Current events

Here are some articles that are relevant to my interests as a bilingual receptionist at a criminal defense/immigration law office. Click on a headline to read the entire article, and there’s lots more after the jump.

Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted

By NINA BERNSTEIN
The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return to Sender.

And they garnered bigger increases in money and staff from Congress than any other program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as complaints grew that teams of armed agents were entering homes indiscriminately.

But in fact, beginning in 2006, the program was no longer what was being advertised. Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, they would concentrate on rounding up the most threatening — criminals and terrorism suspects.

Instead, newly available documents show, the agency changed the rules, and the program increasingly went after easier targets. A vast majority of those arrested had no criminal record, and many had no deportation orders against them, either.

U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship

By JULIA PRESTON
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Study Shows Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Convicts

By SOLOMON MOORE
Latino convicts now represent the largest ethnic population in the federal prison system, accounting for 40 percent of those convicted of federal crimes, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Latinos made up only 13 percent of the United States adult population in 2007, but they accounted for one third of federal prison inmates that year, a result the study attributed to the sharp rise in illegal immigration and tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

Nearly half of Latino offenders, or about 48 percent, were convicted of immigration crimes, while drug offenses were the second-most-prevalent charge, according to the report.

Death by Detention

Posted by:     William Wheeler on February 23, 2009 at 10:01 am
When illegal immigrants waiting to be deported die in custody, who is to blame?

Guido Newbrough was “Raised American.” That is what the tattoo on his arm says. For most of his life—growing up in Virginia, attending its public schools, and serving time in its jails—he was treated like an American. Then, one day last winter, the police came looking for him.

(For more thorough background information, read this article from the New York Times.)

Advertisement