Courthouse News Service

Five government agencies will pay $1.2 million in legal fees after having to disclose documents on a controversial fingerprinting and deportation program, s a rights group says.      In April 2010, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and others sued the FBI, the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Office of Legal Counsel and two other agencies seeking information about Se Communities, or S-Comm.      The plaintiffs, which include the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, said the "error-prone" system would be instituted nationwide "without sufficient transparency, oversight, or public engagement." Ostensibly developed to target criminals, the system was allegedly flush with immigrants whom authorities fingerprinted for minor traffic offenses to meet deportation quotas.      The groups sought the information as ammunition for a campaign urging supporters to "End Se Communiti..

Landmark $1.2 Million Fee Settlement in Immigration Policy FOIA Case

June 28, 2013, New York – The day after the Senate passed a disappointing immigration reform bill, the U.S. government agreed to pay over $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees in the historic Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit NDLON v. ICE. Rights groups brought the case in 2010 to force the government to turn over documents about the so-called Se Communities (SCOMM) program. Since its rollout in 2008, SCOMM has spread nationwide, over the protests of local and state leaders, and contributed to the Obama administration’s widely criticized, record-setting deportation numbers.  Through SCOMM, the federal government targets all people booked into local jails, regardless of how minor the charges, even if charges are dropped, which has resulted in widespread

Archbi calls immigration reform debate a ‘defining moment’ for U.S. : The Catholic Sun – News from Phoenix and the World

The nation’s heated debate over immigration reform this summer is “a defining historical moment for America” and “a moment for national renewal” Los Angeles Archbi Jose H. Gomez told hundreds of attendees at the closing keynote address of the Catholic Media Conference June 21 in Denver. Archbi Gomez was initially scheduled to talk about the…