1. DOJ sues over SC law
2. Judge asked to block AZ
3. Romney hits Perry in NH
4. AZ Gov. criticizes DHS Sec.
5. Illegal pleads in VA
1.
Justice Dept. sues over SC's new immigration law
By Meg Kinnard
The Associated Press, October 31, 2011
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The federal government is suing South Carolina to put a stop to the state's tough new immigration law.
U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said Monday the government wants a judge to stop enforcement of the legislation. The law requires that officers call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally following a traffic stop for something else.
Nettles said the law is unconstitutional and violates people's right to due process. He says the lawsuit was filed Monday afternoon.
South Carolina's law takes effect Jan. 1 and is among the toughest in the nation. The U.S. Justice Department is challenging similar laws in Arizona and Alabama.
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDyDrO_MRlS_mdr5A-tvJv...
********
********
2.
Groups seek to block Arizona's day labor rules
By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, October 31, 2011
PHOENIX (AP) — Groups opposing Arizona's immigration enforcement law have asked a federal judge to put a stop to a section of the statute that bans the blocking of traffic when people seek or offer day-labor services on streets.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other opponents filed a preliminary injunction request on Friday seeking to block enforcement of the provision, saying it unconstitutionally restricts the free speech rights of people who want to express their need for work. The request was filed in an existing lawsuit by the groups.
The state can't justify the statewide ban based on scattered instances of solicitations creating traffic problems in Phoenix, they said, adding that there are already laws on the books to deal with people who block traffic.
The ban was among a handful of provisions in the law that were allowed to take effect after a July 2010 decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton halted enforcement of other, more controversial elements of the law. The blocked portions include a requirement that police, while enforcing other laws, question people's immigration status if officers suspect they are in the country illegally.
Gov. Jan Brewer has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Bolton's ruling after she lost an appeal in a lower court.
Brewer's lawyers have also opposed attempts to halt enforcement of the day-labor restrictions, which they argue are meant to confront safety concerns, as well as distractions to drivers, harassment to passers-by, trespassing and damage to property.
They told the court that day laborers congregate on roadsides in large groups, flagging down vehicles and often swarming those that stop. They also said day laborers in Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa and Fountain Hills leave behind water bottles, food wrappers and other trash.
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifVJ7Cxbqf_UPnLih5DU_h...
********
********
3.
Romney says Perry immigrant tuition plan would cost New Hampshire thousands
By Sarah Schweitzer
The Boston Globe, October 31, 2011
Mitt Romney has been highly critical of Rick Perry’s controversial law granting in-state college tuition breaks to some undocumented immigrants in Texas.
As both men descended on New Hampshire last weekend, Romney sent out an email blast to reporters suggesting that Perry’s policy could end up costing New Hampshire residents thousands of dollars.
“Governor Perry’s plan would yield a tuition discount of more than $50,000 for illegal immigrants at the University of New Hampshire,” his campaign wrote in the email.
The Romney math goes: If an undocumented immigrant student paid in-state tuition and fees of $14,600 rather than the out-of-state rate of $28,570, the state would lose $13,970. Multipy that number by four and the sum is more than $50,000.
But this assumes Perry’s plan were a national one – something the Texas governor’s spokesman says would not happen on Perry’s watch.
“This is flatly misleading. The governor has publicly said that this was a decision that Texas made and he has no intention of making this any kind of national program,” said Mark Miner, Perry’s spokesman.
. . .
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/10/romney-says-p...
********
********
4.
Jan Brewer: Janet Napolitano's in the ‘limelight’
By MJ Lee
Politico (DC), November 1, 2011
Janet Brewer says her predecessor as Arizona governor, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, is busy enjoying the “federal limelight” instead of fixing the country’s immigration laws.
“The bottom line is that it’s very unusual, but of course I guess [when] you make your decisions … it’s not where you sit, it’s where you stand,” Brewer said on Fox News Tuesday morning. “And she’s standing in D.C., so she’s in the federal limelight.”
Brewer accused Napolitano of changing her agenda as soon as she was appointed to President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.
“I am disappointed. I mean, it’s just absolutely ridiculous because she was there, you know, calling on the federal government to enforce the laws when she was governor and then arrives there and again has an opportunity to make it better and again does not,” she said.
Brewer, whose controversial immigration bill, SB 1070, stirred up controversy in Arizona and across the country, said that unlike Napolitano, she has weathered plenty of criticism by being a champion of immigration reform.
“It was unfair accusations that they kept making towards me and to Arizona,” she said. “And it is unfortunate because of course we were just trying got protect our citizens and do what was right and then to have them turn around and use the racist card and the bigot card to shut down the debate.”
. . .
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67320.html
********
********
5.
Illegal immigrant pleads guilty in killing of nun in Va.
Was driving drunk during fatal crash
By David Sherfinski
The Washington Times, October 31, 2011
An illegal immigrant who fatally struck a Benedictine nun while driving drunk was found guilty in Prince William County on Monday of felony murder — a case that sparked outrage in a county at the forefront of debates on local enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 24, faces up to 70 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 3 on the murder charge and a host of lesser related charges to which he pleaded guilty earlier in the day.
The charges stemmed from an Aug. 1, 2010, crash in which Martinelly Montano struck a car carrying Sister Denise Mosier, 66, as she was traveling to a retreat at the Benedictine Monastery in Bristow, Va.
Martinelly Montano, who entered the country illegally with his family from Bolivia in 1996, had twice been convicted on drunken-driving charges before the accident. After the second conviction in 2008, he was released by the county into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and was awaiting a deportation hearing when the crash occurred.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “What I don’t want people to think is, ‘Well, we got this one,’ and the issue is resolved. It’s not. This is just a small, one-man example of the dangerous illegal aliens in America who are released by the federal government instead of deported.”
Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert called it a “tragic case all around.”
Mr. Ebert said he could remember cases against illegal immigrants in which charges were dropped on the condition that the accused be deported — only to have them return soon afterward.
“I don’t concern myself with the immigration status anymore,” he said. “We have to enforce the laws whether they’re illegal immigrants or not.”
Martinelly Montano’s attorneys disputed that their client should be characterized as an illegal immigrant, saying that at the time of the crash he carried a valid work permit.
Martinelly Montano had used the document when applying for an identification card.
In September 2010, shortly after the accident, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell ordered the state Department of Motor Vehicles to stop accepting an Employment Authorization Document, or work permit, as proof of legal status.
A Homeland Security Department investigation into the Martinelly Montano case determined that the Justice Department several times had delayed deportation hearings, even as he had several minor run-ins with the law in 2009 and 2010 that were not reported to the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Martinelly Montano on Monday morning pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, two counts of maiming as a result of driving while intoxicated, driving on a revoked license and a third drunken-driving charge within five years.
. . .
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/31/trial-begins-illegal-imm...
