1. ICE, DOL coordination questioned
2. Cubans enter through Mexico
3. Diocese ministers to Indian community
4. Workers sue airport companies

1.
Braley: Agencies contradicted each other on raid
By Amy Lorentzen
The Associated Press, July 18, 2008

Des Moines (AP) -- Two federal agencies have contradicted each other over whether they communicated before a raid at a northeast Iowa meatpacking plant in May, an Iowa congressman said Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley sent a letter just days after the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant to both agencies -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Labor. He also sent the letter to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Braley asked whether the agencies cooperated before the Agriprocessors Inc. bust, which U.S. attorneys officials have called the single largest Immigration raid in U.S. history. He said he was concerned that the raid could have impeded an ongoing Labor Department investigation of possible violations by the meatpacking company.

Braley said the three agencies responded this week, and Immigration and labor department responses "directly contradicted each other."

ICE said in its response that it had fully coordinated with federal agencies going into the raid and that labor officials were there when the search warrant was executed.

"However, the Department of Labor states in their written response that the May 12 raid occurred without their knowledge or participation," Braley said from Washington during a conference call with reporters.

The Justice Department's letter stated that officials couldn't discuss pending matters.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-postville-braley,0,6039870....

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2.
Cubans heading to U.S. -- via Mexico
A crackdown on smugglers bringing migrants to Florida shores has caused a shift westward of the illegal traffic.
By Carol J. Williams
Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2008

Havana -- In the face of a U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration in the waters between Cuba and Florida, Mexican authorities have reported a surge in detentions of Cubans as quick-moving smugglers shift their routes westward.

Under a 1995 proviso of U.S. immigration law known as the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. territory are entitled to legal residency. With the Florida Straits under the gun, much of the traffic has been rerouted to bring migrants to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and then guide them overland to the U.S. border -- where they are detained on illegal entry charges for just a few days.

Even before summer's high season of human trafficking, more than 1,000 Cubans had been detained in Mexico by late June, compared with 1,359 in all of 2007. More than 11,500 made it to the U.S. border last year, 33% more than the previous year and almost double the number who arrived via Mexico in 2004.

The number of Cubans detained in Mexico has grown 500% over the last five years, a politician from Mexico's traditionally center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party told parliament last month. The lawmaker, Edmundo Ramirez, pointed to a recent bus hijacking as evidence that the smugglers have huge economic heft and firepower at their command.

In the June 11 incident in southern Mexico, armed men seized a bus carrying 33 Cubans who had been intercepted off the Yucatan peninsula and were being taken to a detention facility in Chiapas state. The Chiapas prosecutor, Amador Rodriguez, blamed the incident on Miami-based smugglers determined to retrieve their cargo for payment on delivery to U.S. soil.

Eighteen of the Cubans showed up at a Texas border crossing a week later, where they were detained and eventually allowed to make their appeals for legal residency.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-smuggle18-2008jul18,...

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3.
Indian Catholics welcome new Bellwood cathedral
First ecclesiastical seat in U.S.
By Russell Working
The Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2008

When Rev. Jacob Angadiath came to the U.S. as a missionary priest in 1984, he arrived in Dallas with no flock other than two Indian Catholics whose names were scrawled on a note in his pocket.

Today, he is bishop of a diocese that claims 35,000 faithful across the U.S. and Canada.

In a sign of his faith's growing numbers and cultural confidence, the diocese this month opened a $9 million new St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic cathedral. The cathedral in west suburban Bellwood is the denomination's first ecclesiastical seat outside India.

The diocese was founded with approval of Chicago's Cardinal Francis George in 2001, but until this month worshipers have met in an old church on the same site at 5000 St. Charles Rd.

The Mar Thoma Sleeha Syro-Malabar Cathedral, which opened July 5, is drawing throngs of Indian immigrants and their families, who are preserving their spiritual heritage, their unique forms of liturgy and their south Indian language, Malayalam, in North America.

"By the establishment of this particular cathedral, we'll remain a central place of worship and a mother church for other congregations for coming generations," Angadiath said. "No doubt about it, it will remain a focal point."

The church is distinctly South Asian and yet traces its roots directly to the Apostle Thomas, who founded the Indian church in 52 A.D. and was martyred there centuries before the arrival of Portuguese and other European missionaries.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-relig-indian-church...

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4.
Immigrant workers sue employment agency over unpaid wages
By Vanessa Bauza
The Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2008

Ten immigrant workers filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming they are owed thousands of hours of back wages from a temporary employment agency that hired them to work at several airlines at O'Hare International Airport and other companies.

The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges Ideal Staffing Solutions and eight other companies violated workers' rights by failing to pay overtime and minimum wage while reaping profits from low labor costs.

Some of the immigrants filing the suit were arrested in a federal raid at O'Hare in November on charges they used fake IDs for jobs on the tarmac, cargo zone and other secure areas.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-immig_suitjul18,0,2667590.s...