All Articles Tagged "immigration"
D.C., MontCo to Join Federal Illegal Immigrant Crackdown
(Washington Examiner) — The District and Montgomery County will soon be part of a federal program that targets jailed illegal immigrants for deportation, despite ongoing objections from a D.C. councilman. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has let jurisdictions know it is now mandatory that they join Secure Communities, a program that runs inmates’ fingerprints through an immigration database. Earlier this month, ICE canceled agreements it had signed with individual jurisdictions, saying the agreements were confusing and gave the impression the program was optional. It’s not, and the remaining jurisdictions will be required to join Secure Communities by 2013.
Immigrant Advocates Protest Aggressive Deportation
(New York Times) — A program that is central to President Obama’s immigrationenforcement strategy has drawn protests by Latino and immigrant organizations in six cities in the last two days, as those groups stepped up their confrontation with the administration over the fast pace of deportations. In Los Angeles, about 200 immigrants and their supporters walked out of a stormy hearing Monday evening that was called by a task force advising the enforcement program, known as Secure Communities. Bearing signs that said “Stop Ripping Families Apart,” the protesters called for an end to the program, which they said had led to the deportation of victims who reported domestic violence to the police, and to parents of American citizen children. On Tuesday in Chicago, several dozen protesters delivered thousands of petitions calling for an end to the program to the headquarters of Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign. Petitions were also delivered by small groups of protesters to Democratic Party offices in Miami, Atlanta, Houston and Charlotte, N.C. About two dozen prominent immigrant advocacy organizations issued a report denouncing the program and calling on the administration to halt it.
State Appeals Court’s Decision on Illegal Immigration Law
(AJC) — A federal appeals court in Atlanta should reverse a lower court’s decision and allow Georgia to enforce key parts of its tough new immigration enforcement law to help protect the state’s taxpayer-funded resources, state officials argued in court papers Monday. In a brief filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the state Attorney General’s Office said Georgia and Atlanta-area counties are spending tens of millions of dollars incarcerating illegal immigrants and providing them with Medicaid benefits at a time of lean budgets. Critics of Georgia’s law said they read nothing new in the state’s arguments Monday. They also questioned the state’s cost estimates and said immigrants significantly contribute to Georgia by working in many of its key industries, spending money here and paying sales taxes.
White Supremacist Principal Fired
(The Grio) — A Catholic elementary school principal with ties to a white supremacist publication has been fired, the New York Archdiocese said Tuesday. Frank Borzellieri, who previously served as a high school English teacher, is the author of several books, including 2004′s Don’t Take It Personally: Race, Immigration Crime and Other Heresies, in which he declared diversity a “weakness,” according to the New York Daily News. The New York Archdiocese launched an internal review after a published report detailed Borzellieri’s controversial views on multicultural education, Martin Luther King, Jr. literature and his efforts to remove an openly gay teacher and activist from a Queens public school.
California’s Immigrant Students Allowed to Dream
(LA Times) — Following through on a campaign promise, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law Monday easing access to privately funded financial aid for undocumented college students. He also signaled that he was likely to back a more controversial measure allowing those students to seek state-funded tuition aid in the future. Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), author of the private financial aid measure, described it as an important but incremental step toward expanding opportunities for deserving students who were brought to the U.S. illegally through no choice of their own. Cedillo is pressing ahead with a more expansive measure that would make certain undocumented students eligible for the state’s Cal Grants and other forms of state tuition aid.
Ethnic Suburbs Can Isolate Residents
(Washington Examiner) — When Korean-American Elizabeth S. Chong moved to Fairfax County in 1993, it was hard to find a taste of home. ”There were one or two Korean grocery stores, but they were small,” she said. “Now there are lots — and they’re Walmart-sized.” That’s a result of the growing concentration of Koreans in Fairfax County, especially in Annandale and Centreville. But the community can have its drawbacks — some say the growing services for Koreans are keeping new immigrants isolated.
Fake ID Law Ratchets up Penalties
(AJC) — Any Georgia adult who uses a fake ID to get a job could go to prison for 15 years and pay a fine of $250,000. The new offense, called aggravated identity fraud, went into effect July 1 under a little-noticed provision of the state’s new immigration law. It applies to everyone, not just illegal immigrants. The penalties are on par with possessing up to 10,000 pounds of marijuana. “It’s a harsh penalty,” said Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. “But it is meant as an eye-opener, to send a message.” In addition to illegal immigrants, those the law might snare, officials said, are deadbeat parents who are trying to hide income and young people lying about their age in order to get a job. (However, penalties are lower — no more than three years and $5,000 — for culprits younger than 21.)
Thousands Rally Against Immigration Law
(AJC) — Eighteen-year-old Myra Cerecero said she wakes up every morning praying her parents made it home safely. ”I’m living in a constant state of fear they’ll be picked up,” said the daughter of illegal immigrants. The American-born Loganville teen was among roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people, according to Capitol police, who jammed the streets of downtown Atlanta Saturday morning to voice their opposition to House Bill 87, Georgia’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. The recently signed bill penalizes those who use false identification to secure jobs as well as government officials who fail to enforce the state’s immigration laws.
Immigration Bill Protesters Arrested
(AJC) — Six protesters were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct Tuesday as demonstrators from across Georgia converged on the state Capitol to oppose HB 87, a public safety official said. About 200 protesters turned out and many formed a human chain around six people who sat at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Washington Street, blocking all four sides of the intersection just steps away from the Capitol. The demonstrators, mostly students, came to speak out against House bill, the controversial immigration crackdown legislation that goes into effect Friday. Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright said the protesters were asked to move from the intersection several times before they were arrested.
Immigrant Tuition Law May Stall in Maryland
(Washington Post) — Growing frustration with illegal immigration, rising public debt and an effective Internet campaign to gather voters’ signatures have put Maryland conservatives on the cusp of a victory to delay and possibly repeal a new law that would give undocumented immigrants in-state college tuition breaks. Maryland’s version of the DREAM Act would more than halve tuition rates for undocumented immigrants at Maryland colleges and universities. For a four-year degree, the plan could cost the state $40,000 per student, and Maryland officials have estimated that hundreds of undocumented high school graduates would apply for the aid.
