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1. U.S. stops 350 suspects
2. Court system overburdened
3. Hispanics drawn to suburbs
4. Deported leave children behind
5. AZ cities struggle with laws

1.
AP Exclusive: US blocks 350 suspected terrorists
The Associated Press, April 11, 2011

The U.S. government has prevented more than 350 people suspected of ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups from boarding U.S.-bound commercial flights since the end of 2009, The Associated Press has learned.

The tighter security rules — imposed after the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas 2009 — reveal a security threat that persisted for more than seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Until then, even as commercial passengers were forced to remove their shoes, limit the amount of shampoo in their carry-on luggage and endure pat downs, hundreds of foreigners with known or suspected ties to terrorism passed through security and successfully flew to the United States each year, U.S. officials told the AP. The government said these foreigners typically told Customs officers they were flying to the U.S. for legitimate reasons such as vacations or business.

Security practices changed after an admitted al-Qaida operative from Nigeria was accused of trying to blow himself up on a flight to Detroit on Christmas 2009. Until then, airlines only kept passengers off U.S.-bound planes if they were on the no-fly list, a list of people considered a threat to aviation.

Now before an international flight leaves for the U.S., the government checks passengers against a larger watch list that includes al-Qaida financiers and people who attended training camps but aren't considered threats to planes. The government was checking this list before, but only after the flight was en route. If someone on the flight was on the watch list, the person would be questioned and likely refused to enter the country after the plane landed.

"As terrorists keep adapting and changing their approach, so must we," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told the AP. During a Senate hearing shortly after the attempted Christmas attack, Rockefeller raised concerns about divisions among the different watch lists.

Hundreds of people linked to al-Qaida, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups have been kept off airplanes under the new rules. They include what U.S. officials described as a member of a terrorist organization who received weapons training, recruited others, fought against American troops and had a ticket to fly to the U.S. Another traveler prevented from boarding a U.S.-bound flight was a member of a terrorist organization whom intelligence officials believe had purchased equipment for terrorism.

A third case, in January, involved a Jordanian man booked from Amman, Jordan, to Chicago, who was considered a threat to national security, according to a law enforcement official. The State Department had already revoked his visa. He was on the terrorist watch list but not the no-fly list. He was not considered a threat to aviation.

After U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers performed the now-routine check, the man was kept off the flight. Before the change, he would have arrived in Chicago, where he would have likely been stopped at customs, questioned and sent home.

The law enforcement official and other U.S. officials insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues. They would not provide the names of the people suspected of terror ties or some key details about the cases for security reasons.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEqKKDCAWWadLrG8BpIqD0...

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2.
Immigration court: A ‘maddening’ system with stressed judges, long waits, lives in limbo
The Associated Press, April 10, 2011

Every morning, they don their black robes, take their seats and listen to the pleas of a long line of immigrants desperate to stay in America. The pace is fast, the pressure intense, the stories sometimes haunting. The work, these judges say, is exhausting:

“The volume is constant and unrelenting.’ ... ‘There is not enough time to think.’ ... ‘Nobody gives a damn about us!’ ... ‘I know I couldn’t do this job if I were not on medication for depression or did not have access to competent psychological care myself.’ ... ‘I cannot take this place anymore. What a dismal job this is!’”

These are the voices of immigration judges who determine the fate of tens of thousands of people every year — illegal border crossers, visa violators, asylum seekers from China, El Salvador, Iran and other countries, each making a case to remain here.

These judges are at the heart of a bloated immigration court system saddled by explosive growth, a troubled reputation and a record backlog estimated at nearly 268,000 cases. The problems are drawing increased scrutiny of a little-seen world where justice can seem arbitrary, lives can remain in limbo for years — and blame seems to be in abundance.

There are lawyers who accuse immigration judges of bias, stall tactics and incompetence. Judges who criticize lawyers as unprepared. Advocacy groups who say some immigrants don’t even understand the proceedings — and in extreme cases, are unfairly deported.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/immigration-court-a-maddening-sys...

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3.
Hispanics transforming small towns
The Associated Press, April 10, 2011

When Fernando Molina left central Mexico to move to Illinois, he was searching for affordable housing, job opportunities and established Hispanic neighborhoods with grocery stores, bakeries and clothing shops.

He didn’t head for Chicago, a well-known magnet for Mexicans pondering the journey north. Instead, he settled in Aurora, about 40 miles to the west.

“It’s like Mexico inside the United States,” said Mr. Molina, 37, a social worker who has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade and now assists other immigrant families. “You can find everything in the stores.”

Over the past decade, tens of thousands of others have followed his path to Aurora — more than 35,000 of about 55,000 new residents between 2000 and 2010 were Hispanic. The city, which is now 40 percent Hispanic, has surpassed Rockford to become Illinois’ second-largest city.

The trend of immigrants heading directly to American suburbs instead of starting in a major city intensified from 2000 to 2010 and was one factor in Illinois’ 32.5 percent increase in Hispanic population in that period, according to recently released U.S. Census data.

Demographers say they aren’t just seeing it around Chicago. The same thing is happening around other major cities that have long been entry points for immigrants, such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even as the steep growth of the Hispanic population in Chicago tapered off, the arrival of Hispanics helped make Kendall County west of Aurora the fastest-growing county in the U.S. for several years during the decade.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/10/hispanics-transforming-s...

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4.
Life after deportation: Young citizens left behind when Mom and Dad leave country
By Vikki Ortiz Healy
Chicago Tribune, April 10, 2011

In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after-school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes works long hours at a beauty salon.

The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan, Ill., apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject.

"I don't answer," she said. "It's such a long story."

After Elizabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who were born here and are U.S. citizens. She, like her husband, is undocumented, but has applied for a visa to remain in the country.

Now, the four children carry on in America as best they can, just like a growing number of young people who were born in this country and have seen one or both parents deported.
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But those who favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws assert that the struggles of families who have had a loved one deported highlight the need to keep people from entering the U.S. illegally.

"Issues surrounding U.S. born children (with undocumented parents) remind us that the longer you don't enforce your immigration laws, the harder it becomes to do so," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

In an estimate published by the Urban Institute in 2010, over 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported in the last 10 years.
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http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/10/3543344/life-after-deportation-young-ci...

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5.
Arizona cities struggle to implement new immigration laws
By Grant Martin
News 21 (AZ), April 10, 2011

In Arizona, no city has declared itself an official "city of refuge" or begun to issue municipal identification cards. But some cities have been informally labeled sanctuary cities because of their illegal-immigrant-reporting practices.

Shortly after Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law in April 2010, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he believed that Chandler, Mesa and Phoenix all had policies that violated the new law. He warned that municipalities that are not in compliance could face state sanctions and fines.

Although a federal judge halted several parts of SB 1070 from going into effect, the portion of the law that forbids any state or local official or agency from limiting or restricting the enforcement of federal immigration laws is in effect.

Chandler and Mesa have responded by making subtle alterations to the way they deal with illegal residents.

In Chandler, Police Chief Sherry Kiyler had long ordered her officers not to inquire about the citizenship of crime victims, witnesses, civil-traffic violators or juveniles convicted of non-violent crimes. The policy was recently changed to allow - but not require - officers to investigate the legal status of any detainee.

Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny, who as a state senator voted for SB 1070, has been pushing the city's police department to be more aggressive about checking immigration status.

But city officials are proceeding carefully. Some still feel the sting of a 1997 immigration raid in which Chandler police and federal immigration officials stopped hundreds of Hispanics. In a review of the raid, then-Attorney General Grant Woods said that officers had illegally used racial profiling in determining whom to stop, had violated the constitutional rights of some of the people stopped or detained, and had likely broken federal law.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/04/10/20110...