1. Experts to craft imm. policy
2. Feds to discuss fence with landowners
3. Report criticizes treatment of minors
4. VA AG lauds police for efforts
5. Los Angeles may pay $13m in lawsuit
6. NY county exec battling fallout
7. IN activists wrangle over enforcement
8. Activists push for amnesty

1.
Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan
By Eunice Moscoso
The Austin American Statesman, November 19, 2008
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/immigrati...

President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday announced several “policy working groups” of experts to help craft proposals on various topics.

On immigration, he picked Alexander Aleinikoff, dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, a professor at Stanford Law School.

Here are excerpts of their bios, sent out by the Obama transition team:

Aleinikoff has been dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and executive vice president of Georgetown University since July 2004. He has been a member of the Georgetown faculty since 1997. He served as general counsel and executive associate commissioner for programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton Administration. From 1997 to 2004, he was a senior associate at the Migration Policy Institute. He has written widely on immigration, refugee and citizenship law and constitutional law.

Cuellar is professor at Stanford Law School. His work focuses on how organizations manage complex regulatory, migration, international security, and criminal justice problems. During the Clinton Administration, he served at Treasury as senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement, where he worked on countering domestic and international financial crime, improving border coordination, and enhancing anti-corruption measures. He has served on the boards of numerous organizations. He has testified before Congress on immigration policy and separation of powers.

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2.
Feds offer border fence meetings
The Associated Press, November 19, 2008

McAllen, TX (AP) -- South Texans whose land is being taken for the U.S.-Mexico border fence are getting another chance to discuss the project with federal officials.

Even with construction on some sections of the fence moving forward and more than 230 condemnation cases making their way through federal courts in the Rio Grande Valley, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering to talk privately with landowners.
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http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/offer_91952___article.html/border_...

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3.
Handling of immigrant children is criticized
By Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times (TX), November 20, 2008

El Paso, TX -- More than 43,000 children from Mexico and Honduras being repatriated at the U.S. border are not being cared for properly, according to a recently released report by the Center for Public Policy in Austin.

The report, titled "A Child Alone and Without Papers," states that the center found scant guidance on how those children should be repatriated to their home countries.

The report alleges the U.S. government is compromising the rights, safety and well-being of undocumented immigrant children, contrary to international law and U.S. child-welfare standards.

Statistics provided by the Mexican government show that 35,546 youths -- from infants through age 17 -- were returned to Mexico between January and September of this year. Of these, 6,105 were returned through Chihuahua state, including 3,213 unaccompanied youths from Mexico's interior states. The rest were from Juárez and other cities of the border state.

"The U.S. treats undocumented, unaccompanied children with a shocking lack of concern. Our domestic child-welfare system has shaped international standards on child treatment, but we have not extended our standards to this vulnerable population," said Amy Thompson, the report's author. "Policymakers should act swiftly and forcefully to prioritize the welfare of all children in U.S. custody."

Among the complaints mentioned by the report were: ignoring requests for medical attention, lack of water at Border Patrol stations, not receiving food or receiving insufficient amounts of food, being struck or knocked down by agents, and "being handcuffed and being transported 'like dogs' in kennel-like compartments."

Jason Ciliberti, a supervisory Border Patrol agent on assignment in Washington, D.C., said the Border Patrol follows guidelines for processing undocumented minors that were developed after the Flores v. Reno case settlement. Flores v. Reno stemmed from a 1985 class-action lawsuit against the former Immigration and Naturalization Service for the process used to arrest, detain and release minors. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the immigration agency on some points, and the rest of the litigation led to a settlement between the parties.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11028303

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4.
Virginia AG Credits Local, State Officials with Capturing Sex Offenders in Illegal Immigration Crackdown
By Kevin Mooney
The CSN News, November 18, 2008

Violent sex offenders who are also illegal aliens in Virginia were identified, located, and deported thanks to a well-coordinated joint operation earlier this year involving both state and federal officials.

The effort should serve as a model for immigration enforcement throughout the United States, Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s Republican attorney general, told CNSNews.com in an exclusive interview.

“Operation Cold Play” made it possible for the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to place 171 convicted criminal alien sex offenders into deportation proceedings thanks in large part to local and state involvement in the investigation, McDonnell explained in an email.

After examining the birthplace of each offender in Virginia’s sex offender registry, state police shared the information with ICE agents, who then cross-checked the information with their own databases.

The joint effort between Virginia and ICE was part of a larger federal initiative called Operation Predator, which was launched in 2003 for the purpose of targeting child pornographers, human traffickers and smugglers.

“There is much more that we can do, and we must do it for the sake of public safety in our communities,” McDonnell said. “In the meantime, there are a number of innovative and proactive ways that state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities can work together to address some of our most pressing issues involving criminal illegal aliens.”

McDonnell favors making changes to state law that would allow Virginia to take better advantage of a little-known provision in federal law that allows for local and state officials to assume a larger role in the enforcement of immigration laws.

This stance puts him at odds with Virginia’s Democratic governor, Tim Kaine.

Section 287 (g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act authorizes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its ICE division to enter into partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies.

That provision, which became effective in 1996, allows participating officers on the local and state level to operate as federal immigration agents. The program can be applied and shaped in a variety of ways depending upon local prerogatives.

In Alabama, for instance, state troopers work with motor vehicle licensing stations to verify the immigration status of foreign nationals. Other localities that have entered into agreements with ICE have utilized the program in their prison system. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina, for instance, received its 287(g) authorization in February 2006.

Sheriff’s deputies in Mecklenburg now have the authority to check on the immigration status of all detainees who were not born in the United States.
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http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39487

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5.
L.A. to pay nearly $13 million over May Day melee, sources say
The settlement would mark one of the largest payouts ever made to resolve LAPD misconduct. Department has sanctioned officers and trained force to prevent another such incident.
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2008

The city of Los Angeles would pay nearly $13 million to immigration protesters and bystanders injured by Los Angeles police officers during a melee at MacArthur Park last year, according to sources familiar with a tentative settlement reached by both sides.

If approved, it would mark one of the largest payouts ever made to resolve LAPD misconduct. Further payouts are likely to journalists who also sued, charging that they were roughed up by the LAPD while covering the event.

A settlement in the case would go a long way toward closing an embarrassing and damaging chapter in the LAPD's recent history, department observers said. The proposed agreement still must be approved by the City Council, the mayor and the judge overseeing the claims against the city.

Longtime LAPD observer Merrick Bobb, executive director of the Police Assessment Resource Center, said a settlement, following the punishment of officers and changes in LAPD procedures, is a necessary last step for the department.

"It allows the LAPD . . . to move forward having learned its lessons and tied up the loose ends it opened," Bobb said.

Sources familiar with the deal declined to provide details and spoke on condition that their names not be used because the terms of the agreement were confidential pending the council's approval. Several of the sources, however, confirmed the size of the proposed deal at $12.85 million.

The council was scheduled to discuss the settlement in private Wednesday, but emerged without voting on whether to approve it. The council is expected to take up the matter again in the near future.

City Council members, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton all declined to comment. Representatives from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a major Latino advocacy group that has been involved in the settlement talks, also declined to comment.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-lapd20-2008nov...

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6.
Levy's apology called less important than his actions
By Rick Brand
Newsday (NY), November 20, 2008

Steve Levy may have "talked the talk" in his televised apology for some of his comments about the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue, but friends and foes said Suffolk's county executive has to "walk the walk" before he can put the issue behind him.

"I think Steve has learned his lesson. It has put the issue on his radar screen and I think he's sincere," said Paul Tonna, a former GOP presiding officer and one-time ally of Levy. "But now is when the rubber hits the road."

In his News 12 speech, Levy "humbly" apologized to the family of Ecuadorean Marcelo Lucero for saying the hate-crime attack was a "one-day story." He emphasized police do not ask the immigrant status of crime victims and urged all to continue the "hard work of real healing and reconciliation."

But Levy spokesman Mark Smith yesterday said the county executive wanted "to let the words of the speech resonate out there" and declined to comment further.

Officials and advocates have a wide range of suggestions on what Levy should do next. Some urge an executive order mandating that crime victims not be asked their immigration status. That would counter the county executive's earlier proposal, which never took effect, to deputize police officers to enforce immigration laws.

Others call for a moratorium on any new anti-illegal immigration legislation and restoring full-time police liaisons to the black and Hispanic communities, as was done under Levy predecessor Robert Gaffney.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-popoli205934554nov20,0,725501...

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7.
Sides wrangle over enforcement
Advocates want action; critics decry profiling
By Angela Mapes Turner
The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN), November 20, 2008

An immigration officer, wearing the familiar brown and tan of the Allen County Sheriff’s Department?

It could happen.

Advocates of local illegal immigration overhauls say area police agencies need the authority to arrest illegal immigrants. Critics say doing so usurps federal powers and could cast a cloud of suspicion over all Hispanics, even those born in the U.S.

Area law enforcement agencies have expressed disillusionment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s handling of illegal immigrants who are arrested. Too often, the federal agency does nothing to ensure the immigrants are deported.

“Somebody needed to do something about it,” Sheriff Ken Fries said. “I took it upon myself to say, no, it’s our problem.”

Fries announced early this year he wanted his department to take part in a federal program known as 287(g).

Part of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the program trains local officers on immigration laws and gives them the power to identify, process and detain immigration offenders.

Allen County would have sent 20 employees to the program to learn how to check immigration status and how to complete paperwork that goes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but federal funding fell through. Fries hopes to reapply.

Local advocates for the Hispanic community were relieved, saying the program would have encouraged racial profiling.

In September, Fries provided some data to the state’s study committee on illegal immigration but warned the numbers provide only a “snapshot” of anecdotal evidence. He calculated the cost to Allen County for housing illegal immigrants in jail – from August 2007 to August 2008 – at $174,000 and medical costs at more than $3,400.

Though anecdotal, it’s enough to make him believe the county should act. And the opposition raised this year will still be there, said Rosa Gerra, the executive director of United Hispanic Americans.

“Law enforcement are still going to be focusing on the Latino population,” she said. “That includes anybody who looks Latino. It implicates all of us.”

What’s more, she doesn’t believe the program will solve anything.

“It’s such a complicated and complex situation, more so than some of the officials, I think, even realize.” Gerra said.
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http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081120/LOCAL/...

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8.
Congress pushed to OK immigration reform
By Gary Martin
The San Antonio Express News, November 20, 2008

Washington, DC -- A coalition of immigrant rights groups from Southwest border states urged Congress Wednesday to adopt comprehensive immigration reform to reduce civil rights violations and immigrant deaths.

Recommendations to improve immigration and border policy were included in a report titled “Effective Border Policy: Security, Responsibility and Human Rights,” and released during a news conference held by lawmakers, community advocates and faith leaders.

“Border policy is not a choice between enforcement or no enforcement, it is about smart enforcement that creates national and community security,” said Richard Wiles, the El Paso County sheriff-elect.

A task force composed of the National Immigration Forum, the Border Action Network of Arizona and the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso collaborated on the report.

The report was unveiled on Capitol Hill as lawmakers returned for a lame-duck session to elect party leaders and prepare for the 111th Congress, which convenes Jan. 6.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the next Congress could consider immigration reform legislation, but she warned that it would take a bipartisan effort, with substantial Republican support, and time to craft a bill that could pass.

Congressional Democratic leaders say economic reforms would take precedent over a sweeping immigration reform bill.
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/34787284.html