1. USCIS aims to clear applications
2. CT capital embraces santuary
3. Raids prompt reconsideration
4. Fund to provide bond for detainees
5. Latino gays find asylum difficult

1.
Wave of immigrants could be at polls
1m citizenship forms processed
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, August 12, 2008

Most immigrants who applied for US citizenship during a tidal wave of applications last year should be sworn in and eligible to vote by the November elections, Federal immigration authorities said yesterday.

A fee hike last summer led to a surge in naturalization applications - 1.4 million by the budget year that ended in September 2007, nearly double the typical amount. The increase triggered delays in processing times, but federal officials said yesterday that they will have completed more than 1 million naturalization applications by September, including most of those filed last summer.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes applications, typically approves the vast majority of applicants, rejecting 12 percent to 15 percent a year.

The agency's Boston office has already finished most of last summer's applications.

"We're doing much better than we had anticipated in our original projections," said spokesman Bill Wright. "It's very good progress and we hope to do even better."
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/12/wave_of_immigrants_...

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2.
City Council OKs Immigration Ordinance
By Mark Spencer
The Hartford Courant, August 12, 2008

The city council staked its ground Monday in the immigration debate, unanimously approving an ordinance that bars police from inquiring about immigration status.

The ordinance, if signed by Mayor Eddie Perez, would prevent police from arresting or detaining anyone solely because immigration authorities had issued an administrative warrant for them, which is a civil matter.

The ordinance also prohibits other city employees from asking anyone seeking services about their immigration status.

Councilman Pedro E. Segarra called the decision "bold and courageous" and said he was impressed by the dozens of people in the city who spoke in favor of the proposal at a public hearing last month. There was no opposition.

Segarra said he did not support illegal immigration, but had to respond to the needs of people living in the city. He said that opponents who contacted him since the proposal received media attention lived in the suburbs or as far away as Texas.

"My responsibility as a council person is to the residents of Hartford," he said. "I'm not responsible for securing our borders. I'm not responsible for issuing visas."

Although Perez has said he supports the concept behind the ordinance, it is not clear whether he will sign it.
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http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-cthfdcouncil0812.artaug12,0...

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3.
Angered by Iowa slaughterhouse case, rabbis, activists push new idea of what's kosher
By Rachel Zoll
The Associated Press, August 11, 2008

New York (AP) -- Very little goes unexamined in the kosher world.

From meat and poultry to the coating on vegetables and the ingredients in mouthwash, rabbis who determine whether a product meets Jewish dietary laws scrutinize the most minute details about all things consumed.

For religiously observant Jews, that concern has rarely extended beyond the product itself.

But now, allegations of worker abuse at the nation's biggest kosher slaughterhouse have some Jews demanding that food companies be judged not just by the purity of their products but by the way their treat their employees.

"How can you sit at your table and eat a product packaged by a pregnant woman who has been standing on her feet all day?" asked Rabbi Morris Allen of Minnesota. He is developing a certification program that aims to protect workers and the environment in the kosher industry.

Interest in Allen's "hekhsher tzedek," or "certificate of righteousness," has ballooned since a May 12 immigration raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

Nearly 400 illegal immigrants were arrested at the plant in the biggest such raid on a single work site in U.S. history. State officials say dozens of underage workers were employed there in violation of child labor laws. Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.

Many Jews are embarrassed and angered by the allegations and, along with some religious leaders, are rethinking what it means to be certified kosher.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-beyond-kosher...

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4.
Bond fund will aid illegals
Aims to ensure access to court
By Gillian Gaynair
The Associated Press, August 12, 2008

A Boston financier Monday chose Maryland to officially announced his program to raise bond money for people arrested for being in the United States illegally.

The National Immigrant Bond Fund is being started by Robert Hildreth, 57, who announced the program and a related fundraising campaign at Casa de Maryland, a statewide immigrant advocacy group in Silver Spring.

The fund was officially established about three months ago and has already been used to help 10 of 46 people arrested June 30 at an Annapolis painting company on administrative immigration violations.

Illegal immigrants who are arrested in raids and do not have outstanding criminal violations can apply to the bond fund. Churches, legal organizations or groups such as Casa help connect detainees with the fund. The fund provides half the bail money, and the arrested immigrants must pay the rest.

The fund aims to ensure that immigrants have access to the court system. Advocates say immigrants are too often sent directly into deportation proceedings without an opportunity to argue their case. They say the fund also is a way to build public opposition to raids, keep families together and bring another voice into the debate for immigration reform.

A New York-based nonprofit, Public Interest Projects, oversees the fund, which is supported by several national advocacy groups and religious leaders, including three Catholic bishops.

Organizers aim to raise $500,000, said Mr. Hildreth, owner of International Bank Services Inc., which buys and sells loans worldwide.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/12/bond-fund-will-aid-illeg...

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5.
As Latin Nations Treat Gays Better, Asylum Is Elusive
By Ceci Connolly
The Washington Post, August 12, 2008; A03

San Diego -- Quietly over the past 14 years, gay men and lesbians from Mexico have sought -- and received -- political asylum in the United States based on their sexual orientation and the argument that the culture of "machismo" in their country has sometimes put homosexuals there in danger.

But as Mexico and other Latin American countries begin to liberalize laws regarding homosexuality, hold gay pride events and expand treatment for people with AIDS, it is becoming increasingly difficult to win such cases, say asylum applicants, U.S. lawyers and Latino activists.

"For a time, it seemed like it was a slam-dunk if you were gay, from Mexico and filed for asylum in the United States," said Arthur S. Leonard, a professor at New York Law School. "But there's been a turning point. The gay rights movement has started to make progress in Mexico, and it's a little harder to show" that asylum is warranted, he said.

The subtle, unofficial shift in immigration policy has significant public health implications, say leaders throughout the region who view asylum as a path to better treatment of people with HIV. Though many applaud the progress on gay rights and AIDS care, they caution that it may take decades to reverse deeply ingrained attitudes toward homosexuality that are closely connected to the spread of HIV in the region.

Figures for asylum decisions are unavailable, but immigration lawyers hazard a guess that in the past, dozens were granted every year to gay Mexicans. The Department of Homeland Security does not track asylum by categories such as religious affiliation or sexual orientation. But Leonard and other experts report that applications by gay men and lesbians from throughout Latin America are encountering more hurdles.

Last fall, U.S. circuit courts rejected asylum requests by two gay Mexican men, and a recent policy requires that every asylum request from Mexico undergo a separate review by homeland security officials in Washington. Those developments have raised alarm in immigrant-heavy communities in San Diego and elsewhere.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there has been no policy change regarding asylum eligibility for gay men and lesbians. They said they have no way of knowing whether asylum officers or immigration judges have become more skeptical about requests from Latin American homosexuals because they do not track that data.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR200808...