1. Deportation case tests Obama
2. Businesses deal with audits
3. AL law convinces some to move
4. Mexicans make asylum claims
5. Gay man fights to stay

1.
New Deportation Case Tests Obama Administration on Gay Marriage
FoxNews.com, July 13, 2011

The Obama administration's policies on immigration and gay marriage are being tested in another case of a gay man fighting deportation by citing his marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Alex Benshimol, a 47-year-old Venezuelan citizen who lives in California, married his partner, Doug Gentry, last year in Connecticut, the Contra Costa Times reported. Gentry is a U.S. citizen.

The couple was granted a reprieve Wednesday when an immigration judge delayed Benshimol's deportation by at least two years, as he presses the government to drop its efforts to deport him, the Times reported. He came to this this country in 1999, but his visa has since expired.

The U.S. allows citizens to sponsor their spouses for green cards and eventually citizenship, but the federal Defense of Marriage Act bars the government from recognizing such applications from same-sex spouses.

The decision in Benshimol's case comes on the heels of the Obama administration's decision last month to halt deportation of another Venezuelan man, Henry Velandia, 27, who married his U.S. citizen partner legally in Connecticut. In that case, Velandia's husband, Josh Vandiver, had not been allowed to sponsor Velandia for a green card for the same reason Gentry can't sponsor Benshimol.

The Department of Homeland Security dropped deportation efforts against Velandia but made no changes to procedures regarding the Defense of Marriage Act. Jessica Vaughan, director of policy students at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies told FoxNews.com that the decision was misguided prosecutorial discretion that could “destroy the credibility” of immigration law in the United States.

“This is another instance of the Obama administration’s abuse of executive authority on behalf of select groups of removable aliens that it thinks are sympathetic to make a run around Congress and provide amnesty to as many illegal aliens as possible,” she said.
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/13/defense-marriage-act-at-core-gay-im...

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2.
As Immigration Audits Increase, Some Employers Pay a High Price
By Adriana Gardella
The New York Times, July 13, 2011

David Cox was at his desk in September 2009, when his receptionist announced an unexpected visitor, a special agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Mr. Cox is chief executive of L. E. Cooke Company, a fourth-generation, family-owned nursery in Visalia, Calif., that grows deciduous trees and shrubs. The agent handed Mr. Cox a letter and informed him he had three days to produce I-9 employment-eligibility forms for all current employees. Mr. Cox said the agent was “pleasant and nonthreatening,” but he noticed she carried a gun.

L. E. Cook was one of 1,444 businesses to receive an introduction to ICE’s stepped-up worksite enforcement program in 2009 — almost three times the number audited in 2008. Last year, 2,196 businesses were audited. An ICE representative said the agency did not categorize audits by business type and that the law applied across industries.

“Any company is at risk at any given time,” said Leon Versfeld, an immigration lawyer in Kansas City, Mo. In one prominent case, American Apparel, the clothing manufacturer, was forced to terminate 1,800 undocumented workers after a 2009 audit. Chipotle Mexican Grill, the restaurant chain, has let go hundreds of workers since its audit began last year.

While the administration of George W. Bush focused on headline-making raids that resulted in arrests of immigrant workers, the Obama administration has gone after employers with ICE’s I-9 audits on the theory that employers who hire unauthorized workers create the demand that drives most illegal immigration.

In addition, the Social Security Administration has resumed sending “no-match” letters after a three-year hiatus. The letters, which alert employers that information on an employee’s W-2 form does not match information on file with the Social Security Administration, had been halted in 2007. The main purpose is ostensibly to ensure that employee Social Security accounts are credited properly, but the letters can also be used by ICE to show that an employer had reason to believe an employee might not have documentation.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/business/smallbusiness/how-a-small-bus...

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3.
Tough Alabama immigration law convinces some to move
By Monique Fields
Reuters, July 14, 2011

Nicolas Hernandez said goodbye to his parents just days after Alabama lawmakers passed what is being described as the country's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration.

His mother and father, undocumented workers at a farm near Birmingham, decided not to chance getting ensnared by the new law and returned to their home country of Argentina.

Hernandez, 25, said his family arrived in the United States 14 years ago on a three-year medical visa because doctors in their country could not treat his epilepsy, and then stayed after the visa expired.

"It's terrible. I hate it. It's tough because me and my family were always close," said Hernandez, who is engaged to a U.S. citizen and plans to stay in America.

How many others have decided to leave Alabama for other states or to return to their home countries before the new law takes effect on September 1 is unclear.

But legal and illegal immigrants have flocked to the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama requesting legal help, including parents who might need to return to their native countries and leave a child behind in the United States.

The group saw a surge in donations in June, with $2,000 coming in during a single week, said Caitlin Sandley, the lead organizer for HICA. The group usually receives $50 a week in donations from Hispanic supporters.

"Regardless of immigrant status, they are concerned about this law," she said.

Hispanic immigrants aren't the only people worried. Departing workers are feeding concern about potential labor shortages in agricultural hubs across the state, much like what farmers in Georgia complained of after a new immigration law passed there this spring.

Durbin Farms Market owner Danny Jones said he has lost workers in Chilton County in the central part of the state. He may not plant strawberries later this year as a result, forcing him to pay extra to buy them from fruit vendors.

"If you don't have labor to pick it, there's no point in planting it," Jones said.

LEGISLATORS FIRM ON LAW'S VALUE

State lawmakers said they drafted the legislation to protect American jobs.

"For illegal immigrants to now be leaving the state shows they know Alabama is serious about enforcing its laws," said Todd Stacy, a spokesman for Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard.

"Documented, legal residents of this country have no reason to leave on account of this law, and I've seen no evidence to suggest that's the case."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-immigration-alabama-idUSTRE...

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4.
More Mexicans fleeing the drug war seek U.S. asylum
By Patricia Giovine
Reuters, July 14, 2011

Mexican journalist Armando Rodriguez, renowned for his coverage of gangland slayings in his hometown of Ciudad Juarez, lay dead in a casket, shot by suspected cartel hitmen.

As his colleague Jorge Luis Aguirre drove to the funeral home in the dismal border city to pay his last respects, his cell phone rang. The husky voice delivered a chilling warning: "You're next."

"I left Ciudad Juarez in panic the same day," said Aguirre, the former editor of news website "La Polaka.

The newsman joined a growing number of Mexicans fleeing raging drug cartel violence in and around Ciudad Juarez to begin a long-shot bid for political asylum next door in the United States.

More than 9,300 people have been gunned down, mutilated and beheaded in the grim industrial powerhouse south of El Paso, Texas, since early 2008 when the rival Juarez and Sinaloa cartels began an all-out war for rich trafficking routes.

That conflict has unleashed further violence as local gangs battle over street corner drug rackets, and turn to kidnapping and extortion. The Mexican military and federal police sent to curb the mayhem are also blamed by many residents for killings and other abuses.

Amid the violence, asylum requests from Mexico reached a record 5,551 last year, according to U.S. government figures, more than a third up on 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the military to crush the cartels. Just 165 asylum requests were granted in 2010.

Among the wave of panic-stricken asylum seekers are the muckraking journalists who chronicle brutal gang warfare in Ciudad Juarez and Mexico's northern Chihuahua state, the police officers tasked with curbing the violence, and the rights campaigners clamoring for justice.

NEW APPLICANTS DAILY

If they have a U.S. visa or border crossing cards, some Mexican asylum seekers lodge their pleas within the United States. Others arrive, sometimes distraught, at border crossings and request asylum from U.S. customs inspectors.

U.S. authorities do not provide data on the basis for the claims, or the states in which they are made. But so great is the influx in El Paso that immigration attorneys and rights groups have formed a coalition to support applicants during the often lengthy and uncertain asylum process.

Before 2008, just five percent of the cases handled by leading El Paso immigration lawyer Carlos Spector were asylum petitions. Now asylum seekers make up about 50 percent of his workload. "We have new applicants on a daily basis," he says.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-usa-mexico-asylum-idUSTRE76...

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5.
Married, gay immigrant fights to stay in Houston
Costa Rican accountant wed Californian in 2008, but faces deportation because he overstayed his tourist visa
By Susan Carroll
Houston Chronicle, July 14, 2011

An attorney for a gay Costa Rican immigrant married to a U.S. citizen plans to ask a Houston judge on Thursday to halt deportation proceedings while the courts weigh the future of a federal law forbidding same-sex marriage.

David Gonzalez, a 35-year-old accountant from Costa Rica who overstayed his tourist visa, is to appear before a Houston immigration judge Thursday morning, accompanied by his partner, Mario Ramirez, a U.S. citizen he married in California in 2008.

For years he dreaded this day, Gonzalez said, but his hopes have been buoyed by a spate of high-profile cases involving same-sex couples and by the support of Ramirez, whom he considers his "soul mate."

"I am not afraid anymore," Gonzalez said. "I am glad this day is coming — whatever the outcome."

The Houston case comes on the heels of several recent decisions that have — at least temporarily — spared from deportation gays and lesbians who are in long-term relationships with U.S. citizens. On Wednesday, a San Francisco immigration judge postponed for two years the deportation proceedings against a Venezuelan man married to a U.S. citizen.

In June, the U.S. government canceled deportation proceedings for a Venezuelan man in New Jersey married to an American man - a high-profile case that advocates for immigrants and gays said signals a major shift toward greater leniency for same-sex couples in immigration proceedings.

"Certainly the families and couples we work with are more hopeful today than really at any prior point," said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the national advocacy group Immigration Equality.

DOMA's future a factor

The issue has gained traction since the Obama administration questioned the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. Immigrant and gay advocates have asked the government to stop deporting gay and lesbian couples who could be eligible for family-based green cards if the law is declared unconstitutional.

But the idea of granting any kind of immigration benefits to same-sex couples remains highly controversial, and has met with staunch opposition from immigration-control advocates and from Christian conservatives who oppose gay marriage.

"Until the overall definition of marriage is changed by Congress and signed by the [president], any attempt to treat same-sexes couples as spouses for the purposes of immigration is just a lawless act - there is no nice way to put it," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration controls.

So far, the government has not made any blanket policy changes involving same-sex couples in immigration proceedings, said Gillian Christensen, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. She said the government will continue to enforce DOMA until Congress repeals it or the law is ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7652262.html