Tag Archives: Topic: Immigration

CBN: “CBN News recently traveled to one small town in Austria where residents are up in arms over the newest local attraction: a multi-million dollar Islamic center.”

Europe News: “Turkey is today considered a rising power in the Middle East and Europe. But just a few centuries ago, the Turks ruled large chunks of both regions under the banner of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish-led forces drove deep into Europe, even reaching the gates of Vienna twice before being defeated. Now they’re back . . . So far, Austrian officials have yet to comment on the Turkish government’s expanded influence. ‘They close their eyes because they want to be elected again and the growing Islamic population is for them a target group for the next election,’ said Zeitz.”

Courthouse News Service: “Two U.S. citizens and the Mexican citizens they want to marry say a Michigan county unconstitutionally refused to issue them marriage licenses because one half of each couple has no Social Security number. ”

AP: “A teenage girl who converted to Christianity and ran away from home is being blocked by her Muslim parents from fighting the possibility of deportation, her attorney told a judge Monday in an ongoing custody dispute . . . ”

“The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide if mothers and fathers may be treated differently in determining whether their children may claim American citizenship . . . ”

CNBC: “Reports that some women in Nebraska plan to have abortions now that illegal immigrants can no longer get state-funded prenatal care haven’t changed Gov. Dave Heineman’s opposition to a bill that would allow them to get the medical attention. But anecdotal accounts of more women saying they will end their pregnancies because of the financial and emotional strain of not having state- and federal-funded care could revive the bill anyway.”

FoxNews: “The Senate is working toward a ghastly compromise on immigration reform that includes a biometric national identification card for all Americans. The stated purpose of this national ID, which an employee must present before getting a job, is to prevent undocumented workers from being employed. Back in December I warned that a national ID is the inevitable conclusion of the anti-immigration movement. A national ID hurts American workers while pretending to help them . . . ”

Google News (AP): “Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside of Britain’s Parliament on Friday, ahead of the viewing of an anti-Islam film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose strong showing in a local elections sparked concern that his anti-immigrant views have become widely accepted in the Netherlands.”

Telegraph: “Mr Wilders’s far-Right Party for Freedom (PVV) made a strong showing in local polls held Wednesday, while the traditionally strong Christian Democratic (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) parties lost support, early results showed . . . It was the strongest party with 21.6 per cent of the vote in Almere, a city of 187,000 people near the capital Amsterdam previously won by the PvdA, and came second in the seat of government, The Hague – the Netherlands’ third largest city with 442,000 residents.”

CBC News: “Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney blocked any reference to gay rights in a new study guide for immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship, the Canadian Press has learned.”

David North writing at the Center for Immigration Studies: “What happens when an obscure USCIS appellate body handles disputes about visas for religious workers? In my review of the 62 decisions made in 2009 made by the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) the answer appears to be – carefully and narrowly.”

Dutch News: “A Christian cannot vote for Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party PVV, say 75% of church leaders in a poll of 1,200 ministers and church workers in the Nederlands Dagblad.”

Wall Street Journal: “In an interview this week, Mr. Arpaio said he would ignore Washington’s effort to clip his powers and would train all of his 881 deputies to enforce federal immigration law on the streets.”

“Nude dancing is not necessarily a crime of ‘moral turpitude’ warranting deportation, a divided federal appeals court ruled.”

San Diego Gay and Lesbian News: “The statement, which comes from members of the LGBT Equality Caucus, urges passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and for inclusion of ‘LGBT binational families in comprehensive immigration reform.’ Under current immigration law, lesbian and gay Americans are unable to sponsor their partners for residency in the United States, resulting in many such families living separately, or facing imminent separation, from their loved ones. Below is the full text of the congressional sign-on letter . . . ”

365gay.com: “Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has won asylum for a gay man who feared persecution because of his sexual orientation if forced to return to his native Brazil.”

Eugene Volokh has this post at the Volokh Conspiracy questioning whether Germans homeschoolers should be entitled to asylum.

Judge grants asylum to persecuted homeschooling family

“The Romeikes are Christians from Bissinggen, Germany, who fled persecution in August 2008 to seek political asylum in the United States.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed down an immigration law opinion that has important implications in cases in which an individual about to be deported or removed seeks to reopen proceedings to claim asylum because of religious persecution in his country of origin . . . ”

Kucana v. Holder, No. 08-911

Religion Clause Blog: “In Helal v. Holder, (6th Cir., Dec. 17, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Board of Immigration Appeals that a Palestinian Christian couple who are citizens of Jordan are not entitled to withholding of removal from the United States for fear of religious persecution in Jordan.”

National Post: “A Federal Court judge has ordered the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration to consider the credibility of a woman’s claim that she will be the victim of an ‘honour killing’ if deported to her home country of Pakistan.”

Christian Post: “‘We are pleased that the path has now been cleared for the government to grant Davis citizenship without forcing her to violate her religious beliefs,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. ‘The government should not be forcing applicants for citizenship to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs in order to become a citizen, especially when the same requirement is not placed on natural-born citizens. We are glad that the government has stopped this double-standard.’”

“Starting Dec. 14, the HPV, or human papillomavirus vaccine will no longer be on the list of immunizations female immigrants ages 11 to 26 must receive before becoming legal permanent residents.”

ADF attorney Joel Oster appeared on Reality Check Live with Mike and Clairie Monokian to discuss this: Teen should not be denied citizenship for saying no to HPV vaccine.

The MP3 runs just over 9 minutes.

OneNewsNow: “A Florida teenager could be denied citizenship for rejecting the HPV vaccine which helps prevent an STD that leads to one form of cervical cancer . . . ‘The facts of the case are that a 17-year-old British girl who has been adopted by her mother who is a U.S. citizen, they live in Florida, is now being required to get the HPV vaccination in order to receive full U.S. citizenship,’ [Daniel] Blomberg explains. ‘Miss Davis doesn’t believe that she should have to do that, and it’s a violation of her religious beliefs to be vaccinated against something that she can only contract through immoral activity.’”

LSU Daily Reveille: “Davis has met nearly all requirements for U.S. citizenship, but has yet to receive full status because of her refusal to take Gardasil, which has been a required vaccination for female immigrants since 2008. Gardasil is designed to inoculate women against cervical cancer . . . The Alliance Defense Fund agrees with Davis. The organization believes the vaccine would force her to choose between “her beliefs and legal citizenship,” according to the brief filed in support of Davis.”

CNSNews: “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration will push for ‘immigration reform’ by giving the estimated 14 million people who are in the United States illegally ‘fair pathway to earned legal status.’”

Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Rick Perry had some pretty strong comments about the Obama administration on Wednesday in Midland, saying, ‘This is an administration hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country.’”

WorldNetDaily: “‘Christians shouldn’t be forced to violate their faith in order to gain U.S. citizenship,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. ‘Requiring a young girl to choose between her beliefs and legal citizenship is a clear violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents the government from putting a substantial burden on a person’s religious beliefs except under extreme circumstances.’”

CNSNews: “And although they’re confident they’ll succeed, Democratic leaders have yet to nail down the votes they’ll need to pass their sweeping bill. They’re aiming for floor action to begin as early as Friday and finish before Veterans Day, Nov. 11.”

AZ Republic: “The sanctions law, which punishes companies for hiring illegal immigrants and requires all Arizona employers to use a federal electronic system to verify the work status of employees, has been upheld by two lower courts.”

Boston Globe: “Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States. That’s when former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be potential grounds for asylum.”

Associated Press: “A gay Brazilian man has been denied asylum by the Obama administration and won’t be reunited with his Massachusetts husband in the U.S., the husband said Monday.”

CNSNews: “Two amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act introduced in the House of Representatives’ current session would add language allowing “permanent partners” to sponsor their foreign-born “spouses” to become naturalized citizens.”

Associated Press: “A man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality — and potential persecution in their home countries — when they applied for asylum has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.”

Brown Daily Herald: “Facing campus protests, a Harvard student group has rescinded an invitation to controversial anti-immigration activist Jim Gilchrist to speak at a forum this weekend. The group, the Undergraduate Legal Committee, released a statement calling Gilchrist’s appearance ‘not compatible with providing an environment for civil, educational and productive discourse on immigration.’”

U.S. News & World Report: “And yet, many prominent social conservatives say the administration can still find common ground with evangelicals and other conservative religious constituencies. Rather than revolving around abortion, however, the opportunity is on another thorny issue: immigration.”

Orlando Sentinel: “Fathima Rifqa Bary, the Ohio teenager who fled to Orlando nearly three months ago, will return to her home state and foster care there, Florida and Ohio judges decided Tuesday. Orange County Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson ruled that an Ohio court has jurisdiction over the 17-year-old girl and that matters need to be handled there.”

One News Now: “However, in the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday — by near party-line votes — Democrats rejected separate amendments that would have prohibited federal funding of abortion and required people to prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for health insurance or tax credits under healthcare reform.”

ReporterNews.com: “Clowdus wants to halt Muslim immigration to stop what the blog termed a ‘stealth Jihad’ and ‘creeping sharia’ to replace the Constitution with Islamic religious law.”

“Although substantial evidence supports the decision of the Board that Kazemzadeh failed to prove a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinion, the Board failed to give reasoned consideration to Kazemzadeh’s evidence of a well-founded fear of persecution based on his religion.”

Wall Street Journal: “Since devoted himself to serving a burgeoning Buddhist community in Southern California. Barefoot and clad in a saffron robe, Mr. Jomthong recently gave what amounts to the most accurate job description he has: ‘to share Buddhist practices and to promote peace and harmony among people.’ But the U.S. government wants to deport the 47-year-old monk, after denying him permanent U.S. residency, or a green card, on the grounds that he was employed without authorization after his temporary religious visa lapsed . . . ”