal E-Verify Program became mandatory for all federal contractors yesterday, September 8th.
E-Verify is the most successful federal program in place to keep illegal immigrants out of the nation's workforce. The rule went into effect despite a last minute legal challenge by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
E-Verify is now the rule of the land. All federal contractors and subcontractors with contacts greater than $100,000 or with contracts lasting longer than 120-days must now use the federally run program to verify whether their employees are legally able to work in the United States.
Bill Wright with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says that 'once federal contractors start signing up and they see how simple it is, how easy it is to use, how quick it is to use, we're going to learn real quick what 148,000 other employers already know. The system does work.'
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the program's staunchest foe. The chamber wants the courts to stop the program, arguing e-verify would harm Business, the government and the public interest. It's a claim that supporters of the program strongly contest.
Jessica Vaughan works for the Center for Immigration Studies and says 'there is really no harm to a business that can be caused by using E-Verify unless their entire workforce, or a significant part of it, is illegal and they are going to lose it.'
But, Dan Yeager with the Human Resources Policy Association is party to the suit with the U.S. Chamber.
Yeager explains 'what we'd like to see is a system that goes towards for biometrics identifiers, and so before we start imposing this on millions and millions of employees throughout the United States we need to make sure we have the best system in place.'
Currently, 97% of employees run through the system are almost immediately found to be legally eligible to work in the u-s. Fewer than 3% are found to have problems that often are cleared up.
Problems like a social security number incorrectly written down or a failure to change a name after getting married. The remainder - 0.03% - are found to be unauthorized to work.
'There isn't anything out there that works at a higher level of efficiency than E-Verify does,' says Republican Representative Steve King.
And e-verify is free to employers.
+++
E-Verify Goes Into Effect
Will the cost of doing business go up?
By Sandra Jones
The WTVR News (Richmond), September 9, 2009
http://www.wtvr.com/wtvr-everify-takes-effect,0,1215270.story
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2.
Immigration judges struggling
By Howard Mintz
The McClatchy Tribune News, September 10, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-stressed-judges-0905-0sep10,0,7709252.story
San Jose, CA -- On any given day, Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks can find herself listening to a wrenching tale of an immigrant seeking asylum, fearing everything from torture to death if returned to his or her homeland. Or she could be deciding the fate of one of thousands of immigrants who face deportation each year, some of whom have been in the United States for years, going to school, working and raising families.
The roughly 215 Immigration judges in the country last year decided an average of more than 1,600 cases, dwarfing the workload of a full-time federal judge, who may have about 350 cases on the docket.
In a study released this summer by University of California-San Francisco researchers, Immigration judges, it turns out, are as stressed out and burned out as emergency room doctors and prison wardens. And the study found female Immigration judges far more stressed than their male counterparts.
As U.S. Department of Justice employees, Immigration judges ordinarily do not speak publicly. But they didn't hold back with UCSF researchers. One judge told researchers they have to 'grovel like mangy street dogs' to convince top Immigration officials they need more time to deal with the crushing caseloads. Another reported a 'knot in my stomach' deciding asylum cases. And another told researchers: 'I can't take this place anymore. What a dismal job this is!'
The study does not entirely surprise Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. She's now using the findings to push for long-sought reforms to the system, including a proposal for the Immigration courts to break from Justice Department oversight.
'The depth and the severity is what was surprising,' Marks said of the study. 'It's gotten a lot worse a lot faster.'
Immigration courts have come under closer scrutiny in recent years as caseloads exploded across the country. The number of Immigration cases jumped from more than 282,000 in 1998 to a projected 385,000 this year, with only a modest increase in the number of Immigration judges.
Federal appeals courts, which often review the work of the Immigration courts, have grown increasingly frustrated with some of the justice dispensed. A San Jose Mercury News review three years ago found a San Francisco-based federal appeals court was regularly overturning the Immigration courts in the most important Immigration matters it decided.
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3.
Obama immigration official picked to run NYC jails
By Cristian Salazar
The Associated Press, September 9, 2009
New York (AP) -- When she led the Arizona prison system, Dora Schriro championed a program that encouraged inmates to buy treats such as ice cream sandwiches. Money from the sales went to victims' groups.
It was one of the quirkier initiatives that Schriro, appointed Wednesday to run the New York City's Department of Correction, introduced as part of her signature experiment transforming Arizona's prison system into what she referred to as a 'parallel universe.'
Under the strategy, prison life would resemble the outside world as much as possible so that inmates could re-enter society with the knowledge to be law-abiding citizens. 'The goal is to cultivate in offenders the skills that yield civil, productive conduct,' she wrote in a briefing published by the National Institute of Justice.
It is likely that Schriro, who begins work on Sept. 21, will bring some of the same modern corrections strategies to her new job as jails chief. She enters the job as the city's penal system faces scrutiny over the fatal beating of an inmate, accusations that correction officers let a 'Lord of the Flies'-style crew of inmates enforce rules at a jail through violence, and a bar mitzvah held at a lockup for a prisoner's son.
Schriro said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that her plan is not simply to replicate the reforms she brought to Arizona. The ice cream purchases were among several ways to make inmates more aware of their impact on others, she said.
'What I bring to the position is a capacity to figure out what might need to be fixed and what could be brought in and what's new and better,' Schriro said.
The city's penal system, including the 400-acre Rikers Island jail complex, has a $1 billion budget and an average daily inmate population of more than 13,000, most of them pretrial detainees. They are overseen by about 9,000 correction officers.
For the past six months, Schriro has led the Office of Detention Policy and Planning for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where she was helping to reform the sprawling immigration detention system, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Her departure disappointed immigration reform advocates.
'She brought extensive experience, a commitment to reforming the system and a valued, evidenced-based approach to her work,' said Andrea Black, network coordinator for the Detention Watch Network.
Schriro said speculation that her departure is related to internal strife 'is flat out incorrect.' Her parents are elderly and she wants to be near them, she said.
'In work, I've always done things the best I knew how, doing things for the right reasons and I need to do that in my personal life too,' she said.
Shriro said she plans to make recommendations for the immigration detention system to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano before leaving.
. . .
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/obama-immigration-official-picked-to-run-nyc-jails-1.1432750
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4.
Mel Martinez exits Senate -- with some regrets
By Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald, September 9, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1225966.html
Washington, DC -- Sen. Mel Martinez, the nation's first Cuban-American senator, left office Wednesday with pride, a ``heavy heart'' and a lingering regret that Congress has been unable to reach agreement on revamping the nation's immigration laws.
Martinez, the only immigrant in the upper chamber, said he was comfortable with his decision to leave the Senate with 16 months remaining in his first term. But, in an interview off the Senate floor, he acknowledged that he might have remained in the job longer if he'd thought immigration reform would come up again soon.
``I hope Congress can one day reach consensus on the issue because fixing our nation's broken immigration system remains a national imperative,'' he said in final remarks delivered to a nearly empty Senate chamber.
The Obama administration has pledged to Hispanic groups that it is committed to revisiting immigration reform. But outside the Senate chamber, Martinez said he doubts Congress will take up the politically volatile issue until after the 2010 election.
``I'm not sure how soon it's coming back,'' said Martinez, who was hammered by some in his own Republican Party for championing a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. ``If I had any sense it was impending, I might have made a different decision.''
Martinez, who announced in November that he wouldn't run again, surprised observers last month by announcing immediate plans to resign, citing family obligations.
In his low-key speech Wednesday, he extolled public service, though his brief tenure suggests he was never comfortable in the Senate, where he arrived in 2005 after being recruited by former President George W. Bush.
``I am very grateful to the people of Florida for giving me the privilege of representing them in the United States Senate,'' he said, calling the opportunity to serve in the Senate ``the culmination of what has got to be an unlikely journey'' for a child who came to the U.S. from Cuba aboard a Pedro Pan flight.
His temporary replacement, George LeMieux, who will be sworn into office Thursday, watched the speech from the gallery, along with Martinez's family and staff members.
``You can't say enough about this great man, what he's done for this great state and what he's done for our country,'' LeMieux said of Martinez. Senators -- both Democratic and Republican -- praised Martinez on the Senate floor as the embodiment of the American dream, true to faith and family.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said he had spent the past three months trying to persuade Martinez to stay.
But Martinez told friends it was ``all about [his] family,'' said Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who worked with Martinez on immigration.
``It takes an extraordinary person to give up the adulation and the heady atmosphere of the Senate to remember what's most important in their lives,'' Durbin said.
Several senators credited Martinez -- who often translated the GOP point of view for Spanish language newspapers and TV stations that cover the Hill -- for helping them develop a better appreciation of immigration issues. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham noted the ``hatred'' unleashed on Martinez during the immigration debate and said the Senate would pass immigration legislation as a ``tribute'' to Martinez and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, whom Martinez worked with on immigration reform.
Martinez got off to a rocky start in the Senate and often seemed to have trouble finding his footing. During the pitched right-to-life battle over Terri Schiavo in 2005, he drew withering criticism for passing a memo to a fellow senator that suggested Republicans could benefit politically.
And he made an early exit as chairman of the Republican National Committee. But he declared ``tremendous progress'' Wednesday on a number of issues, including helping to modernize the military through increased shipbuilding and working to protect home buyers. He noted that the Senate was poised to pass legislation that he had championed to boost tourism to the United States.
And he cited the 2006 compromise that he and Nelson struck with pro-drilling forces to open up millions of acres in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil drilling, while keeping rigs at least 125 miles off the Florida coast.
Martinez said he plans to return to private life, likely practicing law. He said he definitely plans to continue to speak out for democracy in Cuba, which he said ``has always been and will continue to be a lifelong passion.''
He delivered a special message in Spanish to South Florida's Cuban-American community: ``You embraced me and believed in me. We shared pride in who we are and what we have accomplished. Your enthusiastic support has touched my heart for as long as I live, and I will treasure these things forever.''
At 5 p.m., he cast his final vote as a U.S. senator -- in favor of the travel promotion act.
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5.
Obama heckler: from obscurity to object of scorn with breakneck speed
By Lee-Anne Goodman
The Canadian Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iz_DRGVKy-Uy-4vkM3ZJ2U0oNj9w
Washington, DC (CP) -- Earlier this week, Joe Wilson was just another relatively obscure Republican congressman.
By Thursday, the South Carolina politician had become a cause celebre thanks to two words shouted angrily at Barack Obama during the president's address to Congress: 'You lie!'
For Canadians accustomed to the bare-knuckled verbal brawling that goes on during Question Period, including by the prime minister, the continuing fallout from Wilson's outburst might seem puzzling.
But since 1952, an American president has called together a joint session of Congress to address a major national issue only 15 times. Rarely, if ever, has a president been heckled.
While Democrats booed and cried 'no' during two of George W. Bush's congressional addresses - in 2004 and 2005 - Wilson's shouted allegation that Obama was lying about health-care reform was seen as something particularly egregious.
His startling breach of congressional decorum, in fact, has angered Republicans and Democrats alike.
Democrats called his conduct a disgrace, as did some prominent Republicans.
'I've been here for 35 years. I've been here for seven presidents. I've never heard anything like that,' said Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy.
Arizona Senator John McCain called it 'totally disrespectful.'
'There is no place for it in that setting, or any other, and he should apologize for it immediately,' he said.
The Republican party was discussing Thursday whether to censure Wilson, who did in fact apologize for his outburst to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel late Wednesday night.
Obama, for his part, said he accepted Wilson's apology.
'Yes, I do; he apologized quickly,' the president said Thursday.
'I do think that, as I said last night, we have to get to the point where we can have a conversation about big important issues that matter to the American people without vitriol. I hope that some of the fever breaks a little bit.'
Wilson's apology, however, did little to stem the outrage in a nation that has seen political discourse deteriorate dramatically this summer amid the health-care reform debate.
The five-term congressman, and onetime protege of Strom Thurmond, has become an Internet sensation as his name and topics related to him were among the top searches on Google on Thursday. He was also the top trending topic on Twitter.
The Twitter and Facebook reaction to his outburst was swift and ruthless.
Wilson's Wikipedia page was locked Wednesday night after repeated attempts to vandalize it, and his website went offline as countless Twitter and Facebook users posted its URL and the politician's office phone number in their status updates.
Some also provided information about Rob Miller, an Iraq war veteran who is Wilson's political rival in the next mid-term election. By mid-Thursday, Miller's campaign coffers were US$123,000 richer and still swelling.
The website 'Joe Wilson Is Your Pre-Existing Condition' popped up almost immediately. It featured new Wilson insults with every click of the refresh button, including 'Joe Wilson yells 'Freebird' at concerts' and 'Joe Wilson laid off your dad just before his pension kicked in.'
Some speculated Wilson's outburst gives Obama the moral high ground after a summer of raucous town hall battles over his health-care reform plans that left both Democrats and Republicans bruised and battered.
'It strengthens the president, because it demonstrates what he is facing. Most people have respect for the president,' Leahy said.
Andisheh Nouraee, a columnist for an alternative weekly in Atlanta, Ga., said Wilson has handed the Democrats a gift by spouting off.
'If he's the face of the GOP, we'll have public option by Columbus Day,' she said.
A nervous, breathless Miller met with reporters on Thursday, saying he was grateful the White House accepted his apology but reiterating his concerns that Obama's health-care overhaul would give illegal aliens free health care.
'I think this is wrong,' Miller said on Capitol Hill.
'I am for legal immigration, I've been an immigration attorney, but people who have come to our country and violated laws ... we should not be providing full health-care services.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Recent CIS analysis of the health care reform package is available online at: http://www.cis.org/IllegalsAndHealthCareHR3200
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6.
Somali president planning U.S. visit, stop in Columbus
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/09/10/z-apoh_somalitour_0910.ART_ART_09-10-09_B3_FBF1A5I.html
The newly elected president of Somalia plans a tour of U.S. communities with large Somali populations, including Columbus, this fall in hopes of spreading the word about his country's problems and getting advice for solving some of them.
Elmi Duale, Somalia's U.N. ambassador and permanent representative, said yesterday that Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed also wants to visit Minneapolis and suburban Washington, D.C.
Ahmed plans the tour after attending the U.N. General Assembly at the end of September, Duale said.
Thousands of Somalis have come to the United States in the two decades since civil war began tearing their country apart in the early 1990s. The country has not had a functioning central government since about 1991.
Ahmed's visit could help shore up his support at home, said Mahdi Taakilo, publisher of The Somali Link newspaper in Columbus.
Somalis left with a favorable impression of Ahmed here will quickly urge their relatives back home to support him, Taakilo said.
Census data show as many as 100,000 people of Somali ancestry living in the United States in 2007.
The census figures show as many as 5,000 in and around Washington and as many as 7,000 in Columbus. Somali leaders in Columbus estimate far higher numbers.
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7.
Report urges more thorough ICE detention records
By Michelle Roberts
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixBM3no_AG-_TQ24nxDasHNKItoQD9AK8H1G1
San Antonio (AP) -- Better record-keeping could ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement keeps dangerous immigrants in custody while operating its sprawling detention system safely and lawfully, according to a new report from a nonpartisan think tank.
The report, to be released Thursday by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, notes gaps in the information ICE uses to track the more than 33,000 people in its nationwide system of jails and detention centers that hold immigrants awaiting court hearings or deportation.
The gaps include whether a detainee is dangerous or might have a claim to U.S. citizenship, making it hard for the agency to ensure the system operates legally and efficiently, said Donald Kerwin, one of the report's authors.
'This analysis places these criticisms in a new light by asking whether ICE can fully comply with the law, effectively manage its sprawling detention system and create a system better suited to civil detainees,' with its current record-keeping, the authors wrote.
MPI's report is based on data in records obtained by The Associated Press through Freedom of Information Act requests. The AP reported in March that more than half of jailed immigrants held by ICE on a single January night had not been convicted of a crime and nearly a third had been held longer than the 31-day average stay reported by the agency.
ICE director John Morton, who assumed the post in May, announced last month that the agency would re-evaluate the system. He said it would seek to treat nonviolent people who aren't a flight risk differently from those with felony convictions facing mandatory detention and deportation.
The agency's database does not currently list whether an immigrant must be detained, as is the case for felons who have served their sentences and been released to ICE custody, or whether the immigrant is believed to be dangerous. It also doesn't list whether an immigrant has a special medical condition or mental health issues.
The database also does not provide answers to some procedural questions that would help determine whether the federal government is complying with a Supreme Court ruling that immigrants can't be held indefinitely, Kerwin said.
'What it seemed to be missing was information that would allow them to make important decisions that they're required to make as part of their responsibility,' he said.
ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham said the agency recognizes there's room for improvement, but officials are confident the plans announced by Morton 'will go a long way in addressing many of the current concerns.'
She noted the agency plans more oversight in addition to better medical care and fiscal prudence for the $1.72 billion detention system.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The MPI report is available online at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/detentionreportSept1009.pdf
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8.
2009 makes for a busy year for state immigration officers
By Brian Webb
The KNXV News (Phoenix), September 9, 2009
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/2009-makes-for-a-busy-year-for-state-immigration/TMOWhLA3tEeALBxwvtKRng.cspx
Phoenix -- State immigration officers have had a busy 2009.
They are releasing the latest numbers from the group IIMPACT that was created to investigate these crimes. It shows they investigated 39 drop houses in the Valley, arrested 137 human smugglers and found 514 undocumented immigrants.
The number of coyotes is reportedly much higher than last year when 98 were arrested.
'Human smuggling is a lucrative business' said Bart Graves of the Arizona Department of Safety. 'These arrest numbers show that we are making it difficult for them to do business.'
Graves says the immigrants are often beaten and held hostage for money. 'They are here illegally that's true, but no one deserves that kind of treatment.'
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9.
NOPD vows not to ask immigrants about status
It wants victims and witnesses to come forward without fear
By Brendan McCarthy
The Times Picayune (New Orleans), September 10, 2009
http://www.nola.com/news/?/base/news-2/1252560960257570.xml&coll=1
In an effort to bolster relations and trust with members of the city's burgeoning Hispanic community, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley announced Wednesday afternoon that his officers will not ask crime victims or witnesses about their documentation status.
Riley, alongside Mayor Ray Nagin and representatives of the law-enforcement and Hispanic communities, made the announcement at a news conference calling for immigration reform.
'We will not under any circumstances focus on deportation,' Riley said, noting that his department's goal is to protect and serve everyone.
Their announcement seemed to enshrine the city's unofficial policing stance as it pertains to illegal immigrants, many of whom flocked to rebuild the city in the wake of the 2005 flood and, in turn, became prime targets for armed robbers and unscrupulous contractors.
Several months ago, the NOPD named officer Janssen Valencia its liaison to the Hispanic community, and Valencia said in an interview that he would not question crime witnesses or victims about their immigration status. But Riley's statement appeared to mark the first public enunciation of the policy.
'We want them to know that -- unless you are the violator or the perpetrator -- there is no threat of deportation or arrest, as it relates to the New Orleans Police Department,' Riley said.
Countless other cities across the country have adopted like-minded guidelines, he said.
The announcement brought local leaders for the first time into a highly charged and politicized national debate on how to police and punish illegal immigrants. Late last month, a coalition of more than 500 local and national groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, sent President Obama a letter demanding that he end a federal program that allows local police to enforce federal immigration law.
--- Not 'looking the other way' ---
It is unclear what effect, if any, the NOPD's stance will have on the work of federal agencies that investigate and deport illegal immigrants locally.
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10.
Lyons ceases talks with advocate
By Jonathan Stinson
The Reporter (Sand Mountain, AL), September 10, 2009
http://www.sandmountainreporter.com/story.lasso?ewcd=4aa09086fbe451de
Albertville Mayor Lindsey Lyons said he has put plans for an immigration forum on hold until he can 'reach out and find the appropriate people in the Hispanic community, that are legal, as well as supportive of that community in the right way,' Lyons said.
During the town hall meeting last week, the mayor and council said they are willing to hold a forum strictly on illegal immigration and provide an interpreter for that forum.
However, after many of the members of the Hispanic community walked out of the gym at the town hall meeting, the mayor was prompted to cut off all communication with Aylene Sepulveda, the organizer of the North Alabama Hispanic Committee, and one of the main Hispanic leaders who spoke out on immigration issues.
The mayor felt Sepulveda had helped encourage the walkout.
Sepulveda said she did not encourage anyone to leave the meeting, and the lack of interaction with the public defeated the purpose of a town hall meeting.
'If we didn’t want interaction we could have heard it on the TV or on the radio, so that is why I personally walked out, and they just followed me,' she said.
Sepulveda says the Hispanic community was told there would be an interpreter for the town hall meeting, and since there was not, the act furthered the mistrust between the city and the Hispanic population.
The mayor says he views the relationship between the Hispanic population and the city leaders as 'neutral.'
'I knew her intent the other night going into it. She’s just an agitator – too divisive,' Lyons said. '…I’m going to try to reach out and make some contacts in the Hispanic community who actually care and want to assimilate and want to abide by our laws. And I want to convey to that community that anything I can do to facilitate some new relationships in that community, that’s the approach I will be taking. I’m not going to give up on it,' he said.
The mayor also said he did not see an immigration forum 'in the short-term future.'
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11.
Families slowly leaving Texas detention facility
By Anabelle Garay
The Associated Press, September 9, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSxn7BzM37A-H7tnJkFZI1pXvfYAD9AK2PAG0
Dallas (AP) -- As immigrant children and their parents depart a disparaged former Texas prison that housed them while they awaited decisions in their immigration cases, advocates are questioning if the government has fully thought out what happens to the families now.
Federal officials announced last month that the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor would no longer hold immigrant families and they instead would be detained at the much smaller Berks Family Residential Center in Leesport, Pa. But with only 84 beds — and more than 100 people once housed at Hutto — some advocates wonder if there will be enough space, or if immigrants will be released.
'We still have a lot of questions and would like to hear more details,' said Denise Gilman, of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, which along with other advocates filed a lawsuit contending that family detention at Hutto was inhumane.
Hutto is set to stop holding immigrant families by the end of the year, government officials say, and families have slowly been leaving. Instead of transferring the families to Berks, the government has been trying to process the cases of families at both facilities.
The Texas facility went from holding 127 men, women and children last month to just 22 people this week. They were either deported to their home countries or released while they pursue asylum or another immigration status to remain in the U.S.
As the change takes place, advocates are watching to see if the Pennsylvania facility has better conditions, if cases are handled fairly and if new problems arise because of the shift.
Hutto opened as a family detention center in 2006, ending a so-called 'catch and release' practice that had permitted families to remain free while their immigration cases were settled. The facility was necessary, ICE officials maintained, because many never showed up in court or some borrowed other people's children and posed as families to avoid detention.
But the facility quickly drew criticism, and The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates sued the government in 2007 over the detention facility's conditions.
Attorneys and UT law students visiting Hutto to assist detainees with their immigration cases were astonished by the prison-like setting and regimen. Children wore drab prison scrubs. Razor wire encircled the site. They lived in tiny cells furnished with bunk beds and a steel toilet and were subjected to head counts several times a day. Guards with the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America trained to detain criminal adults were overseeing children. Parents said guards disciplined children with threats of being separated from their family.
The Berks facility, by contrast, is a former nursing home and with a reputation among attorneys for being more family friendly. Younger children stay with their parents, while teenagers sleep in separate rooms. One former resident told The Associated Press adults and children went on field trips during her stay, refrigerators in the hallways were stocked with fruit and juice and an interfaith prayer group is available. But still, the stays can be far from smooth.
The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she fears for her safety after fleeing cartel violence in Mexico, said at the border, officials had told her and her American husband she would only be detained for a week at most. But when she arrived, there were families who had been at the facility for a year, longer than the typical stay of a month at Hutto. Some residents had waited for a month or two before being interviewed by an asylum officer.
'That's when I said to myself 'So what awaits me?'' said the Mexican woman, who has since been released on humanitarian parole after a month at Berks and has petitioned to remain in the country since she's married to a U.S. citizen.
Going forward, families arriving at the U.S. border and entry points seeking asylum or trying to immigrate will be taken to Berks if the government believes they will disappear instead of showing up to immigration court, said Dora Schriro, who has been heading up the new Office of Detention Policy and Planning at the Department of Homeland Security. Other families will be released and placed on some type of community supervision, Schriro said.
The families at Hutto will likely be deported or receive some type of immigration benefit, such as asylum or parole, allowing them to remain in the U.S. before Hutto closes, she said.
Schriro will leave her new post mending of the nation's immigration detention system to be commissioner of correction for New York City, leaving advocates with questions over how that will affect the upcoming changes.
For now, advocates for immigrant families say they will be watching to see if Berks detainees can access legal representation. About one-third of asylum seekers before the court that handles Berks' cases did not have an attorney, while a majority at Hutto did, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Having an attorney boosts people's chances of remaining in the country.
They also worry there could be some unintended consequences in the switch, especially when it comes to distance. Berks is located thousands of miles from the border crossings in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas used by most of the detainees and some question whether the government will be able to quickly and humanely transport such families to Pennsylvania.
'What happens to a family arrested in Texas or who goes to the border ... and asks for asylum? Will those people be released?' asked Barbara Hines, director of the Immigration Clinic at UT Law School. 'To send them all the way to Berks if they're going to be released anyway seems like a waste of resources to me.'
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12.
ICE inmates finally arriving
By Joel Addington
The Baker County Press (FL), September 9, 2009
http://bakercountypress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2443&Itemid=1
About two weeks after finalizing an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the newly constructed sheriff’s complex accepted its first 38 prisoners from the federal agency last week.
Federal officers had transferred three inmates by September 2 and another 35 arrived in a handful of nondescript vans the afternoon of September 3, accompanied by a large bus with a US Department of Homeland Security logo.
Baker Correctional Development Corporation (BCDC) board members and ICE officials joined Sheriff Joey Dobson and facility staff for a handoff.
'It’s exciting for us,' said the nonprofit corporation’s secretary Paul Whitehead. 'I’ve been looking forward to this day. It’s a good thing for the county.'
The BCDC oversees management of the new jail and repayment of $45 million bonded to fund its construction. The organization was formed in 2007, but planning for the 512-bed facility began as early as 2002.
Six years later the bonds were sold and construction began. The project was completed and the sheriff’s department, emergency management services, dispatchers and local inmates moved into the complex last June. Since then it’s housed about 100 local inmates and a small group of prisoners from other federal law enforcement agencies.
'I’ve been anxious about getting to this day,' said Sheriff Dobson, who along with other county officials have been eager to see cells at the complex occupied and federal dollars start to trickle in.
Since that roughly $84 per day per prisoner is expected to repay the bonds, the slow churning of ICE’s Washington bureaucracy took its toll in recent months as local officials fielded numerous inquiries about when, if ever, the prisoners might be transferred.
Last week Sheriff Dobson asked for assistance from Senator Bill Nelson’s office in moving the paperwork along. He said the senator’s office called September 1 to inform him that ICE inmates would arrive within the week.
'They got it done,' said Sheriff Dobson. 'My blood pressure is probably somewhat down now … This day is historical. It’s what we built this facility for.'
The sheriff’s department, which has a management contract with BCDC to run the jail, hired 16 new guards to handle additional inmates. The staffing plan calls for two more waves of hiring that will culminate with 60 sworn officers at the complex.
'It’s not a lot of change, just in the numbers,' said Sheriff Dobson about the impact of housing ICE inmates. 'It changes the complexity of dealing with them on an everyday basis.'
More than 350 cells remain empty, and it’s unclear when the new jail might reach full capacity.
'It’s going to be slowly,' said an ICE supervisor from Jacksonville who asked not to be identified. 'Once you go into this, it’s like making jambalaya — you add the rice, let it cook, then the beans; you take your time.'
In the view of BCDC president Todd Knabb, it’s good the facility didn’t fill up immediately. 'It gives them a chance to get all the kinks worked out,' he said.
According to a 10-year cash flow forecast for the BCDC, the jail’s projected income won’t reach $15.6 million annually until 2013. That figure represents how much revenue would be generated if all 512 beds were occupied continuously for 365 days.
The forecast also shows that by this time next year, the BCDC is expected to have $12.4 million coming in with only $10.4 million in operational expenses and debt payments.
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13.
Report sketches 'sustainable' future for Morristown
The Star Ledger (Newark, NJ), September 9, 2009
Morristown can become a world leader in sustainable growth--if it scraps local immigration enforcement policies, redevelops the Headquarters Plaza commercial complex, and defines a clear strategy for the future.
Those are among recommendations in a new report from national planning experts who visited Morristown last year.
They maintain that the Morris County seat can become 'the greenest community in New Jersey' and 'a model for the world,' with smarter planning and respect for the town's rich history and diversity.
What's lacking, according to these experts, is a game plan.
'The first step is to develop a defined, cohesive, illustrated vision of Morristown's future. The lack of vision is preventing the acknowledgement of common ground and leading to false dichotomies and unnecessary conflict,' contends the report. Development and preservation are necessary, yet impossible, 'until there is a defined vision.'
The document was created pro bono by planners and architects from the American Institute of Architects.
Morristown is among 29 communities nationwide selected by the AIA for its 'Sustainable Design Assessment Team' study, or SDAT. Alexandria Township and Englishtown are the other New Jersey municipalities in the program.
Working with The College of New Jersey, the Morristown Partnership applied to the AIA on Morristown's behalf in 2007. The Partnership promotes business in downtown Morristown.
Broadly, the survey explored how to improve Morristown's 'sustainability,' defined as balancing environmental, economic and social concerns in beneficial ways.
In the summer of 2008, SDAT experts met with town officials, residents, business people, clergy and school children and asked them what kind of future they desire. Those meetings culminated in a town meeting, and the report. More public forums are being planned to discuss the findings.
. . .
There are plenty of conversation-starters in the report, including a veiled poke at Mayor Donald Cresitello's push to deputize police as immigration officers:
'As Morristown makes headlines for some of the policies that are pursued by its local government, it is in danger of becoming known, fairly or unfairly, as a community of intolerance or even racism,' the report cautions. Celebrating the town's historically diverse population 'is a key strategy for Morristown's economic sustainability.'
Mayor Cresitello, who lost a re-election bid in the June primary, said he has not seen the report and declined comment.
. . .
http://www.nj.com/morristown/index.ssf/2009/09/experts_report_sketches_sustai.html
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14.
Local immigration advocates cool to census boycott idea
By Dan McDonald
The Metro West Daily News (Framingham, MA), September 9, 2009
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1467270734/Local-immigration-advocates-cool-to-census-boycott-idea
With political clout and federal money at stake in the 2010 U.S. Census, an accurate count of the immigrant population takes on new importance.
But some, like the Rev. Miguel Rivera, are encouraging illegal immigrants not to participate.
Rivera says a boycott is the only way to give voice to the voiceless, and communicate the frustration various immigrant communities feel over the lack of immigration reform.
'How can elected officials try to compel the undocumented to get counted when they are not committed to support comprehensive immigration reform?' he asked.
The Census helps determine how much federal funding a state receives. But money is not the only thing at stake. Some states with stagnant populations like Massachusetts may lose congressional seats.
Locally, the idea of a census boycott is being met with a mix of understanding, indifference and opposition.
The Rev. Manoel Oliveira, senior pastor of New Life Presbyterian on Union Avenue in Framingham, thinks a boycott is a bad idea.
He said he has been encouraging those in the immigrant community his church serves to respond to the census.
'I don't think it'll create any new immigration law,' said Oliveira.
Rafael Faria of the Bridge Program in Marlborough, which provides local Brazilians with a phone number to report crimes, says he understands Rivera's frustration, but disagrees with the means.
'Every politician says they're going to do something and it never gets done,' said Rafael. 'But the route he's taking...it's not the right one.'
Rivera, chairman of the Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders , is not alone in supporting the idea.
Quincy-based radio host Fausto da Rocha is also fed up with what he sees as inaction on immigration, saying 'Many politicians do not have the backbone for this because it is so controversial.'
But da Rocha sees the census boycott as a way, 'We can take money and power away from them.'
Colombian-born former Hopkinton resident Jose Bravo, who is da Rocha's radio co-host, says he feels betrayed by politicians for whom he voted, including President Barack Obama, who have not started the kind of immigration reform they promised.
Kathleen Ludgate, regional director for the 2010 Census, like others associated with the Census, has spent considerable time convincing the immigrant communities they have nothing to fear by complying with the census, and that the surveys ask no questions about legal status.
Bravo, though, is skeptical.
'Question No. 8, it asks where are you coming from. And under the Patriot Act, federal agencies are obligated to share information,' said Bravo.
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Executive Director Eva Millona said with an inaccurate count the state could lose federal dollars used for Medicaid, foster care, child care, substance abuse programs and education.
Her organization is the biggest advocacy group for immigrants in the state. It is opposed to a census boycott.
'You name it we'll lose it,' she said. 'It's irresponsible and it's doing a disservice to the community.'
Marcos Contreras, co-chairman of Metropolitan Interfaith Congregations Acting for Hope, which is made up of numerous MetroWest congregations, did not fully deride or support the idea of a census boycott, saying the only way to change things is to have a voice, and with some immigrants without the ability to vote, sometimes their voices are muted.
'It's time for politicians to start to pay attention,' said Contreras.
Framingham Town Meeting member Lloyd Kaye said the country's immigration system is broken. He is skeptical that a census boycott would prove to be effective because the census only matters in a few states.
Kaye thought Massachusetts, which has had flat population growth this decade, would 'definitely lose a seat.'
'Will this change national policy? I don't know,' he said.
Framingham resident Frank Kavanagh, who is formerly of the Brazilian American Association, said the census helps mold conversations regarding health care and education and is too important to ignore or boycott.
'We've been dealing with inaccurate census data and it skews the whole (immigration) debate because no one has the accurate facts,' he said.
Or as Megan Christopher, an attorney with Framingham-based MetroWest Legal Services, which serves low-income residents put it: 'It's really, really hard to figure out how to serve a community that you don't have any idea how big it is. The census gives an awful lot of important information.'
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Latino groups advise against census boycott
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-census-latinos,0,4621004.story
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15.
Protesters criticize Obama near Hoag
The Daily Pilot (Newport Beach, CA), September 9, 2009
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/09/09/topstory/dpt-protest091009.txt
A handful of people waved American flags and held signs protesting health-care reform and illegal immigration outside Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian on Wednesday morning at a demonstration organized by the Minuteman Project.
'If there weren’t 30 million illegal aliens in this country, you would find no need for health-care reform,' said Raymond Herrera, a spokesman for the Minuteman Project National Rally project.
Holding a large American flag and a sign that read 'Bless the USA,' Herrera was one of about four protesters who gathered at Newport Boulevard and Hospital Road on Wednesday morning. A few drivers passing honked their horns in response to signs that read 'Stop Obama' and 'Stop illegal immigrants.'
The protesters plan to travel to hospitals around the region to raise awareness about the burden they claim illegal immigrants put on the United States’ health-care system.
'I just think it’s a good thing to show support for something we believe in,' said Costa Mesa resident Phil Morello, who joined the protest, waving an American flag fastened to a rusted metal pole.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Recent CIS analysis of the health care reform package is available online at: http://www.cis.org/IllegalsAndHealthCareHR3200
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16.
New center aids immigrants in labor matters
By Becky W. Evans
South Coast Today (New Bedford, MA), September 10, 2009
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090910/NEWS/909100366
New Bedford, MA -- A new community center has opened to educate immigrant workers about labor rights and advocate for those who fall victim to discrimination or work-related injuries.
The group, Centro Comunitario de los Trabajadores, includes immigrant workers from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Mexico.
'Everyone needs representation,' said the group's director, Adrian Ventura, a Guatemalan Mayan who has worked in several of the city's garment plants.
Centro Comunitario, which maintains a 24-hour hot line for workers, operates out of the Ben Rose Gardens Community Center in the South End.
With support from Catholic Social Services, the group is applying for official status as a nonprofit corporation, Ventura said.
He explained that local immigrant workers often suffer from racial discrimination and do not always receive vacation pay, overtime pay or compensation for work-related injuries.
'My heart cries for the people who are exploited,' he said.
Through the workers' center, those who are exploited can receive legal support, training in labor rights and help with workplace-organizing efforts, he said.
Ventura was recently granted asylum by the U.S. government because he could be persecuted if he returns to his native Guatemala. He fled from the country at the age of 10 due to civil war violence.
Under his asylum status, Ventura can temporarily live and work in the United States. In a year, he will be eligible to apply for permanent legal status.
The state's employment and wage statutes cover all employees, including legal and illegal immigrants.
'Immigration status is not a factor in any analysis looking at whether someone was paid properly,' said Alison Harris, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
UMass Dartmouth anthropology professor Lisa Maya Knauer, who is studying the area's Central American immigrants, said it is significant that the workers' center has opened in the same city where undocumented workers suffered a traumatizing immigration raid at the Michael Bianco factory.
'Instead of continuing to hide in the shadows, people are starting to say, 'We are human beings' and 'we have rights,'' Knauer said.
She also noted the importance of 'crossing ethnic lines' and making the center inclusive to all.
'In a lot of work places, employers pit ethnic groups against each other,' she said. 'I think it is very positive that this group is not just Maya, or not just Salvadorans. It's people across the board.'
Ventura is the former president of Organization Maya K'iche, an advocacy group for the city's Mayan immigrants. After the Bianco raid, he began fighting for the rights of immigrant workers employed at local garment and seafood plants.
On a recent morning, Ventura handed out Centro Comunitario informational brochures to those who wandered into the workers' center.
The front cover of the brochure reads in Spanish: 'Nace en el firmamento una estrella que te indica el camino.'
Translated into English, it reads: 'A star is born in the sky that shows you the way.'
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17.
Immigrant rights activists join hands across the border
By Mariana Martinez,
La Prensa, September 9, 2009
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-09-09/news/immigrant-rights-activists-join-hands-across-the-border
They say power is in the numbers, and that is exactly the hope for family members of kidnapped and disappeared in Tijuana, who have signed a cooperation pact with the immigrant rights group and the search and rescue team of Desert Angels.
The pact was sealed between the Citizen Committee against Impunity lead by Fernando Ocegueda in Tijuana and San Diego based Desert Angels founder Rafael Hernandez.
It might be a strange mix, but their struggles are quite similar, because both groups are trying to find missing persons and face hardship in the legal responsibility 'gray zone' created at the border.
The Citizen Committee against Impunity has just recently celebrated the International Day of the Disappeared, a date observed by many in Argentina, Colombia and Chile.
But on Sunday, Aug. 30, it was Tijuana’s turn, and over a hundred family members of those kidnapped or disappeared made a white cross fence around a ground where Santiago Meza AKA 'El Pozolero' confessed after his arrest to having dissolved over 300 bodies, as part of his job with organized crime.
There, association leaders condemned Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, claiming he has failed to fulfill his promise of a full investigation of the site along with top technology to pin-point places where human remains are still found underground.
'Medina Mora meet with us 3 months ago and confirmed authorities have found human remains' Ocegueda explained, 'but every time we come here we found the place virtually untouched, so despite it being illegal, if they don’t start digging up the bones in a month, we, the citizens whose loved ones might be there, will try to go in and dig them out ourselves. That’s all we have left.'
That same sentiment of little support by the authorities is shared by Hernández, and his group of volunteer rescuers, who often take on the risk and expenses associated with a search party to find immigrants lost in the mountainous regions of the border.
Many times, their efforts are met by the gruesome finding of a body, dried by the sun, a small consolation for grieving families.
According to Hernández, over a hundred people have been reported missing to the Desert Angels in 2009, most of them made their last phone call at border towns like Tijuana, right before trying to get to US territory illegally.
In recent months, Desert Angels have rescued 15 immigrants who were in danger in their journey, but another 11 are still reported missing, most could have already died in the harsh Arizona Desert where the walk to a nearby town can be as far as 70 miles long fighting with 120 degree heat.
Many immigrants who are reported as missing by their relatives might just be lost in a border town or might be crossing the dessert with no cel signals, but a growing trend or immigrants are abducted or robbed by their own smugglers, who then extort their relatives into giving them ransom.
'New smuggling gangs are less ethical; they are formed by violent drug addicts or young men linked to organized crime' said SDSU professor and human rights activist Victor Clark Alfaro.
This trend also binds the crimes and victims together, because impunity seems to touch upon all regions, across the border fence. And that’s where collaboration comes in.
'We get at least a phone call a day from a family member looking for a relative' said Hernández, 'we find it difficult to file a formal missing persons report in Mexico because we don’t know the system. And this step is important so that authorities are on the look out and actually investigate these cases in Baja California and not in their places of origin where no crime was committed.'
And that’s where Ocegueda and other family members can help, because after 3 years of struggling with the Mexican law enforcement to investigate over 280 missing person cases, -including Ocegueda’s own son-, they have become paper-work experts and navigate the complicated judicial system.
'We needed to join forces like we did, because immigrants are suffering from the same type of crimes other border residents are facing, and they also face the complication of authorities not willing to help, but we can help with the cases from Dessert Angels, so we have honest numbers and we can paint a real picture about these type of crimes.'
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18.
Mexican Immigrant has No Problems with USA ID Card
By Kristin Byrne
The WBAY News (Green Bay, WI), September 9, 2009
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=11102831
A Green Bay business is questioned for selling a photo ID card to thousands of immigrants in Green Bay and Appleton.
In a news conference Wednesday, immigration advocates said Catalina Taboada and Associates in Green Bay is selling the USA ID card for $40. Advocates say the card isn't illegal but it's being advertised for purposes they say aren't accurate.
Wisconsin Consumer Protection sent a warning letter to Taboada's company last month saying the card advertisements aren't in compliance with the law.
Action 2 News tried to contact Taboada several times by phone and at her office but has not heard back from her.
But not everyone has concerns about the ID. Jorge Corneja says he hasn't run into any problems using it so far. 'It's fine for me because it's working.'
Corneja, 27, is originally from Mexico but has been living in the U.S. for ten years.
He says he recently bought the photo ID from Catalina Taboada and Associates in Green Bay because he lost his Wisconsin license. He says he hasn't run into any issues, and he says he uses the photo ID when he buys something with a credit card.
'I use this, and the guy say, 'You have another ID?' and I say, oh yeah, and I show this and I think it's fine.'
Corneja didn't know the card is being questioned by area immigration advocates who say the ID can't do what advertisements claim it can and doesn't have much of a purpose.
'We want to warn the Hispanic community to not waste $40 on an ID that has no real use. We hope the community will stop buying this ID,' Marcelo Garcia, president of Appleton-based Casa Hispana, said.
Still, Corneja plans to keep using it. He says he never felt misled and he understood this card wasn't a government-issued ID.
'I can't get the other ID, so I use this.'
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19.
Immigrant gets prison for killing 2 in NYC crash
The Associated Press, September 9, 2009
New York (AP) -- A drunken driver who slammed into a New York City livery cab and killed two people has been sentenced to 3 1/2 to 10 1/2 years in prison. The wreck came after he was ordered deported and charged in a deadly beating.
. . .
http://www.newsobserver.com/2188/story/1682298.html
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20.
Police in California arrest man who'd been deported 8 times
The Modesto Bee (CA), September 10, 2009
Modesto, CA -- A man police believe has been deported to Mexico up to eight times was arrested Tuesday evening in Modesto after he allegedly pointed a gun at the house of his ex-girlfriend.
. . .
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/847656.html
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21.
3 jailed on allegations of immigrant abuse in SW Houston
By Dale Lezon
The Houston Chronicle, September 10, 2009
A Houston man nicknamed 'El Diablo' and two others have been accused of holding illegal immigrants hostage in a southwest Houston home unless their families paid thousands of dollars for their release.
. . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6611597.html
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22.
Imposter Attorney Provided Immigration Services
The North County Gazette (NY), September 9, 2009
Manhattan -- A Queens man has been indicted for defrauding individuals by falsely holding himself out as an attorney, purporting to provide immigration legal services and advice, and selling a forged Social Security card.
. . .
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/09/09/imposter_attorney/
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23.
Three drop houses busted in Douglas area
By Derek Jordan
The Herald Review (Sierra Vista, AZ), September 10, 2009
Sierra Vista, AZ -- A statewide gang and immigration task force uncovered three human-smuggling drop houses in the Douglas area over the course of four days last week.
. . .
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/09/10/news/doc4aa8c08ea4935387413638.txt
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24.
Man arrested in stabbing of Mesa worker is illegally in U.S.
The Phoenix Business Journal, September 9, 2009
A man accused stabbing a woman with knife 37 times as she opened the door to the Mesa check-cashing business where she worked is being charged with attempted first-degree murder.
The man, Jorge Luis Miranda Avila, is in the U.S. illegally, according to Mesa police spokesman Ed Wessing.
. . .
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/09/07/daily45.html
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1522 K St. NW, Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 466-8185 fax: (202) 466-8076
center@cis.org www.cis.org
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