By DENISE LAVOIE – Nov 14, 2008. AP

BOSTON (AP) — Zeituni Onyango came to the United States seeking asylum from her native Kenya but was turned down and ordered to leave the country in 2004. Four years later, she is still here. And her nephew is about to become president of the United States. Onyango’s family connection to Barack Obama has thrown a spotlight on a phenomenon many Americans might find startling: An estimated half-million immigrants are living in the United States in defiance of deportation orders.

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Friday October 3, 2008 VANCOUVER-  Women centres and women organizations are joining refugee rights group No One Is Illegal in Toronto and Vancouver in calling for the immediate cancellation of a deportation order against Ms. Isabel Garcia Rivas and her children. The family is currently residing in Toronto, having fled domestic violence from Ms. Rivas’ ex-husband in Mexico, but is under a deportation order. In a letter to Minister Stockwell Day, Vancouver-based womens rights organizations including Women Against Violence Against Women, Philippine Women Centre of BC,  Grassroots Women, Friends of women in the Middle East- BC Chapter, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women-Canada, and Vancouver Status of Women have written “We are specifically requesting that you suspend the removal order against the family until a decision on both their Humanitarian application and a decision on the Judicial Review of their Pre Removal Risk Assessment is made. We also ask you to look favourably upon their Humanitarian application and grant them permanent residency.”

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John Colebourn. The Province. Thursday, September 04, 2008

The lawyer for a man who faces deportation this weekend is making a desperate bid to allow him to argue his case before a judge. Hamid Shemshad, 38, was taken into custody two weeks ago. If Shemshad is returned to Iran, he could face extreme consequences and even death for his political activities in his homeland and abroad, his Vancouver lawyer, Peter Edelmann, said yesterday.

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By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA
 
Hundreds of Toronto students who are in Canada illegally are too scared to go to school over fears they’ll be deported, teachers and immigration groups say.  The Toronto District School Board is not living up to its policy of not asking about immigration status, Farrah Miranda, of No One Is Illegal said yesterday. As many as 200,000 families are living illegally in Toronto, she said, and many have children who are eligible for school but don’t go because they fear deportation.

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==> Brother executed in Iran; Immigration Canada sending Hamid Shemshad to possible similar fate
==> Concerned Canadians call on Citizenship and Immigration Canada to halt deportation

Tuesday Sep 2, VANCOUVER – Local community groups and Iranian-Canadians are deeply concerned about the fate of Hamid Shemshad, an Iranian political dissident seeking asylum in Canada. Hamid is currently being held in detention and faces deportation to Iran on September 7, 2008. Hamid Shemshad has been an active student activist and political dissident against the Iranian government. In 1999 he was jailed in Iran for his political activities. His brother Jafar Shemshad was also a political activist against the Iranian government and was executed in 1988.

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