Tag Archives: Topic: Immigration

USA Today: The Obama administration is starting to shut down a program that deputized local police officers to act as immigration agents.

News from The Associated Press: Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million – a record 1 in 12 – as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses.

News from The Associated Press: Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants – refund checks averaging $1,800 a family – in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers.

KRGV.com: Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.

AZ Daily Star: The TUSD Governing Board voted to dismantle the contentious Mexican American Studies program in an effort to avoid losing millions in state funding.

Fox News: The official said Thursday the new rule would let children and spouses of citizens ask the government to decide on the waiver request before the illegal immigrant heads to his or her home country to apply for a visa

Stonegate Institute: New citizenship rules that entered into effect on January 1, 2012 will require all applicants to pass exams on French culture and history and also to prove that their French language skills are equivalent to those of a 15-year-old native speaker. Moreover, candidates seeking French citizenship will be required to pledge allegiance to “French values.”

CBS 5 – KPHO: Sheriff Joe Arpaio had his first run-in with a group of suspected illegal immigrants since things heated up with the Department of Justice.

Reuters: South Carolina cannot enforce several key areas of its new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

News from The Associated Press: Dozens of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail officers lined up at a news conference in Phoenix Wednesday to ceremoniously hand in their federal credentials a week after they were stripped of the ability to verify the immigration status of inmates.

On Capitol Hill, 69 members of Congress recently sent a letter toDepartment of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder, whose respective offices are conducting a joint review of the roughly 300,000 currently pending immigration cases, asking that same-sex couples are included in a rubric for closing low-priority deportation cases because of family ties.

OneNewsNow.com: “President Obama and the band of his merry men might as well erect their own pink neon sign at the Arizona-Mexico border saying, ‘Welcome all illegals to your United States. Our home is your home,’” the sheriff responded.

LaTimes.com: “Don’t come here and use me as a whipping boy for a national and international problem,” he said. “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration.”

AZ Republic: The U.S. Department of Justice this morning accused the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office of racial profiling in traffic stops and immigration operations and discriminating against Spanish speakers in the county jails.

Lyle Denniston at Huffington Post: Hard to believe, but the controversies that followed those decisions may be more than matched in the new year, as the Supreme Court works its way toward decisions on three major constitutional controversies, from which political fallout is absolutely predictable.

NY Daily News: Harry Pangemanan, 41, has been told to report to immigration officials, with plane tickets in hand, three days before Christmas. He’s hoping for a reprieve. Indonesian Christians urged the feds to get into the holiday spirit and spare them from deportation — by singing “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” in front of Manhattan’s federal building.

Washington Times: n its notice, the court said Justice Elena Kagan had recused herself from the decision to take the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to to hear Arizona v. United States involving a challenging to SB 1070. The SCOTUS Blog case information page for that case is here. Today’s complete order list is here.

News from The Associated Press: The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Utah’s immigration enforcement law, arguing that it usurps federal authority and could potentially lead to the harassment and detention of American citizens and authorized visitors

Latimes.com: People entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico are believed responsible for more than one-third of human-ignited wildfires in Arizona over a five-year period, according to a government report that could stoke congressional debate over illegal immigration.

European Commission: New approach to migration would establish agreements with EU neighbours and other countries to benefit the people and the countries concerned.

SCOTUSblog: In a lawsuit filed directly in the Court, without prior action in lower courts, the state contended that it has been denied one potential seat in the House because illegal immigrants are counted in census totals, putting Louisiana at a disadvantage in House apportionment.

Commentary Magazine: Immigration is good. When handled properly, it can rejuvenate societies; seize advantage from other nations’ brain drain to infuse expertise into key industries; and correct demographics to ensure healthy growth. When uncoordinated, however immigration can undercut societies.

Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District (N.D. Cal.), decided the day before yesterday, upholds a California high school’s decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

The Washington Post: Most coverage of Tuesday’s night’s recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce (R) in Mesa, Arizona has focused on the fact that Russell authored the state’s controversial immigration legislation.

Arizona News from USA Today: Five students, all born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, sued the state last month for denying them in-state tuition rates even though they’d lived in Florida, graduated from state high schools and were entering state colleges and universities.

CNSnews.com: omeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that under the administration’s policy of exercising “prosecutorial discretion” in the enforcement of the immigration laws, her department is currently authorizing some illegal aliens to work in the United States.

The Daily Caller: The mass immigration of Muslims into Western Europe over the last four decades or so was a project of elite mainstream politicians, most of them left-wing, who never consulted the electorate on whether they thought this project was a good idea or not. Motivated by a multicultural sensibility . . .

News from The Associated Press: Britain says it is considering criminalizing the act of forcing someone into a marriage under moves to tighten immigration policy.

The Washington Post: Justice Department attorneys have sued Arizona and Alabama, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials.

The Hill’s Floor Action:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and 67 other House Democrats this week called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take specific steps to ensure that the family ties of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are given special consideration in deportation cases.

CBS News: U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, wrote in her 115-page opinion that some parts of the law are in conflict with federal statutes, but others aren’t.

In record-setting numbers, young adults struggling to find work are shunning long-distance moves to live with Mom and Dad, delaying marriage and buying fewer homes, often raising kids out of wedlock. They suffer from the highest unemployment since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others – nearly 1 in 5.

Religion Clause: In Mao Qin Wang v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, (Fed. Ct., Sept. 2, 2011), Canada’ Federal Court held that immigration officials had held an applicant for refugee status to an unreasonably high standard in considering whether he was a genuine Roman Catholic who feared oppression if he returned to China.

Guardian.co.uk: European court of human rights says removal would breach right to family life in ruling that could curtail Home Office powers.

Pat Buchanan at Human Events: For the third straight year, the median income of the typical American family fell in 2010. Adjusted for inflation, it is back where it was in 1996, the longest period of zero growth since the Depression.

NPR (includes audio): A new study finds 3,000 cases of young immigrant women being forced into marriage — across 47 U.S. states — and it suggests the issue is dramatically underreported. Those who refuse can face threats of violence, ostracism from their families, and financial repercussions that can lead to homelessness. Yet, advocates say there is very little legal recourse in this country.

SCOTUSblog: Clement’s petition on S.B. 1070 reaches the Court.

AP: Blackburn didn’t address whether the law is constitutional. Instead, she says she needs more time to consider lawsuits filed by the Justice Department, private groups and individuals that claim the state is overstepping its bounds with the law.

San Jose Mercury News: Lavi Soloway, an attorney for Venezuelan citizen Alex Benshimol, says Immigration Judge Marilyn Teeter administratively closed the deportation case against his client at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

NewsMax: Republicans are attacking President Barack Obama for acting like a “king that is above the law” in deciding to pick and choose which illegal aliens to deport.

The Hill: House Republicans on Friday accused the Obama administration of making a “blatant attempt” to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants with changes to deportation rules.

BBC News: Illegal immigrants to the US who pose no threat to the public are likely to have deportation proceedings against them shelved, the Obama administration has announced.

Washington Times: The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.

Public Discourse: merica’s laws and institutions come from a moral worldview shaped by Christian belief. They depend not on where her people came from, but on what they are willing to sacrifice to keep the experiment alive. Adapted from a keynote address delivered to the national gathering of CALL (Catholic Association of Latino Leaders).

PRI’s The World: Norway has been vigorously defending its multicultural model, after the twin attacks last month. The confessed attacker, Anders Behring Breivik, said he killed to stop what he called “the Muslimization” of Europe.

Voice of America: A sampling of European analytical opinion shows there is great concern in the region about “accommodating” Islam and immigration in general.

S.F. Chronicle: Citing the Defense of Marriage Act, the Obama administration denied immigration benefits to a married gay couple from San Francisco and ordered the expulsion of a man who is the primary caregiver to his AIDS-afflicted spouse.

WorldNetDaily: A woman who originally came to the United States for a marriage arranged by her family stayed after being abandoned at the altar, because of the humiliation she would have faced on her return to China. Later, she met someone else, married and now has a family.

Religion Clause: WSFA reports that a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s new immigration law was filed yesterday by leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in the state. The suit claims that the law (full text) . . .

AP: The Democratic governor signed AB130 at Los Angeles City College.

CSMonitor.com: Births have surpassed immigration as the main driver of the dynamic growth in the US Hispanic population. This new trend is especially evident among the largest of all Hispanic groups-Mexican-Americans, according to a new analysis of US Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center. Click here for the summary of, and link to, the report.

FoxNews.com: The Obama administration’s policies on immigration and gay marriage are being tested in another case of a gay man fighting deportation by citing his marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Lambda Legal: Yesterday, Lambda Legal filed an amicus brief in a case involving Cristina Ojeda and Monica Alcota, a married binational lesbian couple from Queens, New York. The friend-of-the-court brief argues that immigration officials are incorrectly relying on an inapplicable case for authority to continue deportation proceedings while the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is being challenged. | Brief

The Washington Post: Civil rights groups sued Friday in federal court to block Alabama’s new law cracking down on illegal immigration, which supporters and opponents have called the strictest measure of its kind in the nation.

365Gay.com: Microsoft announced its support for a bill keeping multinational same-sex couples together, the Uniting American Families act.

AP: Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, Vandiver was not able to sponsor Velandia for a green card, as a heterosexual person could sponsor a spouse.

The Local: German state interior ministers are warning of a rise in radical Salafist Islam that poses a risk of home-grown terrorism, with one politician calling for changes to residency laws so “hate preachers” can be more easily deported.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge by a Mexican-born man to a citizenship law that treats men and women differently . . .

San Francisco Chroncle: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge Monday to a California law granting college tuition discounts to high school graduates in the state, regardless of immigration status – a law that saves illegal immigrants, among others, nearly $23,000 a year at UC campuses.

AZ Republic: Gov. Jan Brewer has appointed Washington D.C.-based attorney and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement as lead counsel for the state’s petition against the federal government in the Senate Bill 1070 case.

AP: The Supreme Court ordered a federal appeals court on Monday to take a new look at a Pennsylvania city’s crackdown on illegal immigrants in light of the high court’s recent decision upholding an Arizona employer-sanctions law.

: The Supreme Court has sustained Arizona’s law that penalizes businesses for hiring workers who are in the United States illegally . . . | Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting

AP: The ACLU filed Wednesday in in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis seeking to block the state’s new E-Verify law.

Rasmussen Reports: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 60% now believe the policies and practices of the federal government encourage people to enter the United States illegally.

DW-World.de: Same-sex sexual acts are illegal in over 70 countries, including seven which invoke the death penalty for breaking this law. It’s therefore no surprise that some gays and lesbians seek asylum in more gay-friendly countries, including in European nations like Belgium, Germany and the UK.

Arizona Republic: According to the panel’s report, there were at least 668 incidents of kidnapping in 2008, hundreds more than the 300-plus Phoenix reported to the federal government to win $2.4 million in grants to fight border-related kidnapping and home invasions.

Montreal Gazette: The U.S. government has ended a controversial counterterrorism program created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that required men living in the U.S. who came from mostly Muslim countries to register with federal authorities.

Religion Clause Blog: In Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50433 (WD WA, May 10, 2011), a Washington federal district court rejected a challenge to immigration rules that treat religious workers applying to adjust their immigration status to become permanent residents differently from those in various other employment-based preference categories.

Peter H. Schuck and John Tyler at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): Our current policy is plain stupid. Of the more than one million permanent admissions to the U.S. in 2010, fewer than 15% were admitted specifically for their employment skills. And most of those spots weren’t going to the high-skilled immigrants themselves, but to their dependents . . .

AP: Driven by immigrants and young people moving to the South and West and older Americans who stay put elsewhere, the age gap between regions in the U.S. has grown to its widest level in decades, sharpening the divides on hot-button issues such as immigration and changes to Medicare.

Education News: Although the Supreme Court held that illegal citizens have a right to attend public schools almost 30 years ago, not all districts are complying.

AP: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a new Utah immigration law that would have allowed police to check the citizenship status of anyone they arrest.

AZ Republic: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.

NY Times: After two instances in which deportations were suspended in immigration cases involving same-sex couples, the Justice Department has cautioned that it will continue to enforce a law that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.