Daily news updates from CIS

September 25, 2009

Support the Center for Immigration Studies by donating on line here: http://cis.org/donate

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[For CISNEWS subscribers --

1. USCIS considers fee hike to reduce deficit (story, link)
2. Sen. Feinstein an advocate for foreigners facing deportation
3. UT Rep. secures AZ nature sanctuary against smuggling
4. Delegate seeks probe of CNMI visa scam (story, link)
5. Pew survey: One third of Mexicans would immigrate if they could
6. Houston court leads in immigration prosecutions
7. Critics attack deployment of Texas Rangers to border
8. TX city cops dispute allegations of profiling
9. CA city police chief denies pressure to close DUI checkpoint
10. FL county sheriff eschews interest in enforcement
11. Issue clouds Denver vehicle impoundment measure
12. ND police struggle with arranged marriages
13. UT police chief debates enforcement
14. Costs leave localities wary of enforcement efforts
15. RI law school opens immigration clinic
16. Companies advised to prepare for E-Verify compliance
17. TN activists campaign for DREAM Act
18. Former Muslims seek gov't protection
19. Brazilians repatriating under lure of better jobs
20. Haitians seek help against domestic violence
21. Group seeks reimbursement of deportees' taxes
22. Foreigners in MA city distrust police
23. Senegalese woman loses genital mutilation appeal
24. Somali man suspected of terror activities
25. Afghan men charged in NYC bomb plot
26. Illegal fights San Fran. drug charge
27. Detention guard admits sexual assaults (link)
28. Border Patrol agent charged with sexual assault (link)
29. Mexican smuggler loses appeal (link)

Subscribe to CIS e-mail services here: http://cis.org/immigrationnews.html

-- Mark Krikorian]


1.
Immigration agency head: Fee hikes a last resort
By Susan Montoya Bryan
The Associated Press, September 24, 2009
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apimmigfeesmayorkas109-24-09.htm

Albuquerque, NM (AP) -- The head of the federal agency in charge of processing millions of applications for citizenship and immigration to the U.S. says he understands the hardships that raising application fees would have on the community.

But Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stressed to reporters Thursday that raising fees is only one option the agency has as it grapples with a revenue shortfall. The agency depends on fees from applications for immigration-related services to pay for its operations.

'The potential fee increase is not something that is taken lightly. We understand very well its impact,' Mayorkas said. 'In my personal view, it would be something of last resort and ... it should be as respectful as possible of the burden it in fact imposes.'

The comments come a day after Mayorkas announced that an increase in fees was among the options the agency has to make up for a projected $118 million shortfall. He said asking Congress for a greater appropriation and making cuts within the agency are other ways CIS can absorb declining revenues, but the agency has made no decisions.

Agency officials have blamed the revenue shortfall on an overall drop in immigration-related applications being filed amid an economic slump.

In 2007, the agency increased the cost of applying for citizenship from $400 to $675, and applications surged before the higher fees took effect. The number of applications for both naturalization and status adjustments have plummeted since then, according to statistics kept by the agency.

Immigrant advocates argue that the fees are high enough now and that another fee increase would only hamper the number of applicants.

Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center in Washington, D.C., called it a vicious cycle. If the agency doesn't have enough revenue to process applications in a timely manner, it might be forced to raise fees and that could lead to even fewer applicants.

'Congress has really been reluctant to revisit this whole idea that we shouldn't be trying to finance our immigration system basically solely on the backs of applicants,' she said. 'I think the agency and the applicants are both kind of caught between a rock and hard place.'

While the Obama administration has no concrete proposals for immigration reform, Mayorkas said during his stop in Albuquerque that his agency is preparing for the potential impacts any reform might have on its ability to continue providing services in a timely manner.

He said the administration has indicated that reform should include 'smart and effective' enforcement and security of the country's borders as well as a path to citizenship for the millions of people in the U.S. without documentation.

That could put more pressure on the agency, immigration advocates say.

Giovagnoli said there aren't many mechanisms in place for the agency to ramp up for new programs because it relies solely on revenue from fees.

'It's a policy debate that is really in the weeds but is really important,' she said. 'If we can't figure out a better way to fund the agency, we're always going to be looking at these kinds of problems.'

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Fees to become citizen may go up
By Cindy Carcamo
The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA), September 24, 2009
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/agency-citizenship-fee-2578207-immigration-mayorkas

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2.
California immigrants facing deportation find a friend in Dianne Feinstein
The Sacramento Bee, September 25, 2009
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2208290.html

Washington, DC -- On the morning of Jan. 28, federal agents knocked on Shirley Tan's door, showed her a deportation letter and put her in handcuffs.

'I was put into a van with two men in yellow jumpsuits and chains and searched like a criminal in a way I have only seen on television and in the movies,' said Tan, 44, a housewife and mother from Pacifica.

But Tan is still in the United States today, and she says there's only one reason why: 'the great compassion' of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

People seeking to get around U.S. immigration laws have found a good friend in the state's senior senator, who is going to unusual lengths to help her constituents avoid deportation.

Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee, is the Senate's leader in using 'private bills' as a way to keep people in the country who otherwise would be forced to leave.

Private bills – narrowly drawn to affect only one person or a few people – are relatively rare. Only 35 are pending in the Senate this year; 14 of them – or 40 percent – bear Feinstein's name. Thirteen of Feinstein's bills date back to previous sessions of Congress but were reintroduced this year.

The bills usually fail because of their narrow appeal, but deportation procedures are oftentimes put on hold when a member of Congress introduces a private bill.

When Feinstein offered a bill on behalf of Tan, her deportation was delayed until 2011.

Feinstein said her private bills are aimed at helping families or individuals who face exceptional circumstances.

'These are people who, if sent back to their home countries, would face enormous hardship,' she said. 'These individuals have no criminal backgrounds, they're financially secure, they pay their taxes, their children excel in school. They've truly embraced the American dream.'

She acknowledged that private relief bills seldom pass, 'and many of my colleagues in the Senate have a policy never to introduce them.'

But she added: 'My staff and I have thoroughly reviewed these cases and believe they merit such extraordinary relief as a private bill.'

California's senators take drastically different approaches to private legislation. While Feinstein leads the Senate in private bills, Democrat Barbara Boxer has not introduced a single private bill since joining the Senate in 1993.

'Senator Boxer believes the most effective way to help her constituents is through great casework,' said her spokesman, Zachary Coile. 'Our caseworkers in California do an exceptional job of helping constituents resolve their problems.'

The practice of introducing private bills has always raised questions of special treatment, said Jan Ting, who teaches immigration law at Temple University Law School in Philadelphia and served as assistant commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the early 1990s. But whenever a member of Congress took an interest in a case, he said, it prompted an immediate internal review.

'That was enough to put a sticker on the file. Our sense was that, well gosh, we owe it to Congress, who controls our funding, to at least see how the private bill plays out,' Ting said.

But he said congressional leaders look disapprovingly at private bills, 'as kind of clogging up the works.'

'They don't feel that that's how immigration matters should be handled,' Ting said. 'And if you let too many private bills actually pass, you will then be deluged with private bills.'

Only 36 private laws were approved and signed into law from 1995 until 2007, according to the Congressional Research Service In a report to Congress, the research service said private bills 'warrant careful consideration' because they're 'a special form of relief allowing the circumvention of the public laws' governing immigration.

For many members of Congress, private bills fell out of favor in the 1970s, after Abscam and a series of other corruption scandals involving payoffs for the sponsorship of private bills.

Ting said that private bills then 'were thought to be one more manifestation of the fruits of corruption.'

Tan said she believes Feinstein lent her a sympathetic ear because her deportation would have resulted in the breakup of her family.

'The main reason is she doesn't want families to be torn apart, and a mom shouldn't be taken away from her American-born children,' Tan said.

Feinstein has defended her private bills in speeches on the Senate floor.

She asked her colleagues to provide permanent resident status to Joseph Gabra and his wife, Sharon Kamel, Egyptian nationals living with their four children in Camarillo. Feinstein said they entered the United States in 1998 on tourist visas and immediately filed for political asylum based on religious persecution. She said the couple would 'endure immense and unfair hardship' if forced to leave the country.

Feinstein asked the Senate to approve a private bill for Esidronio Arreola-Saucedo, Maria Elna Cobian Arreola and their children, Nayely and Cindy, all living in the Fresno area. She said the family has lived in the United States more than 20 years and faced deportation because of 'grievous errors committed by their previous counsel,' who since has been disbarred.

And the senator introduced legislation to help Robert Liang and his wife, Alice Liang, of San Bruno, who entered the United States more than 25 years ago as tourists and overstayed the terms of their temporary visas. Robert Liang is a foreign national and refugee from Laos; his wife is a citizen of Taiwan.

They sought to change their immigration status in 1993, but the INS did not act on their application until five years later. An immigration judge said their request likely would have been approved if it had been acted on in a timely manner, before immigration laws changed in 1996.

In Tan's case, Feinstein intervened after federal courts denied her bid for asylum.

After living in the United States more than 20 years, Tan faced deportation back to her native Philippines. She said the law discriminates against her because she is a lesbian and cannot be sponsored for citizenship by her longtime partner, Jaylynn Mercado.

Tan pressed her case before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June, telling members of Congress that she merely wants to keep together her family, which includes a pair of 12-year-old twins.

'We have a home together,' she said. 'Jay has a great job. We have a mortgage, a pension, friends and a community. We have everything together, and it would be impossible to re-establish elsewhere.'

In an interview, Tan said she is happy to be one of Feinstein's constituents.

'I'm just thankful and I feel so lucky that I was given a private bill by my senator,' Tan said. 'Because if not for her, I would have been deported. It's only a senator that can do that.'

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3.
Bishop says yes to tourists, no to illegal immigration
By Lee Davidson
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City), September 23, 2009
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705332026/Bishop-says-yes-to-tourists-no-to-illegal-immigration.html

National heritage areas are supposed to help increase tourism. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, persuaded the House to alter one Wednesday so that it inadvertently would not also increase illegal immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.

That came as the House voted to extend existence of the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area in Arizona. The bill passed on its second try, after the House adopted amendments by Bishop, and after it barely failed to pass last week.

Among provisions in Bishop's amendment were requiring that nothing in the bill could 'impede, prohibit or restrict' efforts to prevent unlawful entries into the United States, including interfering with a wall along the border.

'This area is one that is heavily traveled with narcotic trafficking and human trafficking,' Bishop told the House.

He complained that the Border Patrol must seek permits through lengthy processes to build towers or facilities near National Park Service areas, and he didn't want the heritage area to cause any similar delays or problems.

His motion also amended the bill to allow individual landowners to opt out of being included in a heritage area.

'There are instances when outside groups have tried to pressure local zoning entities because of these boundaries,' Bishop said. 'It is not right that people should be locked inside a boundary oftentimes with little prior knowledge of what is actually happening because boundaries do have consequences.'

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4.
Another immigration scam bared
By Haidee V. Eugenio
The Saipan Tribune (Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands), September 25, 2009
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=93836&cat=1

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) said yesterday he has asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate another immigration scam, this time involving Chinese investor(s) promising U.S. 'green cards' to those who invest at least $100,000 in a hotel project on Saipan before the federal government takes over local immigration on Nov. 28, 2009.

Besides the $100,000 investment, investors from China are also asked to pay $20,000 in 'government tax,' but it is not clear who would be the recipient of this additional tax.

Sablan earlier asked the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Guam and the Northern Marianas to investigate a group of Korean investors promising automatic investor status in the U.S. if they invest in the CNMI.

'Much as the prospectus that came into my hands earlier this year offering Korean investors the promise of U.S. visa status in return for putting money into a project in the CNMI, this most recent proposition promises investors in mainland China that the U.S. will issue green cards to all foreign personnel on the island, i.e., an amnesty. This is just not true,' Sablan said in a statement yesterday.

The scam also promises investors in China of U.S. citizenship to children born in the CNMI, and easy registration among Chinese children for entrance exams in 'prestigious domestic universities.'

He said the 'apparently growing problem' of investment/immigration scams 'is an embarrassment to the people of the CNMI and hurts efforts to delay' the implementation of federalization of local immigration.

'How can I convince those who have worked so long to end the scams and abuses in the Northern Marianas to allow another year of local control, when the scams continue?' Sablan asked in a statement.

Review of allegations

Sablan is urging the CNMI government to show that action is being taken to thwart the scams.

Press secretary Charles Reyes said yesterday the Fitial administration appreciates Sablan's concerns 'and we will be pleased to have the Attorney General's Office review these allegations and take appropriate actions if violations of CNMI laws are substantiated.'

Reyes, however, said the administration would need more specific information to take action.

'Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misinformation about federalization, not just from investor groups, but also from worker groups in the past who believed green cards would be handed out to nonresident workers upon the full implementation of the law,' Reyes said.

U.S. Attorney Leonardo M. Rapadas of the District of Guam and the Northern Marianas could not be reached for comment as of press time.

The two-page statement from Sablan's office did not identify the investor(s) involved in the scam.

The KSPN News last night interviewed a Xanadu Club Inc. official about the issue.

In an interview with Saipan Tribune after the KSPN newscast at 6pm, Xanadu Club Inc. chief operating officer James Chao said their company is not involved in any scam, and said they have not promised 'green cards' to prospective investors.

'The shareholders are a group of friends. How many investors are willing to put money into the CNMI now? Not many. But Xanadu wants to help the CNMI economy. We hire local employees, and purchased rooms at the Palms Resort. We want to provide good vacation destination to our shareholders,' he said, adding that Xanadu Club Inc. will be consulting its lawyer on the matter. But he said their legal counsel is currently off-island.

Last week, the United Micronesia Development Association, owners of the Palms Resort Saipan, said it has entered into an agreement with Xanadu Club, 'a China-based high profile travel and time share enterprise, to provide vacation rooms for its members.'

UMDA said '31 of Palms Resort's rooms have been blocked permanently for exclusive use by the Xanadu Club.'

'Block them'

In August, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said in a news briefing that he was able stop Flame Sako Resort & Spa from publishing a marketing brochure that contains 'misrepresentation' about the CNMI. The 'draft' brochure had Fitial's photo in it.

'I was very glad when the governor announced that he would contact the responsible parties and stop publication of the Korean prospectus that promised U.S. visa status in return for a small investment. That publication had a welcoming letter from the governor and his picture, so it seemed like a direct endorsement by the Commonwealth,' Sablan said yesterday.

He said the Chinese prospectus he recently obtained does not have any message from the governor.

'The CNMI government must be aware of these scams and should put measures in place to block them because the first step in the scam is to obtain a CNMI investor visa, and that is something that the local government controls,' Sablan added.

Translated 'invitation'

Sablan presented a redacted copy of the translated invitation to investors used in the scam.

The invitation is in Mandarin and Sablan had it translated by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress.

The invitation asks for investors to plunk down $100,000 and another $20,000 in 'government tax' into a hotel project on Saipan.

In return, investors will achieve 'quick returns' and would be able to avoid 'the immigration trap.' It also said there is no risk of being unable to recover capital.

The CNMI does have investor visas that require a $100,000 investment. But Sablan said it is not clear who would be the recipient of the $20,000 'government tax.'

Sablan said he has provided a copy of the Chinese prospectus to the U.S. Attorney's Office for investigation. He said the U.S. attorney has already written to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding the ongoing investigation of the Korean investment proposal.

+++

Sablan Warns of CNMI Immigration Scam
By Kevin Kerrigan
The Pacific News Center (Guam), September 24, 2009
http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=411:sablan-warns-of-cnmi-immigration-scam&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=146

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5.
U.S. still appealing to Mexicans
Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), September 25, 2009
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090925/NEWS01/909250313/1006/news01/U.S.+still+appealing+to+Mexicans

Despite a sluggish U.S. economy that has seen its highest unemployment rates in 25 years, roughly one in three Mexicans would move here, according to a report released this week.

A poll by Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed the attitudes of adults living in Mexico.

Those findings, one researcher said, suggest that in comparison, the turmoil in Mexico means the U.S. is still an attractive alternative.

“That just highlights the problems they're facing in their country,” said Juliana Menasce Horowitz, a senior researcher with Pew Global Attitudes Project in Washington D.C.

“Even though things are not going as well here and there's not as many jobs, their concerns about their own country are such that the U.S. is still seen as the land of opportunity.”

Among the report's findings:

Nearly six in 10 Mexicans say those who move to the U.S. enjoy a better life.

A third would move to the U.S. if they had the means and opportunity, even without a visa.

Four in 10 Mexicans say they know someone who left for the U.S. but returned unable to find a job.

Four in 10 Mexicans have friends or relatives living in the U.S. and nearly one in five receive money from relatives in another country.

Nearly half, or 47 percent, know someone who was turned back by U.S. Border Patrol.

The overwhelming majority of Mexicans are dissatisfied with the direction of their country, describing crime, drugs, political corruption and the economy as very big problems. Roughly 83 percent of Mexicans support President Felipe Calderón's tactic of deploying the army to fight drug traffickers.

Local experts were not surprised by the poll's results.

“The economy in Mexico is not good, so what are they going back to?” said Juan Lujan, a Latin America expert and dean of off-campus programs for College of the Desert.

“As bad as it may be here, there still is some opportunity for work.”

The employment sectors hardest hit — construction and hospitality — typically attract unskilled, undocumented workers.

Unemployment in the Coachella Valley has reached a 25-year high, climbing to 15 percent or more in at least five valley cities.

With the going price to hire a coyote to smuggle someone across the border topping out at roughly $3,000, Lujan said he suspected that the majority of Mexican nationals here will simply hunker down until the economy recovers.

“For some it's a question of, ‘I'd like to go back,' but the dilemma of coming back across the border keeping them here,” Lujan said.

Roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Dual reports released in July by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Pew Hispanic Center found that the number of Mexicans migrating to the United States has dropped sharply since the country plunged into recession, but sour economic conditions have not appeared to spark an exodus back to Mexico.

In the past two years, the U.S. gained roughly 175,000 Mexican immigrants, about half the average, the reports found.

Created in 2001, through funding by The Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Global Attitudes Project has produced more than 20 reports using worldwide public opinion surveys.

Interviews were conducted between May 26 and June 2 with 1,000 Mexican adults.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Pew survey can be found online at: http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/266.pdf

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6.
Study: Houston court leads nation in immigration prosecutions
By Rosa Flores
The KHOU News (Houston), September 23, 2009
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou090923_tnt_immigration-prosecution.1abde5c1a.html

Houston -- According to information released by the University of Syracuse, the federal district court in Houston leads the country in the number of immigration prosecutions.

An Immigration Customs and Enforcement spokesperson says the bulk of that work comes from a tiny office in the Harris County Jail.

The office isn’t much bigger than a dorm room, but it’s having a huge impact on safety, the sheriff’s department says.

'Any time that we can get a criminal off the street; it doesn’t matter if it’s an illegal alien or a citizen we are making our streets safer for our public,' said Harris County Sheriff Lt. Michael Lindsay.

With the help of a sophisticated federal computer program, trained deputies fingerprint and determine an inmate’s immigration status. Inmates deemed to be 'undocumented' are eventually detained by ICE. The inmates with criminal violations face a judge in a downtown Houston federal court.

'We are not trying to deport everybody, just because they are from another country,' said Lindsay. 'We are just trying to stop the crime.'

The Syracuse study shows the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has prosecuted 22,953 immigration cases this year, more than any other federal district court in the country.

ICE agents within the Department of Homeland Security say that immigration prosecutions help them identify undocumented criminals who could otherwise come back into this country illegally and claim that they don’t have a criminal record.

'So, this is helping secure our nation,' said ICE Field Office Director Kenneth Landgrebe. 'And it’s helping our agency to reduce the reoccurring re-entries into the U.S.'

Harris County has identified 10,500 undocumented inmates in the past year – all thanks to the big job being done by one tiny office.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Transactional Records Clearinghouse data is available online at: http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/

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7.
Critics: Elite rangers not welcome at Texas border
By Christopher Sherman and Alicia A. Caldwell
The Associated Press, September 24, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_war_border_violence

McAllen, TX (AP) -- Rancher Mike Landry recently came upon a group of unarmed men dressed in camouflage burglarizing his guest house and stealing a truck from his 11,000 acres in Terrell County, rugged country bordering the Rio Grande in West Texas.

A couple of shots over their heads from his hunting rifle kept nine of them, all Mexican citizens, in place until Border Patrol agents arrived.

'It has really gotten to be pretty spooky,' said Landry, who has run cattle in the area for 29 years.

Stories like Landry's seem to bolster Gov. Rick Perry's recent decision to send elite teams from the state's top law enforcement agency, the Texas Rangers, to remote borderlands to help them with security and deter a spillover of the gruesome drug-war violence plaguing Mexico. But Landry's situation never grew violent, and many other ranchers, sheriffs and politicians along Texas' 1,200 mile border with Mexico found the governor's announcement puzzling.

'We have landowners all along the border who are finding their farms and ranches overrun by smuggling operations,' Perry said in an announcing how he would spend a fraction of the $110 million the Legislature approved this year for border security.

Since security was tightened at checkpoints in cities like El Paso and Laredo, immigrants and smugglers have been squeezed into places like Terrell County. The county sits between Big Bend National Park, which is too arid for safe passage, and Del Rio, another high-security spot.

Though traffic is up, people in those areas say they fall far short of being 'overrun.'

Perry's critics note that border crime has been falling in recent years — a point the governor concedes — and question whether sending some of the state's 144 crack investigators supported by Texas National Guard troops to areas that have seen nothing worse than burglaries is a wise use of resources.

Terrell County is 2,300 square miles of desolation just north of the Rio Grande. Sheriff Clint McDonald and his six deputies protect its 1,200 residents on an otherworldly landscape that includes 60 miles of border.

Smuggling traffic is up this year, illustrated by 20 burglaries of ranches and hunting camps compared with two at this time last year, McDonald said, though he noted there was no violent crime. Smugglers' 'mules' carry marijuana, cocaine and heroin 30 or 40 miles north of the river in backpacks and break into ranches and hunting camps on their way back to Mexico for food and weapons, he said.

'They're funneling towards us,' McDonald said.

The Texas Border Coalition, a group of politicians and business people, maintains that the talk of spillover violence is overblown. Border Patrol apprehensions have made double-digit drops this year in every sector along the Texas-Mexico border except the Marfa sector, which includes Terrell County. That area has a fraction of the border apprehensions, but those are up about 15 percent compared with last year. The coalition asked Perry for more coordination and objected to his implication of 'lawless hordes overrunning the border region.'

Lupe Trevino, the elected Democratic sheriff of urban Hidalgo County, said the Ranger Recon program was 'an obvious political ploy' as Perry wades into a bruising Republican primary for re-election against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

'We don't need the Texas Rangers to come to the border to quell any imaginary disturbance,' said Trevino, vice chairman of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Southwest Border Task Force.

Texas Rangers Assistant Chief L.C. Wilson, who is overseeing the Ranger Recon teams, said he planned to discuss the plan with some border sheriffs this week at an out-of-state conference.

But Wilson said Perry's announcement that the Ranger Recons would be used to 'address the increased burglaries of rural homes, ranches and hunting camps in remote areas along the Texas-Mexico border' wasn't the whole story.

'What we're really worried about' is the spillover of the drug cartel violence in northern Mexico, he said. 'That's what the governor doesn't want coming over here.'

Wilson declined to release any information regarding the placement or number of what he characterized as 'outdoor SWAT teams,' but said they were trained and equipped for 'nighttime domination.'

'We want (smugglers) to be fearful that anytime they come over they could be running into a team,' he said.

Despite thousands of killings south of the Rio Grande, spillover violence has been minimal. The vast majority of American deaths in the drug war have occurred in Mexico.

Presidio County farmer Terry Bishop said there have been no problems with break-ins, thefts or violent drug smugglers along his property or the nearby golf course and RV park his family owns.

'I'm sure if there was something going on down here, the Rangers could handle it,' said Bishop, who farms about 2,000 acres along the Rio Grande. 'But down here things are pretty quiet. I don't think there's too much for them to handle. It might just be that it's an election year.'

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8.
Irving police dispute law school's racial profiling study
By Brandon Formby
The Dallas Morning News, September 24, 2009
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-profiling_24met.ART.Central.Edition1.4bf3bd4.html

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd on Wednesday disputed a California law school's study that said there was strong evidence that Irving police racially profiled Hispanics to put them through an immigration deportation program.

Boyd said researchers at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity used faulty methods and discounted other police initiatives to reach their conclusions.

'We were not ever contacted by them in the production of this report, so I don't know what they did,' Boyd said. 'I can only look at what the actual data provides and look at the report they produced and see the discrepancies and the difference.'

Aarti Kohli, a co-author of the study, said researchers used sound methodology and even submitted their report to a peer review by a social scientist.

'We used sound methods with quality researchers who have done research in the past,' Kohli said.

Council hears findings

Boyd presented his findings to Irving City Council members during their Wednesday work session in response to the academic study released last week. He said the Police Department's data did not suggest police racially profiled Hispanics.

'It simply does not support it,' Boyd said.

The study also said Irving police probably referred lawful residents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of Irving's Criminal Alien Program, which checks the citizenship status of inmates.

The institute that performed the study is part of the law school at the University of California-Berkeley. It uses university and private funding to develop research aimed at informing advocacy groups, legislators and the public.

Boyd said that one major error was that researchers used surnames to determine ethnicity.

Kohli said researchers also relied on where arrestees said they were born and on racial data that was provided in some instances.

'It's a method social scientists use all the time,' she said.

Also, Boyd said, the institute made its own determination of which arrests were based solely on an officer witnessing a crime first-hand.

Boyd said nothing in the data that the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas provided to the institute would have allowed researchers to accurately make such a determination. Boyd said he did not run his own analysis of that claim, saying that doing so would require looking through thousands of narrative descriptions of the events that led up to each arrest.

'That kind of information would maybe be interesting to you for a variety of reasons or for someone else, but I really have no need for that information,' he said.

Numbers in dispute

Boyd said that the institute also was wrong to say that whites were arrested more than people of other races overall while Hispanics were more likely to be arrested for low-level crimes. He said that by his analysis, Hispanics were arrested more than other races overall.

And, Boyd said, the institute did not factor other reasons into why Hispanic arrests went up in the months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials started round-the-clock sweeps of the Irving jail.

He said the number of arrests of blacks, whites and Hispanics all rose in the summer of 2007 because of police initiatives to combat crime.

Boyd also said that the institute was wrong when it said that only 2 percent of referrals to ICE stemmed from felony arrests. Boyd said that number is actually 15 percent.

Irving City Council members panned the study and painted the report as the product of a left-wing institution that tried to fault police.

Kohli called such comments baseless. We didn't create the data,' she said. 'We are an academic institution, and our reputation rests on our ability to do unbiased research. Why would we risk that?'

Mayor Herbert Gears said he had little concern over the opinions laid out in the study and was more concerned about what council members thought of the department.

'I'm less worried about what some entity in California thinks,' Gears said. 'I'm sure there's someone in Alaska that doesn't like what we do, too.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: The report is available at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/policybrief_irving_FINAL.pdf

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9.
Redwood City police chief: No council pressure to end DUI operation
By Shaun Bishop
The Daily News (Redwood City CA), September 24, 2009
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13412766

Redwood City, CA -- The city's police chief said he did not feel pressured to shut down a DUI checkpoint in front of the Fair Oaks Community Center when City Councilwoman Barbara Pierce called him to relay concerns that some visitors to the center might feel uncomfortable.

'I see people blaming the council person' for the cancellation of the July 2 operation, Chief Lou Cobarruviaz said. 'I say no, blame me, because I'm responsible.'

The chief acknowledged he ordered the checkpoint to be moved or shut down after hearing that a large police presence might make illegal immigrants afraid to come to the community center at 2600 Middlefield Road for services.

The checkpoint cancellation has prompted criticism from some residents in recent weeks who contend it was triggered for politically correct reasons.

'I just feel the police department should have the option to give us the best safety measures that they can, and we need to support them and we need to leave the politics out of it,' resident Phil Palms told the City Council on Monday.

The cancellation also raised questions about how council members interact with department heads, though Pierce insists she did nothing wrong in contacting the chief. City Manager Peter Ingram is gathering information about the incident at the request of Mayor Rosanne Foust, but it's not clear when his review will be finished or whether the council will take any action.

Pierce called Cobarruviaz on July 2 after she was contacted by Sheryl Munoz-Bergman, the director of San Mateo County immigration programs for the International Institute of the Bay Area, which provides legal advice and other services for immigrants including those here illegally at the city-owned community center.

Munoz-Bergman told Pierce in an e-mail she was concerned that having a DUI checkpoint in the center's parking lot would jeopardize 'our relationship with the community,' because the center is considered 'a safe place for all Redwood City residents to get help and answer questions.' Pierce then e-mailed and called the chief to pass on Munoz-Bergman's comments.

'If they had been putting a DUI checkpoint at the senior center and an irate senior had called me for whatever reason, I would have passed on the information,' Pierce said Wednesday. 'It really is that simple for me.'

The chief said he told patrol Capt. Chris Cesena about Munoz-Bergman's concern that the checkpoint is 'impacting their relationship with (the community) because some of them that are undocumented are going to be fearful' of the police presence.

'We discussed that, and I said, 'I hate to hurt this other city department and the city services they're providing,'' Cobarruviaz recalled.

The chief gave Cesena a choice: Move the operation or end it. Cesena decided to reschedule it, a decision Cobarruviaz said he agreed with.

The checkpoint was set up around 5:45 p.m. and canceled by 8 p.m., about four hours earlier than it was scheduled to end, Sgt. Eric Stasiak said. Police cited 19 people for driving without licenses and two for driving on suspended licenses.

Cobarruviaz insists the department was not catering to undocumented immigrants in canceling the checkpoint, which originally was supposed to be a couple blocks up Middlefield near Costco but was relocated because of construction.

'I didn't do this for undocumented immigrants,' Cobarruviaz said. 'I did it because concerns were expressed by someone operating out of a city facility that was providing services and because I felt that it might impact the service.'

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10.
Orange County Sheriff not looking to enforce immigration law
By Victor Manuel Ramos
The Orlando Sentinel (FL), September 23, 2009
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_hispanicaffairs/2009/09/orange-county-sheriff-not-looking-to-enforce-immigration-law.html

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is not interested in pursuing illegal immigrants because of their status, Sheriff Jerry Demings told a crowd of 300 people -- most of them immigrants -- gathered Monday night for an 'immigration dialogue.'

They were part of an event organized by the Federation of Congregations United to Serve, a coalition of church groups in Orlando, at the St. John Vianney Catholic Church in the Oak Ridge neighborhood of southwest Orange.

'We are not in the business of enforcing federal immigration law,' Demings told the crowd. 'Our priority is on arresting violators of the law and keeping all of you safe.'

Demings' statement marks a different approach from neighboring Lake County, where Sheriff Gary S. Borders has sought to cooperate with immigration and border patrol officials, leading to complaints of ethnic profiling from the Hispanic population of the county.

At the national level, another local sheriff, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has built a reputation on being tough on illegal immigration, causing immigrant advocacy groups to decry what they see as civil rights violations.

At the Orange County forum, community members told Demings they had three top concerns: 1) Fear that deputies would target them for traffic stops because they look Hispanic; 2) Worry that if undocumented immigrants call the police for help they could be arrested; 3)Concern that the county would pursue a 287-g agreement with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to enforce immigration law.

Demings said that his department would detain and arrest immigrants 'who mean harm,' but stressed that he is not looking for his deputies to take on the duties of federal agents on top of their local crime fighting efforts. He asked local immigrants to cooperate, regardless of status, when they are witnesses to crimes or have tips for ongoing investigations.

'What I am simply saying is this: We live in the greatest nation in the world, a nation built on immigrants,' Demings said. 'We encourage you to report and trust that we will treat you the way that you want to be treated... We want to be your friend.'

Bishop Thomas Wenski, of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando, said that the ultimate goal for immigrant communities should remain a push for reform that would render those concerns moot.

'Until we have immigration reform,' Wenski said, 'there will be people falling through the cracks.'

Robin Arias, a 51-year-old undocumented immigrant from Peru who has two children, asked for better treatment for immigrants and their families.

'Our children want to succeed and they want to move ahead in life,' said Arias, his voice breaking up. 'We are humans like all of you.'

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11.
Officials: Impound measure expensive, hampers police
By Tillie Fong
The Rocky Mountain Independent (Denver), September 25, 2009
http://www.rockymountainindependent.com/2009/09/officials-impound-measure-expensive-hampers-police/

Denver safety officials warned that if a vehicle-impound measure on the November ballot passes, enforcement of the law could add to the city’s budget problems and result in police-response delays.

'There’s a domino effect,' said Sgt. Dan McCoy, Denver police liaison to the manager of public safety’s office.

McCoy joined City Attorney David Broadwell and Chief Gary Wilson and Capt. Craig Meyer of the Denver Sheriff’s Department in briefing the City Council’s Safety Committee this week on the impact of Initiative 300. The measure, which will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot, would augment Denver’s existing vehicle-impound law.

Last year, Denver voters passed Initiative 100, giving police officers the discretion to impound the vehicles of unlicensed drivers, including cars driven by illegal immigrants. To reclaim the vehicle, the owner must post a bond of $2,500 within 30 days or the car is auctioned off. The city holds the bond for one year, and it is forfeited if an unlicensed driver operates the vehicle in Colorado during that time.

Initiative 300 came about because its proponent, Daniel Hayes, a Jefferson County resident, thinks that Denver has not been willing to enforce Initiative 100.

'They towed cars that shouldn’t be towed,' he said Wednesday. 'They don’t care about the public safety.'

Hayes did not attend the Safety Committee meeting.

Budget considerations

Initiative 300 has many of the same provisions as Initiative 100 but also some key differences, according to Broadwell.

One major change is that the new proposal would make it mandatory that vehicles be impounded if the driver does not have a valid license. Broadwell said that the proponents of Initiative 100 tried to incorporate the same mandate in that measure but that it was worded poorly and the zero-tolerance policy wasn’t clear.

The wording in Initiative 300 states that impounding ' ’shall’ occur, not that it’s authorized,' Broadwell said.

'If that discretion is taken away, it will have a huge impact on personnel,' McCoy said, noting that five new officers would be needed to handle the increased workload.

Police estimate that if Initiative 300 passes, tows would jump from 15,723 this year to 33,892 next year, an increase of 115 percent.

Denver contracts with Extreme Towing to tow vehicles to the impound lot at a rate of $69.59 per tow. With the estimated jump in tows from Initiative 300, McCoy said that the city would have to pay an extra $1.2 million per year for the service.

Hayes disagreed with the analysis of Initiative 300’s fiscal impact.

'That’s pure speculation on the part of the City Council and police,' he said.

Hayes said that if Denver needs money to implement the measure, it should ask the public for it and likely would get it.

'I believe it would save money,' he said. 'It would cost extra to get it going, but it will save money in the long run.'

McCoy also said that the proposal would impact police response time, as it takes about an hour on average for an officer to go through the impound process.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, however, said that in discussion with the purchasing department, she learned that the city could place conditions on the towing service to address the time issue, such as establishing multiple tow areas around the city to respond faster to calls.

A crunch in the impound lot

The Denver Sheriff’s Department also has concerns about an increase in impounded vehicles. Its impound facility sits on about 20 acres of land and is divided into two storage lots, with space for a maximum of 2,200 cars. The lot size can’t expand since the property sits on the border with Adams County.

'We are really landlocked,' Wilson said.

In 2008, the daily average of vehicles in the lot was 1,713; this year is expected to have a daily average of 2,073. However, Wilson noted that between May and August, the lot averaged 2,167 vehicles a day.

'Our true operational capacity is 2,062 vehicles, but we push those numbers up a little bit (because) there’s a section that we use for overflow space,' he said.

When the impound lot reaches its maximum capacity, an 'emergency tow status' goes into effect until the number drops below 2,200. Under these conditions, the only vehicles accepted into the lot are related to crimes such as homicide, fatal accidents, hit and run, felony-related vehicles that need to be secured, and vehicles retained for evidence.

From January through August this year, the lot experienced a record 64 days in which it exceeded capacity and went into emergency tow status.

Wilson said that the status is removed after impounded vehicles are auctioned off — about every two weeks — but then, after a few days, the lot refills and the restrictions return.

'We see the numbers climb very quickly,' he said.

If Initiative 300 passes, the sheriff’s department may have to restrict further what cars can be accepted at under emergency tow status or consider plans to expand the impound lot.

Faatz wondered whether Denver can lease space elsewhere.

'Is there a requirement that it be in the city and county of Denver boundaries?' she asked.

Wilson said that if the city decides to expand the impound lot, he would prefer that it be nearby since it would not be cost-effective to manage two separate lots.

'You can definitely expect that we would need more resources to pull that off,' he said. 'We will be impacted by staff and equipment needs.'

Immigration status

Broadwell said that Initiative 300 presents additional challenges by tying impounding vehicles to the driver’s immigration status. He said that the city has asked the measure’s proponents to make the language cleaner and to make a distinction on whether the plan targets unlicensed drivers or illegal immigrants, but that those clarifications have not been made.

'It’s not just about driving without a valid license, but about being in this country illegally,' Broadwell said. 'Officers are supposed to make an immigration determination as well.'

Hayes did say that one of the measure’s purposes is to target illegal immigrants, wherever they come from, whether Poland or Mexico.

'Race is not the proper word,' he said. 'You’re dealing with their immigration status, not race.'

He cited as an example the case of an illegal immigrant who is accused of killing two women and a toddler in Aurora last September when the SUV he was driving hit another vehicle and then crashed into an ice cream shop.

'The only way to get illegal aliens off the road is to take their cars,' Hayes said. 'If you write a ticket to an illegal alien, you might as well give a ticket to a baby. They’re not responsible citizens. They’re freeloaders, and most people want them out of here.'

Broadwell said that another provision in Initiative 300 addresses illegal immigration through bonding rules. In the current law, lienholders are exempt from paying the $2,500 bond to get the vehicle back if they attest in writing that they will not return the vehicle to the person who owned it at the time it was impounded.

Under the new measure, the exemption would apply to the lienholder only if the lien is at least $1,000 and if, after release from impound, the vehicle is not sold to a person without a valid driver’s license or to an illegal immigrant.

Committee Chairman Doug Linkhart expressed surprise at the provision.

'How would the lienholder track down the person they sold the vehicle to and determine their immigration status?' he asked. 'Does every car seller have to determine the immigration status of every purchaser?'

Faatz asked whether car dealers are required to sell vehicles only to people with valid driver’s licenses and, if so, said that the dealers can easily make a copy of the driver’s license for their records.

Broadwell said that the provision in Initiative 300 may require dealer to perform two separate checks: one for a valid driver’s license and one to determine the purchaser’s immigration status.

'It’s another complexity of the law,' Broadwell said. 'It doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how to implement it.'

Lopez expressed concerns that if Initiative 300 passes, it could face legal challenges over constitutional issues such as federal pre-emption, meaning that a city can’t take over the functions of the federal government, including dealing with immigration.

'What I have seen and what I’m worried about is any kind of lawsuit that could come out, especially at this time when we’re struggling with the budget,' he said. 'I don’t know if we can prevent that.'

Hayes said that he doesn’t believe the measure is overreaching in its authority in having the city deal with illegal immigration.

'The federal government is already asleep at the wheel,' he said. 'If it’s legal, it’s legal. If it’s not, it’s not. Let them challenge it.'

Taking it to the voters

Councilman Rick Garcia said he is concerned that because the Nov. 3 election is a mail-in ballot, no Blue Book will be sent to voters giving the pro and con arguments on Initiative 300.

'There is no planned information from an independent source,' he said, adding that the City Council should issue a proclamation of its position on the measure before the election.

'I would recommend a ‘no’ vote,' he said.

LInkhart said that the committee members will not take a position, but he does expect a proclamation to be issued, as well as a debate among the full council.

Faatz noted that Initiative 300 would be the first since Denver voters approved a measure taking the City Council out of the process of approving ballot measures.

'We have no official role in this,' she said. 'We didn’t propose it, we don’t put it on the ballot. The people took us out of the process.'

Councilwoman Judy Montero disagreed with Faatz, saying that the City Council should weigh in on the measure.

'We’re looking at a $120 million deficit and not taking money out of the general fund,' she said. 'Taxpayers need to know they will be responsible for these additional costs.'

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12.
Age-old immigrant marriage customs face new scrutiny
A variety of Fargo-area agencies have contended for years with a custom among some local immigrants to marry daughters and sons very young. The practice springs from the culture of Roma immigrants from Bosnia and other Balkan countries.
By Mila Koumpilova
The Grand Forks Herald (ND), September 23, 2009
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/134557/

The case is unusual: A Fargo father accused of trying to kidnap a 14-year-old Kentucky bride-to-be for his teenage son.

But a variety of area agencies have contended for years with a custom among some local immigrants to marry daughters and sons very young. The practice springs from the culture of Roma immigrants from Bosnia and other Balkan countries.

Efforts by Fargo police and other groups to stress the legal repercussions of keeping that custom alive in America have had mixed results: Some families are holding off until their children are 16, when the couple can wed legally with their parents’ consent. Others are keeping traditional ceremonies under wraps. And, in rare cases, girls are rebelling against the custom.

Many Roma do not agree with the practice of early arranged marriages. In any case, snatching a girl without her parents’ consent — as was allegedly the case in the Kentucky incident — is uncommon.

'The parents often get together and come to an agreement,' said Cristie Jacobsen, a cultural liaison officer with Fargo police. 'It rarely escalates to this point where they would take the girl without the parents’ knowledge.'

The man arrested Tuesday by Bowling Green, Ky., police asked for a Bosnian translator during a previous run-in with Fargo police. It’s not clear if he’s Roma.

The issue is a sore spot for area Bosnians who aren’t Roma, who say they do not condone the custom and feel that it’s unfairly giving all area Bosnians a bad name.

Jacobsen said Roma families might arrange marriages for girls as young as 14 or 15 and boys just a few years older. Often, there’s a dowry involved, sometimes in the thousands of dollars.

Hatidza Asovic, a coordinator at the Metro Interpreter Resource Center, said these marriages are rooted in customs dating back centuries.

Asovic explained that at the heart of the custom is a powerful stigma attached to a girl who has sex outside of marriage and a sense that early marriage protects girls against a life of promiscuity and ruin.

'They don’t want to have a little Britney Spears running loose,' she said. 'At least these Roma teens have parental supervision.'

Fargo police and the Interpreter Resource Center both try to impress upon parents that they can run afoul of the law. They also tell girls they can choose their spouse in this country and urge them to stay in school.

In 2004, the Cass County state’s attorney charged two sets of parents with encouraging the deprivation of a minor because of sexual relations between their married children, ages 15 and 20. That case and education efforts have made an impression. Some families have become more patient, others simply more discreet.

'Now they fully understand it’s illegal; they’re more savvy about being quiet about it,' Jacobsen said. 'So in some ways, you could say our education is having an effect, just not necessarily the effect we hope.'

Immigrant advocates are especially concerned about the custom because young brides tend to drop out of school. A few years ago, the Fargo Public School District tracked graduations by ethnicity. Virtually no Roma Bosnian girls graduated, Assistant Super-intendent Lowell Wolff said.

'They were marrying much younger and dropping out,' he said.

But both Asovic and Jacobsen said they haven’t heard of cases where girls are taken against parents’ will. Generally, Asovic said, friends and neighbors will check with the girl’s family to make sure they’re open to a union. Only then will the father of the boy approach them.

'It’s a big humiliation if the groom is denied,' she said. 'But in most cases, that doesn’t happen here.'

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.

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13.
Fairness focus of immigration debate
By Aaron Falk
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City), September 24, 2009
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705332355/Fairness-focus-of-immigration-debate.html

For Chris Herrod and Chris Burbank, the immigration debate is about fairness.

But their interpretations of what is fair differed as the two men headlined a debate over SB81 and the future of immigration in Utah and the United States at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law Thursday afternoon.

Burbank, chief of the Salt Lake Police Department, said he wants fairness for city residents of all races — something he said could not happen if his officers were cross-deputized as immigration agents under SB81.

'Do we have a problem? No question about it,' Burbank said, noting undocumented immigrants perpetrated a large part of drug crimes in the Pioneer Park area. But SB81 promotes racial profiling, he said. 'There's no other way.'

Herrod, a state representative from Provo, sees it differently.

Having navigated the lengthy process to bring his wife from the Ukraine to the United States, Herrod says fairness in immigration is a respect for the rule of law.

And while he doesn't fault Burbank's department for opting to not cross-deputize, Herrod said the chief has used his position and misinformation about the amount of crime perpetrated by undocumented immigrants to influence the public.

But as the two men squared off, Mark Alvarez, one of two immigration attorneys who participated in the event, said SB81 itself has 'impeded on this debate.'

'We have people pointing fingers of blame and other people using the finger,' he said, adding local media are 'concentrating much more on the radical voices than the rational conversation.'

SB81, which went into effect in July, merely codified federal law into state law, said Alvarez, the administrator of minority affairs under Mayor Rocky Anderson.

The option to cross-deputize officers has existed since 1997, he said.

Alvarez and attorney Roger Tsai, of Parsons, Behle and Latimer, said SB81 is not on the list of solutions to the country's immigration problems.

In some cases, the waiting period for citizenship can top 20 years, Alvarez said.

Whether it's an engineer from Africa or a bride from Canada, 'the process should be easier, but it's not,' Tsai said.

Tsai said he worried proposed solutions like eVerify may promote 'further illegality.'

'These individuals who really want to work will probably begin stealing real identities,' he said. 'They'll have a driver's license with their face but someone else's name, Social Security and birth date in order to work.'

Alvarez said improved relationships with Mexico and an effort to improve the Mexican economy would also help mitigate immigration problems.

But, ultimately, the biggest question remains: What to do with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States?

Alvarez said he would support some type of amnesty, a notion Herrod dismissed.

The amnesty President Ronald Reagan granted in the 1980s taught people 'all they need to do is hide long enough and there will be another amnesty,' Herrod said, noting his definition of amnesty would be 'if someone is willing to go home, they can get in line like everyone else. They're not going to be penalized.'

Whatever action the federal government takes, Alvarez said, not everyone will be happy.

'Immigration reform is not going to be fair,' he said.

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14.
Does 'not my job' mentality play a role in immigration enforcement?
By Alex Sanz
The KHOU News (Houston), September 24, 2009
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou090924_mp_immigration-enforcement-la-marque.1b18998a4.html

Houston -- The death of a woman in La Marque has raised questions over the role local police departments play in immigration enforcement.

Police say Faith Worthey Guillory was shot to death last week by Moises Perez Alvarez.

Alvarez, who was convicted in 1993 of the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl, had been deported twice.

'It seems hopeless to have been able to save [her],' said Dana Landry, Guillory’s sister.

Landry said warnings about Alvarez’s threats – and immigration status – may have been ignored by several police departments in Galveston County.

'The police officer showed up and I said, 'Let me ask you a question. Is it true that you won't arrest illegal aliens because you don't get reimbursed?' And he said, 'Yep, that's our policy,'' Landry said.

Immigration consultant and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Luisa Deason said that’s the answer the public sometimes gets.

'There's no excuse for that,' she said. 'But the reality of the issue is it comes down to funding and it comes down to how many officers are on the ground.'

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say the resources are there. Instead, the issue may be limited coordination and communication among local agencies.

That, and what some call an 'it's not our job' mentality.

'If you get that kind of mentality in a police department, with the situation as it is, it is unbearable to think that not one person wants to step up and kind of break that mold and say, 'Okay, enough is enough,'' she said.

Crime Stoppers of La Marque has issued a reward for information leading to Alvarez’s capture.

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15.
Roger Williams University Law School opens legal clinic for immigrants
By Karen Lee Ziner
The Providence Journal, September 24, 2009
http://www.projo.com/news/content/ROGER_WILLIAMS_IMMIGRATION_09-24-09_53FQRQI_v19.32a7a8e.html

Providence -- Roger Williams University School of Law on Wednesday celebrated the launch of a new Immigration Law Clinic that aims to provide legal aid to immigrants who would otherwise have none, and train a new generation of immigration lawyers.

Prof. Mary Holper, the clinic’s director, is supervising an inaugural class of 10 students who started last month.

Dean David A. Logan said the need for such a clinic 'has never been greater' in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, because of their fast-growing immigrant populations. He called the clinic 'one of the very special ways we can make a difference.'

Logan, and others who spoke at the RWU downtown campus yesterday, said those who are most in need of complex legal representation are frequently the least able to afford it. Their needs span the gamut: from basic education on how the immigration system works; to legal aid and/or representation in naturalizations; reunifications with relatives; asylum cases and criminal proceedings.

That includes citizens, legal permanent residents, those with quasi-legal status, and undocumented immigrants alike.

For example, 'You’d have to be living under a rock' in the past few years not to have known about the dozens — the hundreds of people swept up in [immigration] raids in New Bedford and Rhode Island,' who had a relatively small pool of lawyers to draw from and few financial resources, Logan said.

Carl Krueger, immigration lawyer for the International Institute of Rhode Island — the state’s largest immigration agency — said there is 'a crying need for accurate, competent immigration representation, for a very vulnerable' and often needy population, whether documented or undocumented. 'For them, navigating this very complicated system' which at times affords few protections, 'is very, very daunting.'

Holper, who ran a similar program at Boston College Law School before she joined the RWU faculty this summer, said deportation cases will be a focus. The students will also handle asylum cases for immigrants 'fleeing harm, persecution and torture' in their home countries, and relief under the violence against women act. And, they will give 'know your rights' presentations.

Holper said the students 'can already tell you that immigration law is hard. It’s the equivalent of the tax code,' in complexity. But she said she also wants the students to 'see the face of the person who needs you,' and be prepared

Rishmil Patel, one of the 10 in the inaugural class, said his visits to federal immigration detainees at the Bristol County House of Corrections have been 'an eye-opener.' Patel said he’s working on the deportation case of the son of naturalized U.S. citizens, who is uncertain of his own legal status in this country.

Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell and Associate Supreme Court Justice William P. Robinson III were among those attending the clinic dedication at the Providence campus.

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16.
Lawyers: E-Verify increasingly unavoidable
By Julia Reischel and Jack Zemlicka
The Wisconsin Law Journal, September 23, 2009
http://wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2009/09/28/Lawyers-EVerify-increasingly-unavoidable

Participation in a national citizenship-verification database became mandatory for federal contractors on Sept. 8, and lawyers warn that it is only a matter of time before other companies around the county will have to follow suit.

In some cases, firms are already seeing private sector clients voluntarily go through the free online process of checking the immigration status of newly hired employees.

Milwaukee immigration attorney Doris E. Brosnan said businesses which tend to have high volume labor needs are looking to be proactive in making sure their workers are legal.

'Companies want to nip these problems in the bud and not deal with them down the line when they find someone has a fake identity,' she said.

The most tangible benefit of using E-Verify is the protection it offers against penalties if a business employs an undocumented worker.

'If an employer relies in good faith on the E-Verify system, there is a rebuttable presumption that an employer did not knowingly hire unauthorized workers,' said Bradley M. Maged, who runs an immigration law firm in Burlington, Mass.

Immigration attorney Gene T. Schaeffer, Jr. of Godfrey & Kahn SC in Madison noted that the system is also attractive to employers because it offers timely feedback as to whether someone is authorized to work.

In an era of raids on workplaces, such protection offers employers peace of mind.

'If for some reason a company is embroiled with government work issues, E-Verify provides evidence that the business is trying to comply and do things by the book,' Schaeffer said.

Not all smooth sailing

There are drawbacks to E-Verify. The program works by checking the validity of an employee’s Social Security number, a method that has been criticized as unreliable.

Brosnan said that some immigration lawyers have also heard concerns from clients that their participation in E-Verify will subject them to increased scrutiny and make them targets for the federal government in the future.

'It’s a potential downside that I’ve heard discussed,' she said.

Michael C. Runde, of Hochstatter, McCarthy, Rivas & Runde SC in Milwaukee noted that just because a company uses E-Verify, it does not gain immunity from being investigated by the government.

'It’s not a guarantee the business won’t be raided,' he said.

E-Verify had some problems early on. But Boston immigration attorney Jeffrey W. Goldman said that the system seems to have improved.

'They have worked out a lot of the bugs,' he said. 'Our clients who are using it say it’s worked out very well.'

If an employee is wrongly identified as having illegal work status, he added, the employer likely will not be penalized.

'I don’t think that’s setting up an employer for liability,' Goldman said. 'Most of the false positives work themselves out.'

To determine whether it is prudent to participate in E-Verify, Runde said companies must perform a cost-benefit analysis.

'There are time and labor costs in having employees assigned to do the E-Verify function for a company,' he said. 'It’s something that varies from employer to employer.'

Schaeffer said that as the system improves and becomes more reliable the benefits may become more tangible.

'But I also think there is always going to be an element of concern on the employer’s part in terms of giving information to the government and if that, in essence, puts them under a microscope,' he said.

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17.
Support sought for immigration bill
By Perla Trevizo
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN), September 25, 2009
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/25/support-sought-for-immigration-bill/

Each year, about 65,000 teenagers who are in the country illegally graduate from high school facing an uncertain future.

This week organizations nationwide, including in Dalton, Ga., are hosting events in support of the DREAM Act -- Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors -- a bill that would help some teens get legal status.

'We have many youth contacting us, saying they aren't able to continue their education,' said America Gruner, founder of the Coalition of Latino Leaders in Dalton. 'And we want to be able to identify them and give them a message of hope.'

Today, the coalition will show short videos, collect signatures for a petition in support of the DREAM Act bill and read letters from students here and nationwide who would benefit from the bill.

Since Wednesday, more than 100 events in 26 states from California to New York have supported the legislation, which was reintroduced in Congress this year.

'We are seeking to highlight the problem of undocumented students and promote the DREAM Act as a policy solution for (Congress),' said Matias, a board member of United We Dream, a youth-led coalition pushing for passage of the bill.

Matias, 23, asked to be identified only by his first name because he is in the U.S. illegally. He came from Argentina when he was 13. Since then, he has learned English, finished high school and graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles, he said.

'(These events give) people an opportunity to see the immigration debate through the eyes of a student who is caught in the middle of it,' he said. 'When people usually think of immigrants, they don't think of families with hope. There's been a long campaign to paint immigrants as a hindrance to society rather than a vital part of it.'

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18.
Muslim 'apostates' in U.S. ask for protection
By Julia Duin
The Washington Times, September 25, 2009
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/25/muslim-apostates-in-us-ask-for-protection/

Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of 'apostates from Islam' are in peril.

Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, the Granada Hills, Calif., group cited the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old from Ohio who converted to Christianity four years ago. She fled to Florida this past summer in fears that her parents would murder her for 'honor' reasons. Her father, the girl said in a court filing, had already threatened to kill her.

Fathima first stayed with a pastor and his wife, then ended up in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. Currently, she is living with a foster family. Investigators in Florida and Ohio, where her parents live, have said they can't find evidence to support her allegations. The girl's fate will be determined at a court hearing in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 27.

Former Muslims United cited no U.S. deaths and could not come up with exact numbers of how many former Muslims reside in the United States or how many have been threatened.

Syrian-born Wafa Sultan, one of the five founders of the group, has received death threats, the group said, going on to predict that cases will increase and worsen as a generation of U.S.-native Muslims, born mostly to immigrant parents, reach adulthood.

'We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling,' said Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group. 'I know families in Los Angeles whose kids are not attending mosque and their parents are threatening them.

'How could no one believe this girl? The parents are under a lot of pressure from the Muslim community to do something about this kid,' she said, adding that 'the tyranny of political correctness' is making Western nations 'too appeasing toward the people who want to kill us.'

Islamic law mandates death for adult male apostates. Female apostates are imprisoned for life or sometimes killed. If one member of a married couple leaves Islam, the marriage is declared void and the apostate loses custody of any children.

There have been some well-known cases of threats to overseas apostates, specifically that of Abdul Rahman, 41, an Afghan convert to Christianity who was imprisoned on apostasy charges in 2006 and was to be put to death. After an international outcry, he was allowed to leave Afghanistan and was granted asylum by the Italian government.

Other founders of the group spoke Thursday of the skepticism they have encountered.

'There is a tendency to downplay the dangers of Shariah law and the creeping Islamization of the West,' said the Pakistani-born author Ibn Warraq, author of the 2003 book 'Leaving Islam.'

'The left tends to be very critical of Christianity but not of Islam,' he added. 'Islam gets away with it.'

The Council on American-Islamic Relations did not return a call for comment Thursday.

On Wednesday, Former Muslims United delivered letters to Gerald Reynolds, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

The letters asked both agencies to outline their plans to 'protect and support former Muslims who, because of authoritative Shariah doctrine, are the targets of discrimination, intimidation, assault and the threat of execution.' They also asked for statistics and research on 'civil rights abuses against former Muslims.'

A spokeswoman said the commission is reviewing the letter.

Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar said that 'a top priority of this department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens.'

Mrs. Darwish said she had reported personal threats to the FBI but that nothing was done.

'We in America are scared for our lives,' she said. 'No other religion on earth demands the death of those who leave it - except the mafia. And at least you choose to enter the mafia. But you are born into Islam.'

The Former Muslims United announcement came on the eve of a large prayer gathering of Muslims that will take place at 1 p.m. Friday at the west front of the Capitol.

Others have responded to the prayer gathering, including TheCall, a Christian group based in Kansas City, Mo., which put out 'an urgent call to Christian prayer' conference call late Thursday night. Participants were to include Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and National Day of Prayer Chairwoman Shirley Dobson.

'There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Muslim influence,' said Lou Engle, president of TheCall and the organizer of an Aug. 16, 2008, Christian rally that brought 50,000 youths to pray on the Mall in Washington.

'Our president has recently honored the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting,' he wrote in a press release. 'We advocate for understanding of this religion, but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.'

Canon Julian Dobbs, leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America's 'Church and Islam Project,' said Thursday that the Muslim prayer initiative is 'part of a well-defined strategy to Islamize American society and replace the Bible with the Koran, the cross with the Islamic crescent, and the church bells with the athan [Muslim call to prayer].'

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19.
No place like home: Brazilian immigrants leave US for better job prospects
By Taylor Barnes
The Christian Science Monitor, September 24, 2009
http://features.csmonitor.com/economyrebuild/2009/09/24/no-place-like-home-brazilian-immigrants-leave-us-for-better-job-prospects/

When Leonardo Nakao’s flight from Brazil landed in Bos­ton at 1:30 a.m., he didn’t have to search long for a job. By 5 a.m., he was pumping gas at a suburban service station. It was July 4, 2000, and Brazilian immigrants were enjoying a star-spangled boom.

More offers poured in. In his first week in the United States, Mr. Nakao got seven calls about jobs to fill the two days he wasn’t working. He was soon earning $1,000 a week. Then, two years ago, the global recession hit. Work got more strenuous, and the value of the dollar had fallen relative to Brazil’s real, slashing the value of the $400 a month he sent to his family in Brazil.

'It’s difficult, with the dollar low. The employment is not easy. The rent is high. The gasoline is high,' Nakao said on a rare break from his 80-hour/$1,200-a-week landscaping job. 'If the opportunities were better and the immigration laws more favorable, I’d think about staying.'

Instead, he was counting the days – just eight more at the time of this interview – until he followed the 20 members of his family who had already left the US in the last two years to go back home.

It’s a calculation that many of America’s newest residents are making. For some, the US remains the best place to make a living, despite its economic woes and tougher stance on immigration. For others, the lure of home has grown, especially when home has escaped the depths of the global recession. No one knows how many Indians, Chinese, or Brazilians have left in the past two years. The US gave up trying to track emigration in the late 1950s. But estimates and anecdotal evidence suggest that for Brazilians, at least, more are leaving than ever before.

The outflow is leaving its mark on places like downtown Framingham, Mass. The Boston suburb, founded in the 1600s by English settlers, began to acquire its Latin flair in the late 1990s when placards in Portuguese and the green, yellow, and blue of the Brazilian flag began popping up in once-vacant downtown storefronts. By mid-2005, one-quarter of Framingham’s residents was foreign-born, the vast majority of them Brazilian. An estimated 70 percent of the stores downtown are Brazilian-owned.

In the past two years, however, the number of Brazilians living here has dwindled. Local estimates vary widely – up to 40 percent have left, according to the owner of one prominent local flower shop.

'There’s [fewer] immigrants out on the streets,' says Gilberto Yoshida, president of Chang Express, which has been selling plane tickets to South America for 16 years. His company saw a 'tremendous spike' in one-way tickets to Brazil sold last winter, which is when seasonal construction and outdoor work tend to dry up. What is clear is that almost no new immigrants are coming in.

'Zero. Zero. Zero. No one is coming from Brazil,' says Manuel Barilio, as he counts the handwritten entries in his spiral notebook where immigrants register to say they’re looking for work. Mr. Barilio, director of the Bom Samaritano social services center in Framingham, says he now gets at most a handful of entries each day.

The change is evident statewide. Massachusetts, once a top destination for Brazilian immigrants, along with Florida, New Jersey, and New York, used to receive about 50,000 a year during the boom years, says Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston, Mass. In the past two years, about 17,000 of the state’s approximately 200,000 Brazilians have gone back home, he estimates.

He expects up to 7,000 to decamp this year – and more in 2010 unless the US passes immigration reform that allows illegal immigrants to work in the US.

'The economy and immigration crackdown – that’s what pushed the Brazilians back,' Mr. da Rocha says. During the first half of the decade, Brazilians were the second-fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants to the US (behind Indians), according to Alan Marcus, a professor of geography at Towson University in Maryland.

This isn’t the first time reverse migration has picked up during a time of economic change. In the 1990s, Irish immigrants returned home to participate in that country’s economic boom. A surge of Mexican immigrants left the US in the 1930s, and the number of Italians leaving then was far greater than those coming in, says Donna Gabbacia, who teaches immigration history at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. After peaking at 14 million in 1930, the number of foreign-born in the US dropped every decade through 1970 – initially because of the economy but also because of stringent immigration quotas, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a nonpartisan research organization in Washington.

'I think it’s perfectly possible [the foreign-born population] could shrink' again, Professor Gabbacia says, depending on the economy and changes to US immigration and refugee policies. It’s wrong to think 'that once you get here, you stay here.'

The drop in immigrants has hurt some of Framingham’s businesses. In the first half of the decade, South Exchange in downtown Framingham handled an average of 10 money transfers a day. That’s dropped to fewer than four now. So in May, manager Renato Alves diversified into selling airline tickets.

'Tickets are more business to deal with because people are leaving,' he says. He says he’s already gotten some 200 calls about flights and sells three one-way tickets for every round trip one sold.

Down the street, an employee of Made in Brazil Express also says most of her company’s ticket sales have been one-way trips to Brazil.

'If [Brazilians] leave, if they’re passing through a difficult time, we also are going to be,' says Nubia Gaseta, president of a local business association. Her own company, which provides flowers for events and gifts, saw sales fall 30 percent two years ago and another 50 percent in the past year.

Brazilians don’t necessarily represent the vanguard of a larger migrant outflow. Other Latinos have not begun pulling up stakes by and large, points out Aaron Terrazas, an MPI policy analyst. One reason: Most of their home countries can’t match Brazil’s robust growth, which is drawing migrants back. (A typical estimate is that an immigrant can earn in one week in the US what he could earn in four in Brazil, says Maxine Margolis, a retired anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. It would take some 10 weeks in Mexico.)

Comparisons with reverse migration during the De­pres­sion are overblown, says Mr. Terrazas. The key now is mobility. 'We’re in this age where there’s so much movement,' he says. 'It’s easier and cheaper.'

Nakao is proof of that. He didn’t know what he would do when he got back to Brazil. He might join his brothers, who had already returned and work as mechanics in Brasília. He might farm in the north.

Will he come to the US again? 'I want to go back to stay,' he says. 'But I don’t know how things will be.'

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20.
Haitian Abuse Victims Seeking Help
By Georgia East
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), September 25, 2009
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/sfl-haitian-violence-b092309,0,566993.story

Fort Lauderdale, FL -- Her brother urged Guerline Damas, a Haitian immigrant, to leave her husband because the brother saw the husband choke her while she held her infant.

Last week Damas and her five children, ages 9, 6, 5, 3 and 11 months, were found dead in their apartment in Naples. The day before the bodies were discovered, her husband, Mesac Damas, took a flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince. He was extradited back to Naples and, on Wednesday, ordered held without bail, The Associated Press reported.

While domestic violence crosses all racial, ethnic and economic boundaries, the problem is a growing concern to agencies that serve South Florida's Haitian community, and they fight to raise awareness of an issue many still consider taboo. In March, Women In Distress formed a Haitian Creole support group in Fort Lauderdale. It quickly filled up.

The group helps women find a safe place to live and other resources; connects them with legal aid and court services; and, by sharing their experiences, shows them they are not alone. They learn the warning signs of an abusive relationship, through pamphlets with messages like 'Ki sa ki rélé abi' ('What does abuse look like').

It's a message Monise Charleus wishes she had learned sooner.

Married for seven years to an abusive spouse, Charleus would lie awake at night, fearing her husband would burn down their house while she slept.

Charleus, 44, who moved to South Florida from her native Haiti about 20 years ago, wanted to reach out for help, but didn't know where to find it.

Then one morning last October, while waiting for a school bus in North Lauderdale with her 11-year-old daughter, her estranged husband plowed into her Jeep with his pickup truck, got out and stabbed her 19 times.

'I got weak and I got cold,' she said, her voice quivering. 'All of a sudden I felt like there was a warm blanket on me. It was my daughter, who laid over me.'

Charged with attempted murder, her husband awaits trial.

Charleus broke her silence in March by telling her story to the support group.

'Sometimes Haitian women don't know where to go,' said advocate Shantal Dumond, who facilitates the group at Women In Distress and pounds the pavement spreading information in the Haitian community. 'In some cases the men are the sole breadwinners and the women are intimidated.'

Immigration status can complicate the issue. A woman who is here illegally may be silenced by an abuser's threat to alert authorities if she tries to get help.

Dumond and other advocates stress to clients that their legal protection does not depend on their status. Under the Violence Against Women Act, they can apply for asylum.

In South Florida, with an estimated 300,000 Haitians, no one knows how many domestic violence victims are Haitian.

But the number of Haitian women seeking services at Women in Distress is inching up, said Brenda Levine, the agency's outreach coordinator. Between 2007 and 2008, the number of Haitian clients rose from 116 to 137.

Advocates say more needs to be done to educate police officers about the cultural nuances involved when they respond to domestic violence calls in the Haitian community.

At the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, community relations specialist Junia Robinson said officers take a 40-hour diversity course to sensitize them, and the department has 10 Creole-speaking officers who can help with translation. Courts in Broward and Palm Beach counties have translators to assist victims with filing requests for restraining orders.

Charleus believes she survived to help others. Her four children inspire her, and her goal is to become an emergency medical technician. She still attends support group meetings.

'God makes a way when there seems to be no way,' she said. 'Before this I didn't know there was this kind of support available.'

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21.
Mexican Nonprofit, Pennsylvania Accountants Work to Help Deported Mexicans File Refunds
By Nacha Cattan
BNA Daily Tax Report, September 2, 2009
http://www.bna.com/products/corplaw/dtr.htm

Mexico City -- A partnership between a Pennsylvania accounting firm and a Mexican human rights group aims to seek out Mexicans recently deported from the United States and offer to help them file for thousands of dollars in tax refunds.

The Center for Border Studies and Human Rights Promotion, based in the border city of Reynosa, already has registered 15 such migrants as of Sept. 11, just days after the program's Sept. 3 launch, the center's legal coordinator, Felipe Gonzalez, told BNA.

Undocumented Mexican migrants may have worked illegally in the United States, but they are still entitled to their share of U.S. tax refunds, say officials with the center and with Warminster, Pa.-based accounting firm Warminster Financial.

'If you worked in the United States in 2006, 2007, or 2008, and were paid by check, you can receive up to $15,000 per year,' stated a flier circulated by Warminster. 'Depending on how much you've earned, and how many dependents you can claim, you have the right to request a tax refund. It doesn't matter if you are undocumented, were deported, or returned [to Mexico] because you're out of a job.'

Clients who are eligible must file for an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), which is granted by the Internal Revenue Service regardless of the workers’ migratory status or whether they produced false Social Security numbers or green cards, Gonzalez said. Elizabeth Vargas, an IRS acceptance agent in Mexico, confirmed in an interview with BNA that the process is legal.

The accounting firm also investigates their clients’ work history with their former employers to prevent tax fraud, and charges the clients a flat fee only after the U.S. government mails a check, said Gonzalez, who could not confirm the fee amount. 'There are many migrants who don't know they can get tax refunds, or because of their migratory status, don't think it is within their rights,' said Gonzalez, who called this the first partnership of its kind.

Expansion Eyed

The center hopes to expand the program's reach to all border cities, and is already in contact with thousands of recently deported migrants in its Reynosa headquarters and in Piedras Negras, Gonzalez said. In Reynosa alone, the center offered legal services to 6,800 migrants in 2009.

Warminster Financial representative Guillermo Osorio argued that free trade and double taxation treaties between the two countries give Mexicans who worked in the United States not only the right, but the obligation, to file U.S. taxes. 'When it comes to claiming taxes and dependents, Mexicans and Canadians must act as if they were Americans,' Osorio told BNA in an interview.

Warminster opened an office in the central Mexican city of Puebla six months ago to attend to clients, both recently deported migrants and Mexicans who legally cross the border each day to work in the United States. Before signing its contract with the Center for Border Studies, the company had signed on 25 clients, one of whom already received his check of $7,800, Osorio said.

The new partnership is expected to draw many more clients—one reason why Warminster approached the center, Gonzalez told BNA.

Approximately 550,000 Mexicans were deported from the United States between July 2007 and July 2008, said Rodolfo Cruz, director of the population studies department at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana. In addition, between 70,000 and 80,000 residents of Tijuana alone cross legally into the United States to work, Cruz said, citing a study by Mexico's National Statistics Institute (INEGI).

Accounting firms in Mexico have been helping migrants recoup their taxes since 1997, when the IRS began allowing nonresident aliens living more than 183 days per year in the United States to file a W-7 form in order to receive their ITINs, Vargas said.

She said Mexicans who worked in the United States may claim dependents who are living in Mexico—one of the only countries where U.S. law recognizes dependents living abroad. She added that the U.S. embassy in Mexico City used to help Mexicans file for refunds in their offices until 2003, but now merely recommends a list of three tax offices that provide the service.

Substantial Sums

Mexican migrants could be eligible for substantial sums on their returns because U.S. employers usually withhold more taxes than they should for non-resident aliens, said international tax law expert Luis Carbajo of Baker & McKenzie, in the border city of Juarez.

But Carbajo noted that migrants who offered false documentation to get their jobs in the first place were breaking the law. They also are obligated to file taxes in Mexico, he added, but said it is doubtful the Mexican government will scrutinize the tax records of deportees.

Nevertheless, Carbajo applauded the program. 'This is a great achievement and will help these Mexican immigrants who have been deported claim their taxes back,' he said.

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22.
Lynn's immigrants and police share a gulf
Language barrier, distrust block links
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff
The Boston Globe, September 25, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/25/between_police_immigrants_in_lynn_only_a_gulf_is_shared/

Lynn, MA -- Steps from a park where a Guatemalan man was brutally beaten this summer, a group of immigrants lingering over lunch said they were all too familiar with crime.

But they generally keep their distance from the police - and not always for the reasons that outsiders might expect.

Sitting in a taqueria one day last week, some said they avoided police because they are here illegally. But others said they found police unhelpful. Shaking his head, the cook said some people just want to lie low.

``Sometimes it's better not to say anything,'' the cook said, declining to give his name. ``You don't want to look for problems.''

Gaining the trust of immigrants, who often come from countries where people view police with fear or suspicion, is a challenge for police departments across the United States. But in Lynn, budget cuts and language barriers make the job harder when the city is reeling from the July 22 attack on Damian Merida, a 30-year-old landscaper who police say was targeted because of his ethnicity.

Attacks like the one Merida suffered are rare, but his case has illuminated the hidden struggles of immigrants who fail to report crimes to a police force that largely cannot communicate with large swaths of the city. Only 7.5 percent of the Lynn force is bilingual, while more than 38 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home.

For weeks, police have called for the victim of an earlier attack in the area where Merida was beaten to come forward, but no one has responded.

``Do we have immigrants that are preyed upon by the criminal element? Yeah, we do,'' said Acting Chief Kevin Coppinger. ``Some are reported to us. Some are not reported to us. A lot of these folks are good, hard- working people. . . . They're afraid of us for whatever reasons. We would very much encourage them, if they become a victim of crime, to talk to us.''

Coppinger said police do not question immigrants about their legal status if they are victims of crime. He said officers have tried to spread the word at soccer tournaments and English-as-a- second-language classes and would visit any community group that invited them. Police won praise for their aggressive investigation of the Merida case: Six boys, ages 11 to 14 at the time, have pleaded not guilty to multiple assault counts and civil rights violations for the attack, which relatives say left Merida with permanent brain damage.

But Rubén G. Rumbaut, a sociology professor at the University of California at Irvine who spoke about immigrants and local police at a national Police Foundation conference last year, said police must actively reach out to the community, instead of waiting for groups to invite them. Police could host meetings at the police station, attend community forums, or hold seminars, he said.

Such outreach, Rumbaut said, can allay the fears of immigrants from countries marred by police violence.

``I've known of people that have broken into instant cold sweats when they see a uniformed person,'' he said in an interview. ``The idea of the friendly policeman or community- oriented policing, as it has come to be known in the United States, is not the typical association that an immigrant brings with him or her.''

Elsewhere in Massachusetts, police have launched efforts to reach immigrants.

In East Boston, officers attended community meetings last spring and took immigrants on a tour of the Police Academy and the 911 call center. Chelsea hired a part-time newcomer advocate a few months ago, with funding from Partners HealthCare, to serve as a liaison between police and immigrant groups, said City Manager Jay Ash.

Lynn police say they are committed to community policing, but acknowledge that budget cuts have hindered their efforts.

The department has 172 officers but would prefer 225, Coppinger said. It eliminated bicycle and foot patrols, considered effective ways of reaching residents, because funding dried up.

It also urged community groups to reach out to the department. Police did not know that the Guatemalan consulate for the region, based in Providence, was bringing a ``mobile consulate'' to Lynn last weekend to help immigrants obtain Guatemalan identification cards and to provide other services. If they had known, police said, they would have shown up and handed out fliers about reporting crime.

``We would have definitely done a leaflet thing or something there,'' said Lieutenant William Sharpe, the department spokesman. ``We are trying to reach out. We don't want anybody to be a victim of crime regardless of what their status is.''

Frances Martinez, executive director of the nonprofit La Vida Inc., a nonprofit in Lynn, said the event has been held for the past five years, and has been covered in the local newspaper.

Carlos Escobedo, the Guatemalan consul, said he will encourage immigrants to report crimes to the police and the consulate. ``We'll be helping our people so that they aren't afraid,'' he said.

Nearly 30 percent of the city's population are immigrants, one of the highest rates in the state.

Official crime statistics in Lynn show that violent crime is down 9 percent in the city so far this year. But stories of unreported violence abound.

In the field behind Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, where Merida was attacked, a 32-year-roofer named Jose Martinez said that a group of boys jumped him four months ago as he was cutting through the park one afternoon on his way home from work. They stole $20. He did not call the police. Asked why, he just shook his head.

Last week at the taqueria, a 23-year-old auto mechanic from Guatemala said he would not report a crime, either.

``We all left our countries for a reason, to help our families,'' said the man, who declined to give his name because he is here illegally and fears deportation. ``Unfortunately, there's this fear that if I call the police, they'll take me away.''

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23.
4th Circuit denies asylum in female circumcision case
By Caryn Tamber
The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD), September 24, 2009
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=13461&type=UTTM

The full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not review the asylum case of a woman whose father has said he will bring her back to Senegal, circumcise her and marry her off to a much older man.

The court, which is authorized to have 15 judges but currently has only 10, split 5-5 Monday on whether to rehear the case en banc. The tie means Francoise A. Gomis, whose asylum petition was denied by three-judge panel in July, will not get a rehearing.

Gomis, who came here on a work visa that expired in April 2003, filed an asylum petition in 2005. She testified that she did so after learning that her 15-year-old sister had been forcibly circumcised, suffering blood loss and infection, and that when their brother complained to the police, he was told to go home.

Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, who penned the majority opinion in July, also wrote Monday's opinion. He called female circumcision 'abhorrent' but said the court must defer to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which found that Gomis failed to prove it was 'more likely than not' she would be circumcised.

Judge Roger L. Gregory, the vehement but sole dissenter in July, requested the rehearing and objected to its denial as contrary to settled law.

'There is...one basis for asylum that is clearly established in both this Circuit and the other federal courts: protection from female genital mutilation,' Gregory wrote Monday.

'Gomis's family made it clear that were she to return to Senegal, there is no chance that she could escape circumcision at their hands,' he added. 'Neither invocation of sympathy nor innovation in the law of asylum was necessary to grant Ms. Gomis's petition; it merely required the application of our precedent - simple justice. '

Seeking high court review

Even before the denial of rehearing en banc, Gomis had petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari to examine the 4th Circuit panel's decision on procedural grounds. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's National Immigrants' Rights Project, which filed the cert petition, said he was heartened by the 5-5 vote.

'It's disappointing that the 4th Circuit decided not to rehear the case, but we take some comfort in the fact that five of the 10 judges believed there was more than 50 percent likelihood she would be subject to FGM - female genital mutilation,' Gelernt said. 'That is a far higher burden than she faces with her asylum application, which is what is at issue in the Supreme Court petition. '

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the result.

Gomis has asked for both asylum and withholding of removal. Asylum requires the claimant to show a 10 percent chance of harm if she is returned to her own country, but withholding requires a 50 percent chance.

While asylum claims must be filed within one year of unauthorized entry, there is no deadline for filing a withholding claim.

There are exceptions to the one-year asylum filing deadline, including for refugees whose circumstances change after the deadline has passed.

Gomis testified that her sister's forcible circumcision constituted a change in circumstances.

According to her 2005 asylum petition and testimony, she had fled Senegal because her family wanted her to undergo circumcision and get married to a man in his 60s.

Female circumcision was made illegal in Senegal in 1999, the same year Gomis' parents allegedly took her out of school to arrange her marriage. She was 21.

With the help of an uncle in France, Gomis left home and obtained the visa to work as a domestic servant for a friend of her uncle.

Gomis presented the Immigration Court with what Gregory called 'a mountain of evidence' that she would be circumcised if she returned to Senegal, including a letter from her father saying that she had embarrassed the family and that he would use 'all means' to get her back and circumcise her.

Immigration Judge Thomas G. Snow denied Gomis' petition for withholding, finding that a State Department report on female circumcision in Senegal indicates that she probably would not be forced to undergo the procedure.

Most Senegalese women, especially in big cities like Gomis' native Dakar, have not been circumcised, he wrote. Circumcision is typically performed on young girls or at puberty, not on grown women, he found.

Snow also denied Gomis' petition for asylum, ruling that Gomis had missed the deadline and that her sister's circumcision was not enough to constitute changed circumstances.

The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the denial, as did the 4th Circuit panel in July.

Gregory's dissent took the majority to task for 'focus[ing] on general statistics' and not considering the circumstances specific to Gomis' case.

Gomis' family has said she will be circumcised and, in her small ethnic group, almost all women are circumcised, many right before marriage, he noted.

'To deny her withholding of removal and send her back to Senegal, to virtually certain circumcision, would be a great miscarriage of justice,' Gregory wrote. 'If we choose to ignore the blatant evidence before us of her specific situation by shielding our eyes with general statistics, then we will be sending her to a torturous future of which I shudder to imagine. '

Jurisdictional point

Gomis' Supreme Court petition focuses on whether the appellate court had jurisdiction to review the ruling on her claim of changed circumstances.

All three judges on the July panel agreed that they lacked such jurisdiction. However, Gomis' lawyers argue that the circuits are split on that point, since the 9th Circuit has gone the other way.

'We're very concerned that people who are legitimate refugees are being denied asylum in this country because of the one-year filing deadline,' said Eleanor Acer, director of the refugee protection program at Human Rights First, which filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to take Gomis' case.

'Because of the fact that there hasn't been judicial review in some circumstances, there's no doubt that some individuals who would be entitled to asylum have been deported back to places where they would face persecution,' she said.

The government's response to Gomis' Supreme Court petition is due Oct. 14.

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24.
Somali bomb suspect tied to Seattle
Federal officials suspect terror group recruited him from local area - Agents tracking down his relatives here
By Mike Carter
The Seattle Times, September 24, 2009
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009930567_somalia24m.html

The FBI is investigating reports that one of the men responsible for a suicide truck-bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, last week, which killed 21 people, was a Seattle man who may have been recruited from the local Somali community, according to federal law-enforcement sources.

Agents are coordinating with immigration officials to track down the man's relatives, who live in the area, two sources said.

The man's name and his ties to the United States were found on a Somali-language Web site affiliated with al-Shabaab a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida that has claimed responsibility for last week's attack on the African Union troops. The Web site claimed the man had lived in the United States as recently as 2007. A senior federal source confirmed the bureau thinks he is a young man in his 20s from the Seattle area.

Special Agent Fred Gutt from the FBI's Seattle field office would confirm only that the agency was aware of the report and was looking into it.

The federal source said the FBI is 'conducting an active investigation' that involves Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is coordinating with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

If the report is accurate, it would be the second time in a few months that a member of the Seattle Somali community the fourth largest in the country has been tied to terrorists.

And this is the first time that federal officials have acknowledged that the sort of recruitment efforts that have lured as many as 20 young men from the Minneapolis area to fight in Somalia may be at work in Seattle. At least three men from Minneapolis have died, including 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed, who blew up himself and 29 others in a suicide bombing at a United Nations checkpoint last fall.

That attack was strikingly similar to last week's bombing. News reports say that the bombers drove vehicles with United Nations markings into the headquarters of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, and detonated hundreds of pounds of explosives. The reports said the bombers spoke English.

In July, a 25-year-old graduate of Seattle's Roosevelt High School, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, pleaded guilty in Minnesota to providing support to terrorists in connection with U.S. recruitment efforts by al-Shabaab. His attorney said in court filings that Isse was being recruited to be a suicide bomber.

Isse and another man are cooperating with federal investigators looking into who recruited them and how they were funded.

Isse's mother told The Seattle Times in July that he had traveled from Seattle to Minneapolis, where he was recruited at an area mosque and left for Somalia in 2007. Court documents say he was given an AK-47 and helped build an al-Shabaab training camp.

Last year, Ruben Shumpert of Seattle, an African-American convert to Islam, was reportedly killed in a U.S.-supported rocket attack near Mogadishu after he fled to Somalia, in part, to avoid prison after pleading guilty to gun and counterfeiting charges here. He was reportedly fighting for a group linked to al-Shabaab and al-Qaida in Somalia, according to news reports and federal officials here.

Omar Jamal, the director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, said Wednesday that he has spoken to Minneapolis relatives of the Seattle man now under investigation and was told he was recruited in Seattle. Jamal has been critical of the FBI's response to the reports of terrorist recruitment among Somali refugees.

He said the investigations have been hampered by mistrust in the community after counterterrorism investigations targeted Somali money-changers and then importers of the drug 'khat' which is used almost exclusively among Somalis in raids after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Dozens of Seattle Somalis were arrested in those raids, and 19 Seattle refugees were indicted in 'Operation Somali Express,' the khat raids that involved dozens of Somalis in Minneapolis and New York as well. Most of the charges were dismissed, according to court records.

'There is very little trust,' Jamal said.

The Seattle office of the FBI recently held an outreach meeting with some Somali community leaders in SeaTac hoping to make inroads into the community, according to KING-TV.

'What is clear now, though, is that Minneapolis is no longer the center of this,' Jamal said. 'Seattle is now pushed to the front. There are sympathizers and recruiters of al-Shabaab in your city.'

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25.
US terror suspect may have planned 9/11 strike: prosecutor
Agence France Presse, September 25, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ijAucOGlRKqvexZmqbpmjAx-5m6g

Denver (AFP) -- An Afghan-born airport worker charged with planning a bombing campaign could have been plotting to strike New York on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, prosecutors said Friday.

Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff told a hearing in Denver that Najibullah Zazi, 24, who was indicted on bombing charges Thursday, had driven to New York on September 9 before returning to Colorado.

Neff described Zazi's movements as 'a chilling, disturbing sequence of events that indicated he intended to make a bomb and intended to be in New York City on 9/11.'

Prosecutors say Zazi left New York after receiving a tip-off that he was being watched by federal agents. His rented car was towed away and examined. A laptop found in the car included instructions on how to make a bomb.

Zazi was remanded in custody Friday and flown to New York where he will be tried after US Magistrate Craig Shaffer ruled there was a case to answer.

'Based upon my review of the proffers I find there is considerable evidence or information to suggest these are extremely serious charges,' Shaffer was quoted as saying by the Denver Post.

'Not only are they serious charges but this defendant played an integral part in the steps and activities that culminated in the indictment in the eastern district of New York.'

Zazi, dressed in khaki trousers and a white t-shirt, sat quietly throughout the hearings speaking only to confirm basic information and that he understood the charges against him.

Zazi's case is the most prominent in a flurry of counter-terrorism investigations that have been disclosed by law enforcement agencies this week.

On Thursday, justice officials in Illinois and Texas announced they had arrested two men who had plotted to blow up buildings.

The two cases were separate and not related to the investigation into Zazi, officials said.

The Texas case involved a Jordanian teenager, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, accused of attempting to bomb Dallas's 60-story Fountain Place skyscraper.

Smadi, 19, was led into a Dallas court-room in handcuffs on Friday to face the charges against him, which his family in Amman said had been 'fabricated.'

Smadi, who spoke in faltering English to confirm he understood the charges against him, was remanded in custody after officials set an October 5 date for a probable cause hearing.

Smadi was arrested Thursday as he attempted to plant a car packed with inert explosives at his chosen target, the final act of an undercover sting operation by FBI agents lasting several months.

Smadi is alleged to have told undercover FBI agents posing as members of an Al Qaeda sleeper cell that he had come to the United States specifically to commit 'Jihad for the sake of God.'

However Smadi's father said in Amman that his son was innocent and that allegations against him had been 'fabricated.'

'My son is innocent and the charges are false,' Maher Hussein Smadi told AFP. 'We as a family never believed in terrorism and we never believed in violence.'

'The FBI fabricated the entire thing to embarrass (President Barack) Obama because of his good relations with Muslims,' added the father.

Smadi's case paralleled a federal investigation in Illinois, which saw a 29-year-old man, Michael Finton, arrested on Wednesday on charges of attempted murder after another undercover sting.

Like Smadi, Finton was arrested as he attempted to park a vehicle packed with inert explosives.

The tactics used in the cases stirred debate about the issue of entrapment on Friday, with analysts noting that law enforcement agencies had to perform a tricky balancing act when using undercover agents.

David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC, described entrapment as a 'legitimate but complicated and risky' tactic.

'On the one hand to place an informant in a group of people who might be planning some illegal conduct is one of the most effective ways to prevent the attack from occurring,' he said.

'(...) The danger with that however is that you can create crimes that would otherwise never have occurred.'

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26.
Illegal immigrant fights S.F. drug charge
By Brent Begin
The San Francisco Examiner, September 25, 2009
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Illegal-immigrant-fights-SF-drug-charge-61410022.html

San Francisco -- The fate of a 23-year-old Honduran man who crossed the U.S. border illegally with the help of smugglers only to be arrested weeks later in a Tenderloin drug sting is now in the hands of a jury.

The case pits the issues of human trafficking versus illegal immigrants who commit crimes in San Francisco, a sanctuary city.

Police arrested Rigoberto Valle, 23, in an undercover 'buy-bust' operation at Larkin Street and Golden Gate Avenue on June 4.

Plainclothes officers gave Valle $20 and he spit out two rocks of crack cocaine in return, according to the charges.

Valle, who listened to the trial through an interpreter, claims he was the victim of human trafficking and was forced to sell drugs in order to pay a $500 debt to a smuggler. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Hadi Razzaq told the jury on Thursday that the smuggler, also known as a 'coyote,' put a knife to Valle’s throat, forcing him to sell drugs.

This happened after an arduous desert journey from Mexico to Nogales, Ariz., in which his family member paid a $1,500 fee. His trip to San Francisco would cost him another $500, which he couldn’t pay.

But prosecutors say the trafficking defense is just a way to avoid a prison sentence. If the jury believes his story, it could spark a defense that could potentially allow illegal immigrants to deal drugs with impunity.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Hechler, in his closing statement, said Valle’s story is unbelievable because he always had a chance to escape.

'He could have run. He should have run. He didn’t run,' Hechler said.

Valle could still be deported whether he is guilty or not because authorities believe he is in the country illegally. An immigration hold was placed on him when he was arrested for a suspected drug crime.

It is not uncommon to have instances where an immigrant is blackmailed into dealing drugs to pay off coyotes, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said.

'What is unusual is one of these cases proceeding to trial,' Adachi said. 'It takes a lot of courage to come forward and tell what happened, and many times there is a fear of retribution.'

The jury began deliberating the case Thursday afternoon.

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27.
Ex-prison guard admits to fondling immigrant women
By Mary Flood
The Houston Chronicle, September 24, 2009

A former immigration facility prison guard admitted on Thursday that he repeatedly snuck into the rooms of women held in isolation and ordered them to strip so he could fondle them.
. . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6635255.html

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28.
Hearing for Border Patrol officer accused of sexual assault moved
The City News Service, September 25, 2009

Indio, CA -- A U.S. Border Patrol officer appeared in an Indio courtroom this week on charges of sexually assaulting a Mexican woman who was traveling on a tourist visa to Cathedral City with two children in her car.
. . .
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090925/NEWS0802/909250326/1006/news01/Hearing+for+Border+Patrol+officer+accused+of+sexual+assault+moved

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29.
Immigrant Smuggler Loses Removal Appeal
By Avery Fellow
The Courthouse News Service, September 25, 2009

A Mexican citizen living legally in the United States lost his bid to halt his deportation for trying to smuggle two illegal immigrants into the country. The 7th Circuit denied his petition for review, saying he'd been given a 'full and fair' opportunity to present his case.
. . .
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/09/25/Immigrant_Smuggler_Loses_Removal_Appeal.htm

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Center for Immigration Studies
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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