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1. DHS chief outlines priorities
2. DHS reports on deportations
3. AZ co. sheriff faces suit
4. NE bishops speak out
5. Kansas City activists protest

1.
Napolitano Outlines Immigration Priorities
The NPR News, February 16, 2009

As governor of the border state of Arizona, Janet Napolitano was on the front line of the immigration debate. As the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, she inherits a department that was recently blasted by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The New York Times called the institute's scathing report a "portrait of dysfunction."

Napolitano joins Madeleine Brand to discuss what's in store for federal immigration policy. A transcript of the conversation follows.

Madeleine Brand: As governor of Arizona … you signed the toughest law in the nation against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. How will you change federal immigration policy?

Janet Napolitano: We're going to do a few things. First of all, the rule of law applies on the border, and we want to make sure that that happens, No. 1. That means manpower. That means technology — things like ground sensors. It means interior enforcement against those who intentionally are going into the illegal labor market and creating a demand for illegal laborers, so that's all going to continue. How we do that may change with me as a new secretary, but we want to make sure the rule of law is applied, and it's applied fairly and forcefully across the border. And then we'll look for ways to, through our administrative process, facilitate the applications of citizenship for those who are entitled to become citizens. Are there things we can streamline, some red tape we can cut? Those are the kinds of things we want to look at as well.

This report criticizes the 700-mile border fence — very controversial, this fence between the U.S. and Mexico, a fence the GAO says costs $4 million per mile. Will you continue building that fence?

The section of the fence for which Congress actually appropriated the funds has been complete, but I've been one of the people out there saying, "Look, you cannot build a fence from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, and call that an immigration policy." You've got to have boots on the ground. You've got to have technology. You've got to have interior enforcement of our workplace laws. Some fencing in some places may make sense, but only if it's part of an overall system.

We have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country. What do you do about them?

Ultimately, that's for the Congress to decide, and at some point in time, I think the president and the Congress will work out when it is appropriate to take that topic up again. But right now we're focusing on human traffickers — those who are really exploiting this illegal market to great financial gain. We're going after those in our country illegally who have also committed other crimes. We're going after those who are in our jails and prisons who are also in our country illegally to make sure that once they complete their sentence, they're immediately subject to deportation.

I'm hearing a lot of enforcement from you right now. What about the other side of it? What about the immigration part of it, and changing immigration policy to allow more or fewer immigrants in?

Again, that's for the Congress to decide.
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100690879

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2.
100,000 Parents of Citizens Were Deported Over 10 Years
By Michael Falcone
The New York Times, February 14, 2009

Washington, DC -- Of nearly 2.2 million immigrants deported in the decade ended 2007, more than 100,000 were the parents of children who, having been born in the United States, were American citizens, according to a report issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

But the department lacks data that might have addressed questions left unanswered by the report, like the number of American children who were left behind in the United States or, alternatively, exited the country with their deported parents. Nor could the report say in how many instances both parents of such children were deported.

Similarly, said Representative José E. Serrano, Democrat of New York, since no one knows how many children a given deportee had, the number of affected children could be much higher than 108,434, the exact number of deported parents of American citizens.

So “the problem goes deeper than just the numbers you see,” said Mr. Serrano, who requested the study. He called the circumstance “tragic.”

“If they took their children back,” he said of the deportees, “then technically we deported an American citizen. No matter which side of the immigration issue you fall on, there’s something wrong with the notion of kicking American citizens out of their own country.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/us/14immig.html

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3.
America's 'toughest sheriff' faces lawsuit over crime crackdown
By Dan Glaister
The Guardian (U.K.), February 16, 2009

The man who likes to call himself ­­"America's toughest sheriff" faces trial on charges that he has engaged in racial profiling of Hispanics.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa county in Arizona, which includes Phoenix, has achieved notoriety in recent years thanks to his high-profile law enforcement tactics. He has forced prisoners to march through the city dressed in just pink underwear, housed inmates in tents in the searing heat of the Arizona summer, and now appears on the Fox reality show Smile … You're Under Arrest. Last week he staged the 200 Mexican March, forcing prisoners to march in shackles from a local jail to his "tent city".

But his tactic of swamping areas of Maricopa county with hundreds of sheriff's deputies to carry out "crime suppression sweeps" has led to charges that he has abused his authority.

Last Wednesday, a federal judge cleared the way for five plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and two immigrant rights' groups, to bring a lawsuit against Arpaio.

The bad news for Sheriff Joe, as he is known, was compounded on Friday when the chairmen of four US House of Representatives committees called on Eric Holder, the new US attorney general, and Janet Napolitano, who left her position as governor of Arizona to become homeland security secretary, to investigate allegations of misconduct against Arpaio.

"Racial profiling and segregation are simply not acceptable," the House judiciary committee chairman, John Conyers, said in a letter to Holder and Napolitano. "Media stunts and braggadocio are no substitute for fair and effective law enforcement."

The chair of the House immigration sub-committee, Zoe Lofgren, said: "The basic premise of our justice system is that people are innocent until proven other­wise. I'm concerned that in Maricopa county that basic premise appears to have been turned upside down and that Latino members of [the] community are considered 'undocumented' until proven otherwise."

The call for an investigation stems from a crime sweep conducted by Arpaio in late 2007. On 6 September that year, Manuel Ortega Melendres, a Mexican national with a valid US work visa, was a passenger in a car stopped by police. Ortega Melendres was asked for and presented his identification. But according to court papers, officers believed it to be fake, and took him into custody. After four hours, with no food or water, no charges and no information, he was taken to be interviewed by immigration officials. After another four hours, he was released, with no charges and no explanation for his detention. Melendres is one of the plaintiffs in the case brought against Arpaio.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/16/usa-race

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4.
Bishops Speak Out on Immigration
The NTV News (Lincoln), February 16, 2009

Tensions ran high as government agents raided the Swift packing plant in December 2006. They arrested illegal immigrants in a roundup that sent many underground.

The Most Rev. William J. Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island said, "They felt they would be raided in their houses and felt there were names ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] had and they were going to hunt them down."

Bishop Dendinger said immigration policy has failed, so he's issued a rare joint statement with the bishops of Omaha and Lincoln. They say immigrants have become easy targets for people's anger.

"People come here with hopes of economic benefits, so it's not a healthy situation," he said.

Dendinger said they're addressing the issue is because they see it first hand at churches like St. Mary's Cathedral in Grand Island where immigrants come, knowing it's a safe place to get help.

He said, "They were coming to churches, seeking help from food to money."

Those opposed to illegal immigration have pushed for city, and state action. But the bishops warn that'll result in a backlash.
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http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=9854065

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5.
Advocates for immigrants urge ‘reform, not raids’
By Meredith Rodriguez
The Kansas City Star (MO), February 16, 2009

Two weeks ago, in a move that incensed civil rights groups, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio paraded 220 chained illegal immigrants in front of cameras down a Phoenix street.

Monday morning, in front of Kansas City’s new immigration court on Grand Boulevard, five men, shackled and dressed in striped prison gear, re-enacted the event in silent protest while 100 religious leaders encircled them.

“We are marching in the light of God,” they sang. “We are marching in the light of God.”

Carrying signs urging “Reform, not raids,” Presbyterians, Catholics, Universal Unitarians, Quakers and Methodists, among other denominations, came together to call on Congress and the president for immigration reform. Similar vigils were held across the country on Presidents Day.

The vigil was organized by the Interfaith Justice Advocacy Movement, an organization that advocates on behalf of illegal immigrants by appealing to faith values. Vigil organizers called for infusing compassion in the immigration debate and an end to raids that they say rip apart families.
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http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1037842.html