1. Illegals helped to recoup taxes
2. BP agent assaulted in CA
3. Mexican police asylum case
4. IA group seeks enforcement
5. Protesters urge DREAM Act

1.
Advocacy group helps illegal immigrants get tax refunds, even those with bogus social security cards
By Erica Pearson
New York Daily News, November 19, 2010

A Manhattan group is helping illegal immigrants recoup unclaimed state tax refunds - even if they used fake Social Security numbers to work.

The Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project got back thousands for a dozen undocumented New Yorkers who overpaid.

One bodega worker from Jackson Heights had been paying taxes since 2002 but never got a refund - until the group helped him get back $670 from his 2008 return.

"It really helped - we have two young kids," said his wife, who says they pay taxes because "it's the right thing to do."

Thousands more could be due a windfall from the Department of Taxation and Finance.

"We've been getting calls from people who say they've been filing taxes for more than 10 years, and they've never gotten a refund," said Deyanira Del Rio, the advocacy group's associate director.

Since 1996, a growing number of undocumented immigrants have filed taxes using a special ID number, without alerting immigration officials.

They usually get federal refunds, but state paybacks can be held up because the tax department flags documents that have mismatched ID information.

The state demanded documents from immigrants who filed without W-2s or with fake Social Security numbers, Del Rio said.

The tax department said it is working with Del Rio's group to identify taxpayers who are owed money and process their refunds, but added that most of the refunds requested by immigrants are automatically approved.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/11/19/2010-11-19_group_even_hel...

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2.
Border Patrol agent injured in assault at Riverside County traffic stop
Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2010

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was injured Monday afternoon in a scuffle during a traffic stop in Riverside County, authorities said.

The agent was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the incident on the 10 Freeway near California 111, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said.
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/border-patrol-agent-injure...

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3.
Mexican officer's bid to escape drug war, gain asylum to be heard today in Dallas
By Dianne Solis
The Dallas Morning Herald, November 22, 2010

Claudia Alarcón worried constantly that her husband, a police officer in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, would leave her a young widow with two children.

After a big balacera, a gunfight, in April 2008, she rushed to the hospital when she heard officers had been hit.

"I didn't know who was dead or wounded," said Alarcón, who is now 25. "Imagine, he is the pillar of our family and they [the drug cartels] forgive nothing."

Her husband, José Alarcón, was among the wounded; a bullet had hit his leg and flying glass cut his head and arms. He had emptied all 15 rounds in his Beretta 9 mm.

He was ordered back to work immediately, Alarcón said. He was refused fresh ammunition. That's when it dawned on him: He was being set up to be killed by his own bosses, he said.

Soon, the Alarcóns and their two children were fleeing across the Bridge of the Americas and into the sister city of El Paso to ask for asylum. José Alarcón's high-profile case and the real-time drama of the U.S.-Mexico drug war are expected to be heard today in a Dallas immigration court.

Alarcón said he was persecuted as a policeman who challenged the plot line of plata-o-plomo, a bribe of silver or lead from drug cartels. His case and the exploding violence in Juárez have some questioning the high asylum rejection rates for Mexicans – particularly for those in security roles fighting, in part, to keep cartels from access to the U.S. markets.

If the U.S. can give asylum to Iraqi translators for the U.S. Army and refugee status to Hmong assistants of the CIA in Vietnam, should asylum be given to Mexican officers battling drug cartels aiming for U.S. access?

They're difficult questions, attorneys and analysts said. And they come on top of the already tough standards necessary to prove persecution in an asylum case.

"The ones who command are the cartels, not the government," Alarcón said recently from his Dallas lawyer's office.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/11231...

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4.
Group seeks Arizona-style immigration law, begins petition drive
By William Pretroski
Des Moines Register, November 23, 2010

An Iowa citizens group opposed to illegal immigration is launching a statewide petition drive aimed at urging Gov.-elect Terry Branstad and lawmakers to approve a tough, Arizona-style immigration enforcement statute in Iowa.

The Minuteman Patriots have sent petitions to supporters in 81 Iowa counties, said Craig Halverson of Griswold, the group's national director. Several members gathered about 400 signatures Saturday outside a post office in Council Bluffs, and a similar petition effort was conducted in Sioux City. Petitions were also distributed Thursday at a Tea Party Patriots meeting in Spencer.

The goal is to obtain about 200,000 signatures before the Legislature convenes in January.

"We have illegal aliens working here and they are taking the jobs of American citizens in Iowa," Halverson said.

In addition, he said millions of dollars in Iowa taxpayer money are spent providing services to illegal immigrants, and the money could be used to reduce the state's budget and stop tax increases.

A 2007 study by the Iowa Policy Project, a research group, estimated that undocumented immigrants in Iowa pay some $40 million to $62 million in state and local property, sales, excise and income taxes every year - and consume fewer services than many believe.

Elementary and secondary public education and emergency health care - much of which is required by federal law - are the only government services that illegal immigrants are entitled to receive.

The Arizona law, which is being challenged in federal court by President Barack Obama's administration, has received national and international attention and has been criticized by many supporters of immigration. They say it encourages racial profiling.

A federal judge in July blocked some sections of the law from taking effect, including provisions calling for police officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws and requiring immigrants to prove they are in the country legally or risk state charges.

An Iowa Poll conducted in September found that 66 percent of those surveyed favored an illegal- immigration law such as the one in Arizona. The sentiment was strongest - more than 80 percent - among Republicans, born-again Christians and supporters of Branstad and the tea party.

House Speaker-elect Kraig Paulsen, a Hiawatha Republican, said Monday that he expects illegal-immigrant legislation to be debated in the coming session of the Legislature. But he said such a bill might not be specifically modeled on Arizona's law.

"Obviously, Arizona is different than Iowa, but my expectation would be that absolutely there are things we can learn from them," Paulsen said. "That is probably as good a place to start the discussion as any. Illegal immigration continues to be a concern, and it is a concern of the House Republican caucus."

Branstad, also a Republican, believes in strong enforcement of immigration laws, although he welcomed legal immigrants to Iowa during his past tenure in the governor's office, said aide Tim Albrecht.

"Governor Branstad believes that if the federal government will not enforce existing laws, Iowa-specific legislation should be drafted that will enable local law enforcement to detain those individuals who are here illegally," Albrecht said.
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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101123/NEWS10/11230364/1001/N...

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5.
Protesters urge DREAM Act passage
By Alfonso Chardy
The Miami Herald, November 23, 2010

A small group of immigration activists staged a protest at the entrance to the Krome immigrant detention center Monday, the first of what they said will be weekly demonstrations seeking a suspension of deportations while Congress decides whether to legalize undocumented immigrants.

``We will be doing this every Monday at Krome or other immigration sites, to ask President Obama to order a moratorium in deportations until Congress decides on the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform,'' said Nora Sándigo, president of American Fraternity, one of several immigrant rights groups whose members participated in the protest.

Monday's rally on Krome Avenue at the entrance to the facility in West Miami-Dade is the latest by immigrant rights activists here in connection with the new push in Washington to legalization of undocumented immigrants. President Barack Obama last week told leaders of the lame-duck Congress that he will push for passage of the DREAM Act, legislation that would give green cards to undocumented students illegally brought to the United States by their parents when they were children.

Obama has said he does not see any possibility of legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants unless a significant number of Republicans sign on to comprehensive immigration reform.

White House officials and congressional Democratic leaders believe the DREAM Act has a better change of passing in the lame-duck session than comprehensive reform because the number of beneficiaries would be smaller.

Nevertheless, opponents of immigration reform are gearing up to thwart passage of the DREAM Act.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/23/1939147/protesters-urge-dream-act-...