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1. Border Patrol arrests drop in '08
2. NC college board revisits policy
3. CA court upholds LAPD policy
4. AZ sheriff dismissive about probe
5. Catholic bishops want amnesty

1.
Border Patrol Arrests of Illegal Immigrants Drop
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, June 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19brfs-BORDERPATROL_BRF.html

Arrests of illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol declined in 2008 to 724,000, the lowest number in 35 years, the Department of Homeland Security reported. Apprehensions by the agency fell from a peak of 1.6 million in 2000, declining by 39 percent in the last three years. Border Patrol arrests are regarded by researchers as a broad-brush indicator of the flow of illegal immigrants. The department’s report attributed the decline to high unemployment in the United States and increased border enforcement, among other factors.

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2.
College board reconsiders illegal immigrant policy
By Kristin Collins
The News and Observer (NC), June 18, 2009

Asheboro, NC -- State community college officials will consider re-opening their doors to illegal immigrants.

Several members of the State Board of Community Colleges said during a committee meeting at Randolph Community College today that they favored allowing illegal immigrants to attend at out-of-state tuition rates.

Undocumented students have been barred from degree programs at the state's 58 community colleges since May, 2008, while officials study the issue.

"These young people are here with basically no fault of their own," said board member Joanne Steiner of Wake Forest. "I am highly opposed to creating a subculture of people who have no hope."

Other members agreed that they did not want to close the doors of education for any group of students.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1574429.html

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3.
Court Upholds LAPD Policy of Not Querying Immigration Status
The Latin American Herald Tribune (Caracas, Venezuela), June 19, 2009

Los Angeles -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California applauded the decision of a California appeals court to uphold a Los Angeles Police Department rule barring cops from inquiring about the immigration status of a person they have detained, in most cases.

“With Special Order 40 securely intact, beat cops can continue to build strong trust with community members, residents can report crimes without fear of being deported, and Los Angeles – with all its diversity – will be a safer place,” ACLU staff attorney Belinda Escobosa Helzer said.

The appeals court ruling is part of the case filed in 2006 by Los Angeles resident Harold Sturgeon, who alleges that the policy established by the LAPD violates state and federal laws by prohibiting full cooperation between police and immigration authorities.

Last year, a lower court declared Special Order 40 unconstitutional.
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http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337544&CategoryId=12395

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4.
U.S. bishops call on Obama for immigration reform to end migrants’ suffering
The Catholic News Agency, June 18, 2009

Cardinal Francis George, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), speaking at the conference’s annual spring meeting, called on President Barack Obama and congressional leaders to enact “comprehensive” immigration reform.

“It has been clear for years that the United States immigration system requires repair and that reform legislation should not be delayed,” Cardinal George said, speaking on behalf of the bishops. Stating that the bishops urge “respect and observance of all just laws,” he added that they do not “approve or encourage” illegal entry into the United States.

“From a humanitarian perspective,” he said, “our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.”

Cardinal George said society should stop tolerating a status quo that perpetuates a “permanent underclass” and benefits from its members’ labor “without offering them legal protections.”

“As a moral matter, we must resolve the legal status of those who are here without proper documentation so that they can fully contribute their talents to our nation’s economic, social and spiritual well being.
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http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16322

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5.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffs at possibility of broader federal probe
By Mike Sunnucks
The Phoenix Business Journal, June 18, 2009

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffs at the possibility that a federal civil rights and racial profiling investigation into his immigration raids and crime sweeps could be expanded into a broader look at his office’s use of power and finances.

Arpaio said the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights investigation is a politically motivated inquiry by the Barack Obama administration into his immigration enforcement tactics, and he has no indication yet whether investigators are or will be looking into any other matters, including finances. The hard-nosed sheriff said the FBI and Justice Department will not find any financial irregularities within his office.

“I have nothing to hide. Let them look,” said Arpaio, who acknowledged that such investigations can be drawn-out affairs. “They are just coming down here hoping to find something.”

But some legal and public officials with familiarity of Justice Department and FBI inquiries into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office say the federal investigation could be expanded. That includes investigators taking a closer look at financial management, contracting and vendor relationships, and how various pools of money are used by the MCSO, according to the officials and legal sources who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

The MCSO’s $270 million budget includes jails and law enforcement. County budget cuts could result in MCSO having a $228 million annual budget for the next fiscal year, according to Maricopa County spokesman Richard de Uriarte.

Federal investigators could examine MCSO’s vendor contracts; its equipment and vehicle purchases; how it uses federal grant money; the movement of pools of money within the office; and its overall financial management and use of county and federal money, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.

Arpaio stressed he is not aware of any criminal or financial probe by the feds into the MCSO, and that the Obama administration does not like his get-tough stances on immigration and law and order.

Justice Department attorneys began looking into Arpaio’s crime and immigration sweeps in late 2008 and earlier this year confirmed a federal civil rights investigation of the sheriff’s immigration and criminal enforcement, said Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar.

Miyar said the MCSO inquiry started at the end of President George W. Bush’s second term. However, the investigation has become more aggressive since Obama became president and Eric Holder took over as U.S. attorney general in January. Miyar would not comment specifically on the status of the Arpaio investigation, but said he was not aware of any expansion of the probe beyond the civil rights investigation.

Arpaio, 77, confirmed federal investigators had been to his office and were conducting interviews, but said those inquiries will not deter his arrests of illegal immigrants and raids of businesses that employ them.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/06/15/daily60.html