1. Attn'y. Gen. declines charges
2. Report: Hispanics lack health care
3. Report: Illegals drop by 11%
4. TX university opens border center
5. Activists bail out nabbed illegals
6. Georgian ex-pats anxious over war
7. Cancer ridden detainee dies
8. Woman sentenced for bribe

1.
Justice Dept. Issues a Callback
Illegally Rejected Applicants Urged to Try for Open Jobs
By Carrie Johnson
The Washington Post, August 13, 2008; Page A02

Job applicants who were rejected by the Justice Department because of improper political considerations will be urged to apply for open positions, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey told an audience yesterday.

Mukasey said that the hiring system at Justice had broken down and that department leaders had failed to supervise the behavior "of those who did wrong." But the attorney general stopped short of agreeing to weed out lawyers and immigration judges who won their jobs based on faulty criteria.

"Two wrongs do not make a right," Mukasey told the American Bar Association yesterday in New York. "The people hired in an improper way did not, themselves, do anything wrong. It therefore would be unfair -- and quite possibly illegal given their civil service protections -- to fire or reassign them without individual cause."

Mukasey explicitly ruled out criminal prosecution of former Justice Department employees who investigators say ran afoul of civil service laws, echoing congressional testimony last month by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. "Where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute," the attorney general said. "But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."

The speech came two weeks after the Justice Department inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility reported that former officials had committed misconduct and flouted civil service laws by using ideological factors to screen candidates for permanent jobs. Applicants for the elite honors program and for slots as prosecutors and immigration judges routinely were asked for information about their political contributions and for their positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, investigators found.

Since then, Democratic lawmakers and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have called on the department's leaders to root out people who were hired under the illegal process.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR200808...

********
********

2.
Chattanooga: 27% of Hispanics in U.S. lack regular health care provider
By Perla Trevizo
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN), August 13, 2008

Although Andres Ramirez didn’t visit the doctor very often when he lived in Mexico, he now goes to the Chattanooga Homeless Health Care Clinic at least once every three months to treat his diabetes.

“Part of it is our culture,” said the 35-year-old, who has lived in the United States for 14 years. “We are not used to going to the doctor unless we feel very sick.

“As Hispanics, we don’t go to the doctor regularly because most of the time we come here to work and we say we don’t have time for the doctor,” he said. “Which shouldn’t be the case. We need to take care of ourselves more.”

PDF: Hispanics and Healthcare

Twenty-seven percent of Hispanic adults in the United States — 30 percent in the South — lack a regular health care provider, according to a report released today by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Similar to the general U.S. population, Hispanic males, the young and the less educated are less likely to have primary health care providers, according to the report, “Hispanics and Health Care in the United States: Access, Information and Knowledge.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously reported that, compared to other groups, Hispanics are twice as likely as non-Hispanic blacks and three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to lack regular health care providers.

“When it comes to Latinos, what may appear to be the well-known effects of socioeconomic inequality on health care may also be conditioned by unique social, cultural and economic circumstances confronting both Hispanic immigrants and Hispanics born in the United States,” the report said.

The Hispanic population in the United States has more than doubled in the past 15 years and is now estimated to have reached 45 million, said Debra Perez, senior program officer for the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an organization whose stated goal is to improve American health care.
. . .
http://tfponline.com/news/2008/aug/13/chattanooga-27-hispanics-us-lack-r...

********
********

3.
Fewer Illegal Immigrants In U.S., But Partisans Argue Over Cause
By Sean Higgins
The Investors' Business Daily, August 12, 2008

The illegal immigrant population in America is declining, experts and demographers say, due to the economic downturn and a step-up in enforcement measures.

A study out late last month by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors restrictionist measures, found that the number of illegals, estimated at 12.5 million in 2007, has fallen to 11.2 million today, a decline of 11%.

Other experts and activist groups generally agree that the population has fallen. But by how much and — more importantly — why remains in dispute.

"The data does say there is a decline in this group and this group is largely illegal," said Jeff Passel, senior demographer for the Pew Hispanic Forum.

But Passel says he doesn't know why. The data are too preliminary.

Activist groups are less hesitant. CIS argues that enforcement is a key factor. Others, especially pro-immigration groups, say the shaky economy is the reason.

The debate is important because it provides insight into whether the current "secure the borders first" strategy works. If that becomes the consensus, additional stricter measures may come out of Congress.
. . .
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&issue=20080812

********
********

4.
UTEP launches border security, immigration program
The Associated Press, August 12, 2008

El Paso, TX (AP) -- The University of Texas at El Paso officially became the home of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration on Tuesday.

The center, a U.S Department of Homeland Security-supported research and degree program focused on producing border, homeland security and immigration experts, will be a partnership with the University of Arizona.

Retired Army Brigadier General Jose Riojas, executive director of the center at UTEP, lauded the program's launch at the second day of the fifth annual Border Security Conference.

"This is about aligning our intellectual capital ... with the needs of DHS," Riojas said. "They've given us a challenge to make a different and new approach."
. . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5939149.html

********
********

5.
CASA helping suspected illegals nabbed at work to post bail
By Kathleen Miller
The Examiner (Washington, DC), August 12, 2008
http://www.examiner.com/a-1532476~CASA_helping_suspected_illegals_nabbed...

Washington, DC -- Leaders of a local immigrant advocacy group are trying to help suspected illegal immigrants arrested in work site raids access bail money.

CASA de Maryland is working with the National Immigrant Bond Fund to help immigrants detained in raids get out of jail and fight the charges against them. The fund has already put up the cash to help free 10 of the 46 people detained by federal immigration authorities during a June raid on an Annapolis painting company. Their bail amounts ranged from $3,500 to $20,000. Detainees were asked to provide half the money themselves.

Robert Hildreth, the founder and president of International Bank Services Inc., a Boston-based company that trades and services international bank loans, has put up most of the $200,000 in the fund.

He helped 40 of 200 immigrants caught in a New Bedford, Mass., raid last year make bail, he says, because “something had to be done to get clients and their lawyers together.”

“We were able to make a difference in the lives of 40 people, so we thought, let’s go national,” Hildreth said. “As soon as you are bonded, you can start your legal defense.”

CASA spokeswoman Kim Propeack acknowledged the effort requires a lot of coordination, saying CASA was heavily involved in helping families track the locations of Annapolis detainees and coordinate bail efforts.

“This would be nearly impossible without an active group on the ground,” Propeack said. Organizers are trying to locate friendly organizations in all 50 states that can be called on to help.

Brad Botwin, leader of anti-illegal immigration group Help Save Maryland, said he was upset that CASA, which receives 45 percent of its funding from governments, was devoting time to helping alleged illegal immigrants make bail.

“Why should citizens give [CASA] a nickel?” Botwin asked. “Why do Gov. [Martin] O’Malley, Montgomery County Executive [Ike] Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive [Jack] Johnson fund this group again and again? This is another slap in the face to the citizens of Maryland and this country.”

Group organizers hope to raise $300,000 more for the fund. They say no immigrant charged with other criminal offenses will be eligible for assistance and that none of those helped so far has missed a court date.

********
********

6.
Georgians in America watch the violence back home from afar: 'It's like a bad dream'
By Verena Dobnik
The Associated Press, August 12, 2008

New York (AP) -- Khatuna Baghaturia has spent countless hours in the last week on the phone with relatives in her native country and watching the bloodshed on TV. The sight of Russian troops laying waste to Georgia was all the more horrifying because her three children are there now — on vacation.

"Every bomb — we hope it's going to be the last," said Baghaturia, who lives in Brooklyn and whose children have managed to stay out of harm's way. "It's like a bad dream."

The 37-year-old is among about 20,000 Georgians living in the United States and about 5,000 in New York City — home to the nation's largest Georgian population, according to the country's New York consulate.

They have spent the past five days making frantic phone calls home and praying in crowded churches in Brooklyn, where Georgians are scattered in different neighborhoods.

Baghaturia is a former teacher who now runs a restaurant called Tbilisi in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, where she says neighborhood Russians have been flocking for days to offer their support. Brooklyn is home to a sizable Russian population, creating the odd juxtaposition of people from two warring countries living side by side.

"They try to support us, they understand us, they come and say that, you know, we are really sorry, and we are your friends — and we are, we are," Baghaturia said.

Katya Ivanova, a Russian-born architect who lives in Ocean Parkway, in Brooklyn, said she supports the Georgians "because we Russians remember those days when we were quite friendly. I vacationed almost every summer on the Black Sea (in Georgia). They're great people, so friendly."

She added, "I hope intelligent Russians are against their government. And I think most Russian-Americans support the Georgians. The Russian government will always be the same — even if its name changes."
. . .
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-georgians-in-...

********
********

7.
Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, August 13, 2008

He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons.

But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.

In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.

On Tuesday, with an autopsy by the Rhode Island medical examiner under way, his lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the detention system.

Mr. Ng’s death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.
. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html

********
********

8.
Woman Sentenced in Bribery Scam to Sell Driver's Licenses
By Del Quentin Wilber
The Washington Post, August 13, 2008; B02

A 35-year-old restaurant owner and mother of four children was sentenced to two years in federal prison yesterday for bribing a District government employee as part of a scam that allowed dozens of people to illegally obtain D.C. driver's licenses.

Gloria Gonzalez-Paz of Lanham, who pleaded guilty to bribery in May, admitted to charging people from $1,000 to $1,700 to help them get licenses. Many applicants were illegal immigrants and others were not residents of the District. They were not required to take driving tests, vision exams or fill out basic information on applications, authorities said.

The Department of Motor Vehicles employee at the center of the scandal, Patricia E. Gonzalez, 39, has pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe and is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow. She has admitted to doling out licenses to about 200 people from October 2005 to January, when authorities broke up the scam.

In U.S. District Court yesterday, Gonzalez-Paz apologized for her mistakes but begged a federal judge to sentence her to home detention so she could care for her children and operate her business, Tropicana Eatery, a Jamaican-style carry-out restaurant in the 3500 block of 12th Street NE.

"I know what I did was bad," Gonzalez-Paz told the judge through an interpreter. "If I go to jail, everything will come tumbling down."

Judge Richard J. Leon said the offense merited prison time because untested drivers were a danger on the road and fraudulent identification was a serious problem, especially "in a post-9/11 world."

"A driver's license is the most important identification card that most people have," Leon said, adding that fraudulently obtained licenses hamper police and federal agents in crime investigations.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR200808...