Immigration at the Border
Napolitano Brings New Day to the Department of Homeland Security
Although many questions were left unanswered at the confirmation hearing of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano this week, make no mistake that she has always been a vocal supporter of comprehensive immigration reform. She has made countless numbers of statements in support of smart, sensible and thorough solutions to our broken immigration system. Watch the speech she made in June of 2007 at the National Press Club. Read More
Separating Fact From Fiction About Immigrants and Crime
The perennially hot, and inflammatory, question of whether or not immigration is related to crime has yielded front-page stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times over the past two days. In different ways, each of these stories highlights the extent to which the myth of a supposed link between crime and immigration has long been based on emotion rather than fact. Although study upon study over the past century has demonstrated that immigration is not associated with more crime, the "myth of immigrant criminality" persists. Read More
Questions Remain on Sedation of Deportees
Just when you thought you heard it all when it comes to the gruesome treatment of immigrants detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we learn that immigration staff has overseen the sedation of 384 deportees over the past six fiscal years. ICE sedated 10 deportees in the last fiscal year alone. But that's not considered the news. Recent headlines are boasting that the figure represents ICE "cutting back" on sedating deportees with Haldol-a powerful drug that's commonly used to treat schizophrenia and such psychotic symptoms as hallucinations, delusions, and hostility. Cutting back? Read More
Prince William County Mothers Against Immigrant Bashing
Cliché or not, the anthropologist Margaret Mead knew what she was talking about when she said "Never doubt that a few concerned citizens can change the world for indeed that is all that ever has." A group of stay-at-home moms in Prince William County who decided they've had enough of the anti-immigrant fervor boiling over in their community have begun to do just that as they organize around the issue of immigration. Today's Washington Post features Alanna Alameda, Elena Schlossberg, and Katherine M. Gotthard--describing some of what motivated them to get involved: Read More
Madoff Scandal Hits Immigration Group
CBS Reports: "Groups that were helping the most, were hurt the most." Millionares, movie stars, and prestigious universities weren't the only ones affected by the Berni Madoff $50 billion Ponzi investment scandal. Dozens of public interest organizations have been hit by the disastrous collapse of Madoff's scheme, including the Heartland Alliance, which runs the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and lost one-third of its funding. NIJC received a $720,000 grant this year from the JEHT foundation, a New York organization that funded groups working to reform the criminal justice system. However, the Madoff scandal has forced the JEHT foundation to halt all grant making-leaving NIJC without two thirds of the money it was banking on. Read More
A Man Who Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is
Robert Hildreth is an unlikely hero to immigrants. He is a multimillionaire who made his money trading Latin American Bonds. However, this year he started another kind of "bond fund" -one that helps undocumented workers who are swept up in immigration raids, post bail. His perspective as a relative immigration outsider has allowed him to see the holes in our approach to immigration enforcement and his prescription for incoming DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is laid out in the Houston Chronicle this week. Also newsworthy is the nomination of Hildreth by the Boston Globe as "Bostonian of the Year." The public can log on and vote for him among many other Bostonians who accomplished great things in 2008. Read More
2,000 Approved Naturalization Applicants Blocked from Voting
Red tape and a tightfisted judge blocked nearly 2,000 people who should've been able to vote this past Election Day from receiving their naturalization oath in time to register for November's general election. Lawful permanent residents with approved naturalization applications must take the oath of allegiance to become a U.S. citizen. According to a new government report and immigration analysts, federal judges in some parts of the U.S. may be refusing USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) requests for oath ceremonies and delaying the swearing-in of new citizens. Some USCIS district offices administer naturalization oaths themselves. But in a few districts-including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit-only federal district courts have power to so and are then reimbursed by USCIS for all oath ceremonies they perform. Los Angeles itself received $2.4 million for the 169,799 oaths it administered in 2008. According to the Washington Post, the ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Michael Dougherty, stated: Read More
Arpaio Only One Smiling in Maricopa County
Video by America's Voice. NOTE: This story first appeared in the Huffington Post. Smile, You're Under Arrest"--that's the name of a new reality TV show starring none other than Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). Yet Maricopa County citizens aren't smiling as Arpaio's tactics have wreaked a lot of havoc, and fought little crime. Arpaio has transformed his police department into an immigration-enforcement agency, gaining international notoriety in the process. Armed with a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a mandate to enforce immigration law, Arpaio has taken the pursuit of undocumented immigrants to "unconstitutional extremes." Read More
The High Price of Being “America’s Toughest Sheriff”: Crime and Spending Soar in Maricopa County
Over the past year and a half, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has transformed his police department into an immigration-enforcement agency, gaining international publicity in the process. Yet a growing number of elected officials, media outlets, and religious and civic leaders have criticized Sheriff Arpaio’s tactics and their impact on his community. In addition, two independent reports by the East Valley Tribune and the Goldwater Institute describe a Sheriff’s department where crime-solving is down and racial profiling and budget expenditures are way up. Read More
Big Brother DOJ Rule Expands DNA Collection to Immigrants
For immigrants helplessly entangled in our country's broken immigration system, Big Brother is watching. Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a shocking new rule requiring federal agencies to collect DNA samples from non-U.S. persons who are detained under the authority of the U.S in a vague attempt to catch criminals. Immigration and civil liberties groups are decrying the new rule, saying that it poses a direct threat to basic constitutional and privacy rights. Even the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that a similar British DNA policy violated privacy rights. Previously, the federal government was authorized to collect DNA samples only from persons convicted of felonies, violent crimes, aggravated sexual abuse, or serious military offenses. Now, considering the likelihood of legal U.S. residents and citizens getting caught up in immigration raids, it's even possible that individuals who are legally in the U.S. with no criminal history will be subjected under this new rule to DNA testing without their consent. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the rule: Read More
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