1. New policy takes effect
2. Judge casts doubt on AL
3. NM DL checks challenged
4. GA profs offer course
5. L.A. Students protest

1.
New U.S. Deportation Policy Spares Some
By Ted Robbins
NPR, August 25, 2011

Immigrants and their lawyers are beginning to see the effects of the White House policy announced last week that downgrades some deportation cases.

The Department of Homeland Security says it hasn't officially begun to prioritize all 300,000 cases before the nation's immigration courts, but prosecutors are definitely employing newfound discretion.

Judy Flanagan got a call this week — a call she has never gotten before in many years as an immigration lawyer. It was a prosecutor from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in Phoenix, suggesting that a college student Flanagan represents ought to ask for her deportation case to be dismissed.

"That never happens," she said. "I've asked for prosecutorial discretion in the past, too, for other students, and that didn't work out too well. They said no."

This time she didn't even have to ask. The prosecutor apparently looked at the file and thought the student qualified under the new guidelines. The goal is to prosecute more people convicted of crimes, or back in the U.S. after having already been deported, and to ease off people like 22-year-old Ileana Salinas, Flanagan's client.

One Student's Story

Salinas sits with Flanagan in Flanagan's small Phoenix law office. Flanagan asks her is she has any certificates from school.

"I have the scholarship awards," she replies.

Flanagan asks her to get a police clearance letter from the city of Phoenix that would show Salinas has no record.

Salinas came to the U.S. as a child, graduated from high school and is finishing her bachelor's degree in psychology at Arizona State University. She's wearing a maroon polo shirt with ASU Leadership Scholarship embroidered on it — an award she received. She says she'd like to go to graduate school, but since ICE arrested her and her brother after a traffic stop two years ago, Salinas says she has been in limbo.

"It's just too hard to know whether or not I will be able to complete my master's degree or if I'm going to be deported before that," she says. "Should I even apply?"

If her case is dismissed or administratively closed, it would provide some emotional relief. But her case could be reopened.

"It could be stopped at any point," Flanagan says. "It could stop with a new administration, depending on who or what that is. It doesn't give clear rights to anybody."

Critics

People such as Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer call the policy "backdoor amnesty."

Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which wants to limit immigration, calls it administrative amnesty.

"There's nothing wrong with prioritizing," he says. "But prioritizing can't mean that you simply stop altogether enforcing immigration laws on whole categories of people, millions of people."

Camerota says millions could potentially be affected if enough people picked up by ICE are deemed low priority. If the president wants immigration laws changed, Camerota says he should go to Congress.

"It is a cliche but it's true," he says. "The rule of law is the foundation on which a democratic republic such as ours is built."
. . .
Listen to the Story

Related Topic: Administrative Amnesty

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

2.
Alabama judge casts doubt on harsh new illegal immigration law
By Mark Gaurino
The Christian Science Monitor, August 24, 2011

A federal court hearing in Alabama Wednesday will determine whether or not a recent state law restricting illegal immigration has constitutional merit. Although the judge has until next week to strike down provisions of the law, critics say the legislation may drive undocumented workers to neighboring states.

Proponents of the law say that illegal immigrants to the state – whose numbers have increased dramatically over the last 10 years – are taking precious jobs away from legal residents.

In June, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) signed into law what is by some measures the harshest anti-immigration bill in the nation. For example, birth certificates or other papers showing legal resident status will now be required at government agencies and from parents seeking to enroll their children in public schools.

Could you pass a US citizenship test? Find out here.

Law enforcement can detain people suspected of entering the country illegally if they do not produce proof of residency and employers or individuals face penalties if they knowingly transport, harbor, or hire illegal immigrants.

Wednesday’s hearing, held in federal court in Birmingham, is the result of numerous lawsuits collectively launched by the Obama administration, national civil rights groups, and state church leaders seeking to block the new law, which goes into effect Sept. 1.

US District Judge Sharon Blackburn said in court Wednesday that she believed “there are a lot of problems” with the statute, but that she would only hear arguments that framed the debate by its legality, opposed to its supposed moral or political merits.

Judge Blackburn acknowledged that the language in the bill as written is unclear on details regarding the process of demanding documentation at police stops and whether state schools have the right to demand the birth certificates of parents. She suggested Alabama lawmakers should have taken longer to define exactly how some procedures would happen under the law.

Blackburn did not say when she would make a final ruling.

There is precedent that at least some aspects of the bill may be struck down. Last year, the Obama administration successfully sued to block a similarly expansive immigration law in Arizona and federal courts have temporarily blocked – either in part or entirely – laws in Georgia, Indiana, and Utah until further review.

The Arizona case is on appeal in the US Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether it will take the case.

Much of the debate in the courtroom Wednesday focused on state versus federal authority.

US Department of Justice Attorney William Orrick said the federal government overrules the states in immigration enforcement. “A state may not make it impossible for someone to live in this country,” Mr. Orrick said. “It is important that the country speak with one voice and that voice belongs to the executive branch and the Department of Homeland Security.

He suggested that, if passed, the law would also dampen the country’s reputation by corroding “values like opening and welcoming others.”
. . .
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/0824/Alabama-judge-casts-doubt...

Related Topic: Alabama

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

3.
Court asked to stop immigrant license checks in NM
By Barry Massey
The Associated Press, August 24, 2011

Four state legislators and a Silver City woman asked a judge Wednesday to stop Gov. Susana Martinez's administration from trying to verify whether immigrants who received a driver's license in New Mexico still live in the state.

An Albuquerque law firm and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit in state District Court in Santa Fe on behalf of the Democratic lawmakers and the Hispanic woman.

The suit seeks to block a state agency from checking a random sample of 10,000 license holders who are foreign nationals to determine their residency.

New Mexico is one of only three states — the others are Washington and Utah — where an illegal immigrant can get a driver's license because no proof of citizenship is required. However, Utah's permits cannot be used as government ID cards.

Martinez wants the Legislature to end New Mexico's policy of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She and other critics contend it jeopardizes public safety and attracts illegal immigrants who fraudulently claim to live in the state only to get ID cards that make it easier to stay in the country.

The Republican governor in July announced the residency verification plan — the administration's latest effort to focus attention on the state's politically charged license policy.

Under the plan, New Mexico sent notices to people that they must schedule an in-person appointment and bring documents, such as a utility bill or lease agreement, to prove they live in the state. The administration plans to cancel licenses of people who no longer are New Mexico residents.

The lawsuit contends the governor's license certification program is illegal because it singles out foreign nationals for unfair treatment, violating equal protection provisions of the state and federal constitutions. The lawsuit said the administration also lacks the power to order the checks because the program wasn't authorized by the Legislature and it effectively requires some people to reapply for a driver's license.

"The program is unconstitutional because it unfairly targets certain Latinos in New Mexico and places a higher burden on them beyond what the law requires of other residents," said Martha Gomez, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said the suit attempts to stop an effort by the state to confront identity theft and fraud.

"This out-of-state group may believe that New Mexicans do not have a right to know who is residing within their borders, and as such, they may not have a problem trying to protect the illegal immigrants who have come to New Mexico from throughout the country to get our driver's license and leave," Darnell said in a statement. "But New Mexicans have a decidedly different point of view, and so does Gov. Martinez."

Martinez, who took office in January, vowed during her gubernatorial campaign to end the state's licensing policy enacted during former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson's administration.
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVVFRiG4OWjijPGxCL8IeR...

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

4.
Georgia profs offer course to illegal immigrants
By Kate Brumback
The Associated Press, August 25, 2011

As college students return to campus in Georgia, a new state policy has closed the doors of the five most competitive state schools to illegal immigrants, but a group of professors has found a way to offer those students a taste of what they've been denied.

The five University of Georgia professors have started a program they're calling Freedom University. They're offering to teach a rigorous seminar course once a week meant to mirror courses taught at the most competitive schools and aimed at students who have graduated from high school but can't go to one of those top schools because of the new policy.

"This is not a substitute for letting these students into UGA, Georgia State or the other schools," said Pam Voekel, a history professor at UGA and one of the program's initiators. "It is designed for people who, right now, don't have another option."

The policy, adopted last fall by the university system's Board of Regents, bars any state college or university that has rejected academically qualified applicants in the previous two years from admitting illegal immigrants. That includes five Georgia colleges and universities: the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Medical College of Georgia and Georgia College & State University. Illegal immigrants may still be admitted to any other state college or university, provided that they pay out-of-state tuition.

The new rule came in response to public concerns that Georgia state colleges and universities were being overrun by illegal immigrants, that taxpayers were subsidizing their education and legal residents were being displaced. A study conducted by the university system's Board of Regents last year found that less than 1 percent of the state's public college students were illegal immigrants, and that students who pay out-of-state tuition more than pay for their education.

"What we're hoping is that people in decision-making positions will reconsider the policy," said Reinaldo Roman, another of the organizing professors. "It goes counter to our aims. We have invested enormous resources in these young people. It makes sense to give them a chance at an education."

For now the course will simply serve to expose the students to a college environment and challenge them intellectually. It will not likely count for credit should the students be accepted at another school, but the professors said they're seeking accreditation so credits would be transferable at some point in the future.

The five founding professors all work for UGA, but they stress that the program has no connection to the institution. UGA referred a request for comment to the Board of Regents. Regents spokesman John Millsaps said faculty members are generally free to do whatever they want with their free time as long as it doesn't interfere with their responsibilities as employees of the university system. But he said he didn't know about enough about the program to comment on this specific case.

Once the professors hatched their plan — which was suggested by an illegal immigrant community member who works with a lot of illegal immigrant teens — they reached out to professors at prestigious schools nationwide to sit on a national board of advisers. One of them is Pulitzer Prize winning author and MIT professor Junot Diaz, who calls policies barring illegal immigrants from state schools cruel and divisive. He said he's ready to help Freedom University succeed.

"Whatever they ask of me. I'll do everything and anything I can," he wrote in an email. "This clearly is going to be a long fight."
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGH0OfVVPNorSbZtZ6T-51...

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

5.
Students hold sit-in at immigration building in LA
The Associated Press, August 24, 2011

Activists say nine illegal immigrant students and their supporters were arrested in demonstrations at immigration offices in Los Angeles over a fingerprint sharing program.

Youth activist Mohammad Abdollahi says five illegal immigrant students and graduates held a sit-in Wednesday at the building where federal officers ready immigrants for deportation.

Abdollahi says officers detained them and one supporter and released them several hours later.

He says three activists who rallied outside were arrested by police for failing to disperse.
. . .
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Students-hold-sit-in-at-immigration-bu...