1. Experts announce rise in TB
2. NYC to expand language services
3. CA goup home loses another con
4. MA activists open rights center
5. Father seeks asylum for abused kids
6. Soccer phenom plays on Mexican team
7. 80 illegals nabbed in CA raids

1.
TB Rising Within US Immigrant Population
By Jessica Berman
The Voice of America News, July 22, 2008

According to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there's been an increase in the number of foreigners in the United States who are infected with tuberculosis. The authors are proposing a strategy to control disease among high-risk groups. VOA's Jessica Berman reports.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, the number of tuberculosis cases in the United States dropped 45 percent between 1996 and 2006.

Officials say the lion's share of the decrease - 66 percent - occurred among U.S.-born individuals. But they say there was a five percent increase in TB cases among immigrant populations living in the United States during the same period.

Today, the CDC says, 57 percent of all reported TB cases in America are among foreign-born individuals.

U.S. health officials say their main concern is the spread of latent TB which infected individuals bring into the United States from their countries of origin without being detected.

Kevin Cain is head of the CDC's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. He says officials want to step up efforts to detect individuals with latent TB who enter the country.
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http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-22-voa59.cfm

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2.
Mayor Orders New York to Expand Language Help
By Fernanda Santos
The New York Times, July 23, 2008

Navigating the city’s bureaucracy can be a daunting endeavor for the nearly three million immigrants who live in New York. Aside from a lack of knowledge about the way government works and the services it provides, one fundamental barrier has stood in their way: language.

There are an estimated 170 foreign languages spoken in New York City, and in nearly half of all households, English is not the primary language, according to the census in 2000. And given that the city receives more than 20 million calls from residents each year, officials said, communication can often be a challenge.

On Tuesday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ordered the city’s more than 100 agencies to provide language assistance in six foreign languages: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole. The order requires, for the first time, that the agencies follow the same standard when providing translation and interpretation to New Yorkers who do not speak English.

Immigrant advocates and city officials say it is the most comprehensive order of its kind in the country. The mayor refused to be specific about how much the services will cost, saying only that it was a “relatively small” amount given the size of the city’s budget. He added: “This executive order will make our city more accessible, while helping us become the most inclusive municipal government in the nation.”

“The fundamental basis of government is its interaction with its citizens,” the mayor said before signing the executive order at City Hall on Tuesday. “If people don’t know what we do, don’t know what they should do, what the law requires them to do, don’t know how to get services, all the money that we’re spending providing those services, providing those laws, is meaningless.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/nyregion/23translate.html

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3.
Another illegal immigrant offender flees
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
The San Francisco Chronicle, July 23, 2008

San Francisco -- The last illegal immigrant juvenile offender who had been in a $7,000-a-month group home as part of San Francisco's now-abandoned effort to shield young immigrants from deportation has bolted, authorities said Tuesday.

The youth walked away from the unlocked center in Atascadero (San Luis Obispo County) on Monday, bringing to 12 the number of illegal immigrant offenders in the past month who have fled from youth homes hundreds of miles from the city.

Ten of the 12, all of them from Honduras and all detained for dealing drugs, are still at large, including the youth who disappeared early Monday.

The juveniles were among the offenders San Francisco juvenile probation officials had decided not to refer to federal authorities for possible deportation proceedings. The city flew several such youths to their native countries without telling the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and when federal officials objected to the flights, city officials started sending the offenders to group homes outside San Francisco. City taxpayers picked up the $7,000 monthly tab for each juvenile.

Mayor Gavin Newsom renounced the flights and the city abandoned the group home approach after The Chronicle reported that eight juvenile drug dealers had walked away from group homes in San Bernardino County in June. Newsom also said the city would start turning over illegal immigrant youths caught committing felonies to ICE, a reversal of the city's long-standing policy of shielding them from deportation.

The mayor's new policy against flights and group home placement, however, did not mean the city would surrender youths who had already been placed in shelters for possible deportation, authorities said.

Then, last week, authorities acknowledged that three more youths the city had put in unlocked group homes in Visalia had also walked away - one in June and two after the youths got a phone call from an unidentified person July 17.

Newsom declared that the last juvenile offender still in a group home outside the city - the youth in Atascadero - would be brought back for resentencing in San Francisco. "Enough is enough," the mayor said Friday.

The youth, however, remained in the unidentified group home in Atascadero over the weekend while juvenile probation officials tried to arrange a court hearing for his resentencing. Sunday night, the boy got a call - officials do not know from whom - and on Monday morning, he walked away.

Authorities said the assumption is that the phone calls to the youths in Atascadero and Visalia were from tipsters telling them they were likely to be brought back to San Francisco juvenile hall. The Chronicle and other media reported Saturday that the city planned to bring the boy back from Atascadero.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/23/BAGF11TAMB.DTL

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4.
New group aims to protect immigrant workers
By Liz Mineo/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News (Framingham, MA), July 22, 2008

One group of immigrant workers was denied workers' compensation rights, another group did not get paid overtime for extra hours worked and, at a third site, a worker was severely injured but was afraid to challenge his employer.

To help those workers pursue their rights, a new organization has surfaced in Framingham, said its director, Diego Low, filling a void in the region.

A local organization, called the MetroWest Immigrant Worker Center, recently opened an office on Union Avenue, but it has been active since it was founded last fall by doing outreach work through local churches attended by immigrants, Low said.

With a recent $40,000 grant from The Boston Foundation, the center hopes to continue its education and advocacy work through workshops to inform workers of their rights and provide legal assistance to help them file complaints with the attorney general's office.

The group's main work would be to help immigrants navigate the system, and since a large portion of the immigrant workforce is in the country illegally, Low said his group will work with them.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors immigration restrictions, an estimated 5 percent of the nation's workforce is here illegally.

But Low said in an interview in a Brazilian coffee shop in downtown Framingham that "their immigration status makes them desirable workers."

"It also makes them the most vulnerable. They're low-cost, compliant and docile. We want to tell them it's possible to stand up for their rights despite their immigration status."
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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x2109422312/New-group-aims-to-pro...

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5.
Dad seeks asylum for kids, saying they were abused
By Dave Marcus
Newsday, July 23, 2008

A Brentwood contractor from Honduras wants a federal immigration judge to use his three children to establish a new reason for asylum - sexual abuse.

Margarito Mejia says his children should be allowed to stay in the United States because they were abused by a relative in Honduras.
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If the judge allows the children to stay, that could help set a precedent for similar cases, legal experts say.

"They deserve asylum because of the persecution they received in their home country, sexually and physically," said Mejia's lawyer, David Sperling of Huntington.

Some disagree. "It's a complete distortion of the intent of the law," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that calls for tougher immigration rules.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-liabus235773799jul23,0,411848...

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6.
Born in United States but Playing for Mexico
By Dan Frosch
The New York Times, July 23, 2008

With explosive speed, a powerful left foot and a penchant for slicing through opposing defenses, Edgar Castillo has established himself as one of the top young American soccer players.

At 21, he is already a premier player for Santos Laguna, the reigning Mexican league champion, just as he was as a high school phenomenon in Las Cruces, N.M., where he was born and raised.

But despite his talents and his development as a player in the United States, Castillo will never play for the national team. He holds dual American and Mexican citizenship, and after being wooed by Mexico’s former coach, Hugo Sánchez, Castillo decided earlier this year to represent Mexico in international competition. FIFA rules prohibit a player from changing countries after turning 21.

Even more frustrating for United States soccer officials, Castillo said he would have liked to have played for the United States but never attracted much interest until Mexico reached out to him first.

“It would have been nice — to be from the U.S. and play for the U.S.,” Castillo said in an interview last week when he was in the Los Angeles area with Santos for the SuperLiga tournament. “I was wondering what the U.S. was thinking, why they were not calling me.”

The case of Castillo, who has played for Mexico’s national team and the country’s under-23 team, exemplifies a situation that United States officials want to avoid.

“There is a sense that we can’t let this happen again,” said Hugo Salcedo, a member of the 1972 United States Olympic soccer team, who has worked with FIFA and advises Hispanic soccer players in the United States on their careers. “Now we have more American scouts looking at the Hispanic community and trying to bring players into our national camps.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/sports/soccer/23soccer.html

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7.
Dozens arrested in immigration sweep face deportation or criminal charges
The San Diego Union Tribune, July 22, 2008

San Diego -- More than 80 foreign nationals arrested in a recent multi-agency operation in San Diego County face federal and state criminal charges or deportation, federal officials said Tuesday.

The arrests were made in an operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies aimed at cracking down on violent street gangs in the area.

Last Monday, immigration agents arrested 38 gang members or gang associates and 43 criminal illegal immigrants in Operation Community Shield. Of those arrested, six have been charged in federal court for crossing back into the U.S. after being deported – a felony.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080722-1540-bn22ice.html