Groups Seek TN Supreme Court Block Of 287(g) Program

Several groups have issued a challenge to the Tennessee Supreme Court, asking them to block the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office ability to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG), and the Law Offices of Elliott Ozment, joined by local attorneys from the firm of Sherrard & Roe issued the request Thursday. The 287-G program allows Davidson County sheriff’s deputies to identify, process and detain illegal immigrants who have been arrested for other offenses. But immigration attorney Elliott Ozment argues the sheriff’s office can’t enter into that agreement, because the agency gave up law enforcement powers in 1963. Ozment filed a lawsuit in January 2011 saying the 287(g) in Nashville violates state and local laws. “This agreement is illegal and enforcing it simply adds insult to injury for the Nashville community,” said Tom Fritzsche, staff attorney for the SPLC.

Students Press for Action on Immigration – NYTimes.com

Young illegal immigrants, saying President Obama has done little to diminish the threat of deportations they face despite repeated promises, have started a campaign to press him to use executive powers to allow them to remain legally in the country. The campaign is led by the United We Dream Network, the largest organization of young immigrants here illegally who would be eligible for legal status under a proposal in Congress known as the Dream Act. The young people are among the most visible activists in a growing immigrant movement. Their push to focus pressure on the White House reflects deep frustration with Congress for its lack of action on the legislation and with the administration for continuing to deport illegal immigrant students, although Mr. Obama says he supports them.

Expansión de Comunidades Seguras genera preocupación – Univision Noticias

La súbita expansión del programa federal Comunidades Seguras a todos los condados de Colorado ha causado preocupación entre los dirigentes pro inmigrantes, porque la medida deja sin efecto leyes estatales que hasta ahora protegían a personas indocumentadas víctimas de ciertos delitos. Hasta el pasado martes, mind Comunidades Seguras funcionaba solamente en tres condados de Colorado. Desde el miércoles, sin embargo, los departamentos de Policía y oficinas de alguaciles de los 64 condados de este estado podrán y deberán cooperar con las autoridades federales de Inmigración para detectar y arrestar a presuntos indocumentados convictos de crímenes. Aunque la implementación completa de esa colaboración llevará varias semanas, las consecuencias de la expansión de Comunidades Seguras se sentirán inmediatamente, advirtió Alan Kaplan, portavoz de la Coalición de Colorado por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes (CIRC).

Breaking Down The Border

With policies like 287g coming to Knox County the focus has been on illegal immigration. But what is it really like to live hidden in broad daylight among the 12 million undocumented people living in America? “I’m a Christian, I’m a Catholic, so I always pray and say ‘well I hope today is good just let me come back.'” We first heard about Jose at an immigrant rights rally in downtown Knoxville. While that’s not his real name, this is his real story and it’s not uncommon. “Crossing the border is not easy.” Jose told us at our station. “Soon as you’re here still you’re risking to be deported, to be a criminal, but that’s the way I came. That’s the way a lot of people come, crossing the border, risking their life.” Jose left his town in Mexico and walked into San Diego in 1992. It took a bus, a race across the desert and a bike.

‘TRUST Act 2.0′: Amended CA bill would only let cops hold convicted criminals for ICE | Multi-American

A year ago, order a bill was moving through the California state legislature that aimed to make optional counties and cities’ participation in the controversial Se Communities immigration enforcement program. At the time, California was one of several states in which some state and law enforcement officials had come out against the federal program, store which allows the fingerprints of people booked at local jails to be shared with immigration officials. The bill was rendered moot last August, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rescinded state agreements with the agency allowing Se Communities to operate. The decision essentially made the program mandatory, leaving states no choice but to go along. As a counter to that, the same California lawmaker behind last year’s bill is now pushing an alternative dubbed TRUST Act 2.0.

Obama’s broken immigration promise – Salon

The Obama administration claims that it is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants while focusing on those with criminal records. But new data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows that the number of deportation orders has declined dramatically since last summer and non-criminals comprise a growing percentage of those expelled from the country. That wasn’t supposed to happen under a policy of “prosecutorial discretion” announced by ICE director John Morton last June. The goal of the policy, patient announced with much fanfare in the Spanish language media, was to spare “longtime lawful residents” from deportation and to focus on criminals. Since then, the adminstration has deported many fewer non-criminal aliens. But non-criminals remain the vast majority of those deported. And those with no criminal record now actually comprise a slightly larger percentage of those forced to leave the country than they did before Morton’s announcement.

Feds Use Counter-Terrorism Laws to Fuel Deportation Machine

Jose Barahona says that he would have been killed had he refused to open his door when the armed guerillas occupying his town demanded he let them use his kitchen and sleep on his floor. He says that’s what happened to his father. Dead. And he says it was because of the fear of death during the war raging between the FMLN guerillas and the Salvadoran government that at the age of 24, with his new wife and baby boy, he left his Salvadoran mountain village and came to the United States where the couple would have two more children and where he’d spend the next two and half decades. He thought he’d left all the violence behind. Twenty six years after that departure, on March 22nd 2011, now 51-year-old Barahona was shuttled from a Virginia immigration detention center to an immigration court

Obama’s Broken 2008 Immigration Promises Create Dilemma For Democrats

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of President Barack Obama’s most vocal critics on immigration, was sitting at dinner with his family a couple of weeks ago when his youngest daughter began talking about the president’s “terrible” deportation record. “If they invite us to the White House, I won’t go,” the 24-year-old said, according to Gutierrez. His wife, though, summed up the family’s mixed feelings on the president and immigration. “Yes — but you should clarify that notwithstanding that, we’re all voting for him,” his wife said, according to the congressman. “We can be angry, but we cannot vote for” Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee. To many supporters of immigration reform, Obama has been a major disappointment.

Mayoral Candidates Oppose Fingerprinting Program – NYTimes.com

The expected Democratic candidates for mayor may have their differences, there but they are unified in their opposition to New York City’s participation in Se Communities, there a controversial fingerprinting program meant to identify illegal immigrants. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced that they planned to extend the program across New York and Massachusetts on Tuesday, despite opposition from the governors of both states. The program requires the fingerprints of anyone arrested by the local or state police to be checked against databases of the Department of Homeland Security, which include immigration violations. If someone is found to be in the country illegally, immigration officials may ask the police to hold the person to be picked up by federal agents.