1. DOJ official accused of wrongfull evaluation
2. Smugglers charged with hostage-taking
3. Convicted USBP agents' appeal shot down
4. MA PD investigating police shooting
5. DC clinic for immigrants adjusts
6. Pro-illegal rally held in NJ

1.
Report: Top Justice aide and Utah native Sampson politicized judge hires
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), July 29, 2008

Washington, DC -- As a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, Utah native Kyle Sampson unlawfully evaluated applicants for jobs and immigration judge spots based on their politics and ideology, according to a report issued Monday.

Sampson, who was chief of staff under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, "violated department policy and federal law, and committed misconduct, by considering political or ideological affiliations when hiring" immigration judges, according to a probe by the department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility. Sampson resigned his post in March 2007 amid a scandal involving the firing of several U.S. attorneys.

It is unlawful to base the hiring of career civil service officials on political affiliation, but Sampson said he believed immigration judges were political appointees, whose partisan allegiances could be considered.

The I.G. didn't buy it.

"Even if Sampson was confused or mistaken in his interpretation of the rules that applied to [immigration judges] hiring, we do not believe that would excuse his actions," the report states. "His actions, which were carried out over a lengthy period of time and were not based on formal advice from anyone, systematically violated federal law and department policy and constituted misconduct."

Sampson's attorney, Bradford Berenson, said the Inspector General report "documents several instances in which [Sampson] interceded to prevent other department officials from taking such criteria into account."
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http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10028487

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2.
Phone call trips up smugglers, feds say;
Federal immigration agents indicted two alien smugglers on a rare charge of hostage-taking.
By Andrews Viglucci
The Miami Herald (FL), July 29, 2008

It was a run-of-the-mill immigrant-smuggling case -- a boatload of Cubans brought from the island for $10,000 a head -- until the smugglers made a serious goof.

As often happens, the alleged smugglers held onto their passengers until relatives paid their fee. Except that one relative they phoned to demand cash from happens to be a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. He promptly alerted agents at his sister agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to documents filed in Miami federal court.

The officer and an ICE agent then set up a late-night meeting at a drugstore parking lot, swapped the cousin for $10,000 in cash and signaled a waiting ICE SWAT team, which arrested the two alleged smugglers.

Now the pair find themselves indicted not just for alien-smuggling, but also on the rarer and more-serious charge of hostage-taking. The accused smugglers, Niovel Chirino Alvarez, 33, and Lazaro Martinez Padron, 21, face life in prison if convicted.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/621358.html

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3.
Appeals court upholds prison for border agents
By Elizabeth White
The Associated Press, July 28, 2008

San Antonio (AP) -- A federal appeals court refused Monday to throw out lengthy prison sentences for two jailed U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant and lying about it.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld most of the convictions against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.

The appeals court vacated their convictions for tampering with an official proceeding, but the three-judge panel refused to reverse the convictions that resulted in their lengthy sentences, saying the jury had spoken.

Ramos and Compean were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively, for the February 2005 shooting of illegal immigrant and admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila on the Texas border near El Paso. Both men claimed they shot at Davila in self-defense.

The circuit court said Monday that "the trial of the case was conducted fairly and without reversible error." It affirmed the men's convictions on four counts each. Those include one count each of discharge of a firearm in commission of a crime of violence, which the court said carries a minimum term of 10 years.

The court sent the case back for resentencing and reversed convictions on five tampering counts because the Border Patrol investigation was not an "official proceeding" based on statute.

"However, this may not be of much moment to Ramos and Compean because we leave the major conviction with the major sentence ... untouched," the court said.

David Botsford, Ramos' attorney, said he was pleased the court reversed the tampering convictions.

"They never should have been in there, and that colored the jury's entire consideration of this case," Botsford said, though he added reversing those counts doesn't give his client "much in the way of relief."
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXihPpn22rM9HFMgrc8yMDXAbyWQD9275NIO0

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4.
Police killing of immigrant challenged
Friend speaks out; DA investigating
By John R. Ellement and Michael Levenson
The Boston Globe, July 29, 2008

Yarmouth -- As outraged family members denounced the use of deadly force and as fear reverberated through Cape Cod's Brazilian community, investigators reviewed yesterday the frantic moments of an early-morning traffic stop, trying to determine whether a Yarmouth police officer was justified in killing an undocumented house painter from Brazil.

Andre L. Martins, 25, was killed by a single gunshot to the heart and lungs after fleeing Officer Christopher Van Ness at about 1 a.m. Sunday, according to Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael D. O'Keefe. Van Ness opened fire after Martins, his car apparently boxed in on a neighborhood lawn, rammed the cruiser in an attempt to flee, O'Keefe said.

With new details yesterday came even more questions, and authorities said they needed time to untangle the events and cautioned against quick judgments.

"We don't jump to conclusions," O'Keefe said in a telephone interview. "We have an investigation, and we allow that investigation to be completed."
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/07/29/polic...

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5.
21st-Century Mission;
D.C. Clinic for Immigrants Aims to Stay True to Its Roots in Changing World
By Pamela Constable
The Washington Post, July 29, 2008

The waiting room at La Clinica del Pueblo is a busy but intimate scene where doctors greet patients with a hug, new mothers drop by to show off their infants, and Spanish-speaking seniors come for help translating their mail. No one minds if you miss an appointment or try a home remedy for your ailments.

The ethos of the nonprofit clinic in Columbia Heights, founded in 1983 to help the poorest, most marginalized refugees from Central America, is summed up in a plaque just inside the entrance: "Our mission is to provide free and culturally appropriate health care to the Latino community."

But today, La Clinica is trying to leap into the 21st century by modernizing its operations and stabilizing its finances through an annual federal grant. In return, it must meet government requirements to double its patient load, increase revenue and make services more efficient.

The changes, though recognized as necessary by most people connected with the clinic, have also led to a severe cash crunch, a bitter internal debate about whether its all-embracing mission has been betrayed, and a worry that its traditional clientele will no longer feel comfortable or welcome.

"I understand that we need to create structures and systems as we grow, but it is sensitivity to clients that makes this place so special," said Omar Reyes, an HIV/AIDS counselor. "We were created to help a population that fled from the trauma of civil wars and crossing borders. The idea was not to cause more trauma or put up more barriers. We have to modernize, but without losing the essence of what we are. This is my great fear."

La Clinica was founded by an exiled Salvadoran doctor, Juan Romagoza, who believed that health care for poor immigrants should be free. For years, it charged nothing for most services, surviving on volunteers and charity. Last year, as part of becoming a federally qualified health center, it switched to sliding-scale fees based on income, bringing strong objections from some staffers.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR200807...

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6.
Immigrant supporters march in Morristown
Participants in vigil call for reforms, recognition of laborers' dignity, identity
By Minhaj Hassan
The Daily Record (Parsippany, NJ), July 29, 2008

Morristown, NJ -- Participants at a vigil on the Green Monday evening called for comprehensive immigration reform and the need to recognize the dignity of immigrants' labor and identity.

Some 40 people attended the vigil organized by Wind of the Spirit, the local immigrant resource center. The event occurred exactly one year after a boisterous, anti-illegal immigrant rally in front of town hall on South Street.

At Monday's gathering, participants formed a human chain, wearing T-shirts sporting a large capital letter. Standing in a semi-circle in the middle of the Green, they spelled out "No human being is illegal." A song titled "Deportee" played in the background.

"Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted," the lyrics said. "Our work contract's out and we have to move on; six hundred miles to that Mexican border; they chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves."

"This is a special night for us," said coordinator Maria Vargas. "We are not here to whine, but to organize. We are people of the world in one place (Morristown)."

After the group got organized, the participants walked nearly a mile in silence from the Green to town hall and then returned.
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http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080729/COMMUNITI...