1. Obama says E-Very effective
2. No deportation for immigrant
3. Los Angeles Sheriff sued
4. Students press Obama on DREAM
5. Business helps sink TX bill

1.
President Obama Says E-Verify is an Effective Tool, but Needs to be Perfected
Fox News Latino, June 30, 2011

President Obama reiterated his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform Wednesday, but said the overall initiative must go beyond E-Verify – an effective, though imperfect, tool that needs improvement.

In a wide-ranging press conference at the White House, the president repeated his quest to fix the nation's broken immigration system – but said any repair would have to balance tough security, a pathway toward legalization, and enforcement that protects, and holds accountable, employers and the immigrant workers they hire.

Immigration Advocates Protest Proposed New Jersey Detention Center

Activists rallied and marched against a plan that could use an Essex County jail to house up to 2,700 undocumented immigrants in federal custody.

Faces of the Immigrant Archive Project

Tony Hernandez's Immigrant Archive Project gives a face and name to immigration by documenting the journey that brought them to the United States.

"E-Verify can be an important enforcement tool if it's not riddled with errors, if U.S. citizens are protected – because what I don't want is a situation in which employers are forced to set up a system that they can't be certain works," Obama said. "And we don't want to expose employers to the risk where they end up rejecting a qualified candidate for a job because the list says that that person is an illegal immigrant, and it turns out that the person isn't an illegal immigrant.

"That wouldn't be fair for the employee and would probably get the employer in trouble as well," he added."

E-Verify is an electronic employment eligibility system that allows employers to check the immigration status of their workers.
. . .
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/06/30/president-obama-say...

********
********

2.
U.S. Drops Deportation Proceedings Against Immigrant in Same-Sex Marriage
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, June 29, 2011

In a decision that could have far-reaching effects on immigration cases involving same-sex couples, federal officials have canceled the deportation of a Venezuelan man in New Jersey who is married to an American man, the couple’s lawyer said Wednesday.

Josh Vandiver, left, and his husband, Henry Velandia, outside the immigration court in Newark on Friday.

The announcement comes as immigration officials put into effect new, more flexible guidelines governing the deferral and cancellation of deportations, particularly for immigrants with no serious criminal records.

Immigration lawyers and gay rights advocates said the decision represented a significant shift in policy and could open the door to the cancellation of deportations for other immigrants in same-sex marriages.

“This action shows that the government has not only the power but the inclination to do the right thing when it comes to protecting certain vulnerable populations from deportation,” said the couple’s lawyer, Lavi Soloway.

The case has been closely watched across the country by lawyers and advocates who viewed it as a test of the federal government’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

In February, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that the administration viewed the act as unconstitutional and would not defend it in the courts. Gay rights advocates asked the administration to postpone all deportations for same-sex married couples until the courts decided whether the marriage act was constitutional, but the administration said it would continue to enforce the law.

The Venezuelan man, Henry Velandia, 27, is a salsa dancer who immigrated in 2002 and was legally married last year in Connecticut to Josh Vandiver, 30, a graduate student at Princeton University. But Mr. Velandia was denied legal residency as Mr. Vandiver’s spouse because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Under immigration law, an American citizen can petition for legal residency for a spouse, as long as the spouse is not the same sex.
. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/us/30immig.html

********
********

3.
LA Co. sheriff sued over immigrant deportations
The Associated Press, June 30, 2011

Immigrant rights advocates will serve the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with a summons to get information about the department's participation in immigration enforcement programs and data about deportations.

The National Day Labor Organizing Network, the National Immigration Law Center and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles asked for statistics that outline the cost of participating in federal programs to the county and its taxpayers, and arrest records which they say might be evidence of racial profiling.

The groups plan to serve Sheriff Lee Baca with a summons and hold a rally at the department's headquarters on Thursday, after filing their petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday.

In February the groups filed a California Public Records Act request to get access to communications between the Sheriff's Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the information is ICE's to release.
. . .
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/29/3737398/immigrant-advocates-sue-la-co.html

********
********

4.
Hundreds of students press Obama on DREAM Act
EFE, June 30, 2011

About 200 undocumented students from all over the country on Tuesday here demanded that President Barack Obama halt deportations and push for the approval of the DREAM Act to legalize their immigration status.

Prior to those pressure tactics, Obama had reiterated his support for immigration reform and the DREAM Act at a White House press conference focused mainly on the budget and other issues.

The president called for the legalization of students who have grown up in the United States "and think of themselves as Americans and who are illegal through no fault of their own and who are ready to give back to our country and go to school and fight in our military."

But the students, first in a crowded hall of the Senate building and later in front of the White House, complained that Obama had supported immigration reform with words and not deeds.

The students, many of them facing possible deportation, came to Washington from as far away as California, Texas and Florida with a single message: the immigration system needs reform.
. . .
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/06/30/hundreds-students-press...

********
********

5.
Business lobby helps scuttle immigration curbs in Texas
By Karen Brooks
Reuters, June 29, 2011

Powerful business interests helped to scuttle proposed immigration restrictions in Texas on Wednesday, further evidence that Republicans in some states are facing resistance among their own supporters to an immigration clampdown.

The "sanctuary cities" bill would have barred cities from stopping police departments from asking about immigration status of people who are detained or arrested. It died when the Texas legislature adjourned without passing it.

Since Arizona enacted sweeping restrictions on immigration last year and blamed the federal government for failing to pass national reforms, civil rights activists have feared that the crackdown would spread across the country.

Many watched Texas closely because it is the nation's second most populous state, shares a long border with Mexico, has a rapidly growing Hispanic population, and like Arizona, Republicans control its legislature and governorship.

The sanctuary cities bill was far less restrictive than the measure passed in Arizona, and it was championed by Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry, who is considering running for president.

Political analysts expected it to sail through the Republican-dominated legislature.

While Republican party infighting and rivalry between the two chambers of the legislature were factors in its demise, shocked conservatives and Tea Party supporters blamed "Country Club" Republicans with close ties to business.

"I don't, for one minute, blame the Democrats for this one," an angry Mike Openshaw, Texas Tea Party activist, told Reuters on Wednesday.
. . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/immigration-texas-idUSN1E75S29...