1. Feds expand deportations from GA prisons
2. Court rules against E-verify terminations
3. SCOTUS to consider suit against DOJ
4. ID SC rules on entitlement to medical care
5. Regulation hinders int'l adoption

1.
Feds deport more felons from Georgia prisons
Last year, state doubled number of inmates it sent to ICE, compared to 2002
By Julia Malone
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 17, 2008

Washington, DC -- After years of complaints about the failure of the
federal government to deport foreign nationals who commit serious
crimes, new statistics for Georgia indicate stepped-up efforts are
having an impact, particularly in state prisons.

The Georgia Department of Corrections transferred 433 felons to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings in 2007,
the most recent year for which state and federal data are available.
That's more than twice as many as the 189 handed over to the agency in
2002.

Under federal law, a criminal who is in the country illegally is subject
to deportation, as are those who are here legally but who commit
aggravated felonies, such as drug trafficking, violent crimes or theft,
carrying sentences of at least one year in prison.

However, enforcement nationwide has come under criticism for more than a
decade. Government auditors have faulted federal immigration authorities
for failing to set up a reliable system to monitor the prison population
and remove those eligible for deportation. Studies have repeatedly found
that thousands of convicts who should have been deported were instead
released back into the community.

In Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution five years ago conducted a
study of prison data and found violent criminals who were set free
instead of being sent back to their home countries. At least three child
molesters who were illegal immigrants had served time in Georgia prisons
but escaped the attention of federal authorities. All three were
released back into the community.

"There were people who slipped through the system," said Ray Simonse,
who a year ago took over as Atlanta field director for detention and
removal for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Since then, the job of tracking and removing foreign inmates nationwide
has been taken over by ICE, a new agency in the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, and Simonse said the effort has been intensified.
. . .
Advocates of reducing the immigration flow are applauding the increased
enforcement efforts in prisons and jails.

"This is something that the feds have been promising for years because
it's the easiest kind of deportation to be for," said Mark Krikorian,
executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington,
D.C., based group that has long argued for tough enforcement of
immigration laws.
. . .
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/06/16/georgia_prison...

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2.
Janitors with Social Security number woes get jobs back;
Court doesn't address legality of no-match rule
By Bob Egelko
The San Francisco Chronicle (CA), June 17, 2008

A federal appeals court ordered reinstatement Monday for 33 janitors in
Los Angeles who were fired because their Social Security numbers did not
match the government's database, a ruling that could strengthen unions'
case against a Bush administration proposal to pressure employers to get
rid of suspected illegal immigrants.

The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco
did not address the legality of the administration's so-called no-match
rule, which a federal judge blocked in October. That rule would threaten
employers with civil fines and criminal prosecution unless they fired
workers who failed to clear up discrepancies between their Social
Security numbers and government records.

But in ordering the Los Angeles janitors rehired with back pay, the
court said employees can't be fired merely because the Social Security
number they submit differs from the number in the government's files - a
major issue in lawsuits over the administration's plan.

A Social Security number discrepancy "does not automatically mean that
an employee is undocumented," the court said. It was the first federal
appeals court in the nation to rule on no-match letters.
. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/17/BA1811A56D.D...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The 9th Circuit Court ruling is available online at:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/FBBF4D1866EEE2E28825746A004EA536/$file/0656662.pdf

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3.
Supreme Court to rule on whether Ashcroft can be sued
A Pakistani man who was arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks says he was illegally detained and beaten. The justices will examine whether high-ranking officials are immune from such lawsuits.
By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2008

Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court came to the aid of former Atty. Gen.
John Ashcroft on Monday by agreeing to hear his claim that he and other
high-level Bush administration officials are shielded from being sued by
immigrants who say they were rounded up, abused and beaten after the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The court's move stops for now a lawsuit by a Pakistani man who was held
for nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York.

The justices voted to decide whether the president's top appointees are
immune from lawsuits growing out of their response to "an unprecedented
national security crisis."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, hundreds of immigrants, nearly all of them
Muslim men, were taken into custody and questioned. Officials feared
then that the Al Qaeda terrorist network could have "sleeper cells" in
the United States, and that these operatives might have been planning
more attacks.
. . .
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-scotus17-2008jun1...

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Idaho justices: Illegal immigrants entitled to medical assistance
By Chris Rizo
The Legal Newsline, June 16, 2008

Boise -- The Idaho Supreme Court on Monday ruled that an illegal
immigrant who was injured is entitled to medical assistance.

In their ruling, the high court sided with Saint Alphonsus Regional
Medical Center, which sued Ada County Commissioners after they denied an
application for medical indigency assistance from landscaper Javier
Ortega Sandoval.
. . .
http://legalnewsline.com/news/213491-idaho-justices-illegal-immigrants-e...

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A World Away, New Rules Put an Adoption on Hold
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, June 17, 2008

Ilze Earner's decision two years ago to adopt a distant cousin orphaned
in Latvia was deeply rooted in her own life experiences. Born in a
refugee camp in France to Latvian parents, Ms. Earner immigrated to the
United States as an infant and eventually became a scholar in child
welfare policy and immigrant communities.

Last month Ms. Earner, 52, now a Brooklyn resident and assistant
professor in Hunter College's School of Social Work, flew to Latvia with
her mother, husband and daughter to finalize the adoption of that
cousin, Kristina, 5. She thought it was going to be a straightforward
process, completed in several weeks.

But when they arrived in Riga, American consular officials told them
that international adoption regulations had changed and that they would
have to return home and restart the process, which could take many more
months. Since then Ms. Earner has been trapped in bureaucratic limbo, a
victim, she contends, of bad information from the American government.
She has decided to remain in Latvia until Kristina is hers.
. . .
The Earners' experience may be anomalous; several national adoption
experts said they had not heard of any other Americans who had traveled
halfway across the world to finalize an adoption only to learn that they
would have to start again.

''I know there are people who have had to go back and do certain
things,'' said Chuck Johnson, vice president of the National Council For
Adoption, a lobbying and adoption information group based in Alexandria,
Va. ''I don't know of any other family that has been affected to the
degree that this family has.''
. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/nyregion/17adoptions.html