Posted by admin on Mar 10th, 2012
Colorlines. by Julianne Hing ShareThis | Thursday, March 1 2012, 9:14 AM EST Tags: Alabama, hb 56
Anti-immigrant lawmakers are keeping the country’s court system busy, and today will be an especially full day. In Atlanta, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments for court challenges to Alabama’s HB 56 and Georgia’s HB 87, two state laws inspired by Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB 1070. The court battle rages on as a coalition of immigrant rights and faith groups continues its effort to repeal HB 56 in the Alabama state legislature. The primary focus is on HB 56, which is widely considered the most stringent anti-immigrant state law in the country. Since key portions of the law went into effect last September, HB 56 has had devastating effects on the state. Indeed, a report released this week documented what’s been long known: Alabama ushered in a wave of discrimination, racial profiling and anti-immigrant bigotry when HB 56 became law.
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Posted by admin on Sep 13th, 2011
by Gabriel Thompson, Colorlines, 13 Sep. 2011
In June of 2009, Sen. Charles Schumer took the stage in front of a capacity crowd at the Georgetown Law Center. The event was billed as “Immigration: A New Era,†and Schumer, who chairs the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, was on campus to unveil his seven principles for a reform bill.
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Posted by admin on Sep 11th, 2011
Silky Shah, Samar, 11 Sep. 2011
In June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), released enforcement statistics showing that over 363,000 people were detained during FY 2010 (Oct. 09 – Sept. 10). This is twice the number of people detained in 2006 and about seven times the number of people detained in 1994. The U.S. has the largest immigration detention infrastructure in the world and with ICE’s current plan to expand the number of facilities and their nationwide implementation of the deportation program, Secure Communities, it will continue to grow. While many in the immigrant rights movement are targeting the draconian policies of President Obama, and rightly so, blame for the explosion in immigrant detention and deportations runs deeper, and traces back to both the post-9/11 policies of the Bush administration and the wholesale reform of policy under Clinton, which categorically changed the way immigrants are viewed by the U.S. government. Today, more immigrants are being detained and deported than ever before, and it’s just getting worse.
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Posted by admin on Aug 7th, 2011
by Ted Robbins, NPR, August 7, 2011
Listen to the Story: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/07/138959162/illegal-border-crossings-fewer-but-just-as-deadly
Over the last decade, the U.S. government has spent billions beefing up surveillance, manpower and fencing along the border with Mexico. Fewer people are attempting to cross, but hundreds of migrants still die every year, and not a day goes by without a rescue by border patrol agents. Officials and humanitarian groups are ramping up efforts to find illegal crossers before the worst happens, and they’re hoping new deterrents convince people not to cross in the first place.
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Posted by admin on Aug 5th, 2011
National Immigrant Justice Centre August 5, 2011- The Obama administration confirmed today that it will force all local law enforcement agencies in the United States to participate in the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program and announced it had unilaterally terminated all existing memoranda of understanding (MOUs) previously signed by state governments, stating the agreements are unnecessary to establish local law enforcement participation in the federally mandated program. Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) condemns the Obama administration’s ongoing strong-arm tactics to force local law enforcement to assume the duties of federal immigration officers.
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