The federal government is paying $1.2 million to settle the cases of five Muslim immigrants who sued over their detention and treatment in a Brooklyn jail after 9/11, when hundreds of noncitizens were rounded up and held for months before being cleared of links to terrorism and deported. The five were part of a larger lawsuit, Turkmen v. Ashcroft, which will continue to press the argument that the roundups and physical abuse they say they suffered were unconstitutional. The government admits no liability or fault under the terms of the settlements, filed late Monday in United States District Court in Brooklyn. Charles S. Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the government would not comment.
Murat Celebi-Ariner found out the streets of San Francisco are not always a friendly place. The popular street food vendor was detained by Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week for overstaying his visa. The French citizen's lawyer said his client had a clean record and his case was an example of bad luck. Celebi-Ariner was in the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program, which means he was allowed into the country for 90 days. If the visitor stays in the country longer, they are found and deported without consideration of any extenuating circumstances, according to SF Weekly.
The Frederick County sheriff believes Montgomery County's light stance on illegal immigrations could be a detriment to safety and security in Frederick County. In particular, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins cited gang activity, and particularly activity by gangs that tend to recruit illegal immigrants, such as the Latin Kings, the Washington Examiner reported. In an August armed robbery of the Philly Cheesesteak Factory on Urbana Pike, one of the robbers hit a victim in the head with a hammer, police said. And a store owner was shot at after an armed robbery by some of the same suspects nine days later in Point of Rocks, according to news accounts.
Gov. Rick Perry is urging the federal government to stop its plans to transport illegal immigrants from other states into Texas for the purpose of deportation. Perry sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Saturday speaking out against the Alien Transfer and Exit Program, which was set to begin Sunday. The program would transport more than 34,000 illegal immigrants apprehended in other states through Presidio each year.
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will enter the politically tricky immigration arena, courtesy of the Supreme Court. On Monday, the court asked the administration for its views in a challenge to an Arizona law that punishes companies for hiring illegal aliens. Other states with large immigrant populations will watch the next steps closely, because their own laws and ballot measures could be on the line. "This case involves a question of exceptional national importance: whether state legislatures and municipal governments may override Congress' judgment concerning United States immigration policy," attorney Carter Phillips wrote in a legal brief.
A Pakistani national in Florence has pleaded guilty to filing false statements to gain entry and citizenship, U.S. Attorney W. Walter Wilkins said in a press release. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas E. Rogers III, accepted the plea from 29-year-old Sohail Feroz Ali Dossani, also known as Sohail Muhammad Jamal, and sentence him after reviewing presentence report by the U.S. Probation Office. Dossani faces a $1,000 fine and six months in prison. On June 12, 2008, someone told authorities he'd found two Pakistani passports bearing photographs of the same person but with different names. An investigation revealed that Dossani was a Pakistani citizen when he entered the United States using the assumed name of Sohail Jamal.
In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley's economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work. Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide. "It's the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression," said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. But it is not only a sign of the times, they add. If the numbers of citizens among the day laborers in cities across the country continue to grow, it's likely to increase the ire of followers of TV host Lou Dobbs and others who will see illegal immigrants as stealing food off the tables of the nation's native-born or naturalized poor.
On Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor told a judge in D.C Superior Court that accused murderer and gang member Ingmar Guandique, 28, along with members of the MS-13 gang threatened to kill a witness and his family, if he testifies at Guandique's January trial. A Salvadoran national in this country illegally, Guandique was arrested last April for the murder of missing intern Chandra Levy, who disappeared in 2001. Her skeletal remains were discovered a year later in D.C.'s Rock Creek Park. At the time of his arrest for the Levy murder, he was already in prison for the assault of two other women in Washington D.C.
Federal agents are raiding thousands of homes of criminal illegal immigrants under Obama administration directives that emphasize apprehending dangerous criminals over arresting nonviolent illegal residents. Newly compiled data show that in fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, the number of criminal illegal immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fugitive-operations teams doubled, from more than 7,900 in fiscal year 2008 to almost 16,000. The number of non-criminals arrested plummeted during the same year, from more than 26,200 to fewer than 19,200. More than 45 percent of people arrested during the operations in fiscal year 2009 were criminals, compared to 17 percent in 2008.
News that the state will cancel the car registrations of possibly thousands of undocumented immigrants has caused panic and created rumors among those living in central Ohio. Before Aug. 24, a loophole in the state Bureau of Motor Vehicle's policy allowed illegal immigrants to register cars in their names by using a power-of-attorney form, even if they didn't have a driver's license. The Ohio Department of Public Safety closed the loophole after delaying a crackdown on possibly fraudulent registrations for more than a year.
(Cleveland) - The Cleveland Division of the FBI has broken up a group accused of faking documents for Ukranian immigrants. Frank Figliuzzi, Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, says the investigation started in December of 2007 when information was received that individuals in the Cleveland Ukrainian community were involved in a scheme to bring foreign nationals to Cleveland. Once here, they would help them fraudulently obtain real Ohio driver's licenses for a fee, issued by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles by a Deputy Registrar working for this criminal organization. The investigation focused on Vitaly Fedorchuk who was identified as the leader of the criminal organization; Sonya Hilaszek, the corrupt employee at the Deputy Registrars Office in Parma, Ohio; and Pavlo Mostranskyy, who acted as a middle-man bringing the foreign nationals to Cleveland.
Regarding Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun story, "More welfare going to parents here illegally": Our government has avoided addressing our antiquated birthright laws for decades, forcing us to support welfare against our will. In reality, a significant percentage of illegal immigrants come here because they know they can have children and avoid deportation because the children are U.S. citizens. And we pay the hospital bills. Our representatives have copped out on changing this ridiculous policy for decades. Children born on U.S. soil should be citizens of the mothers' countries unless the fathers are legal residents or U.S. citizens, as in most other countries.
Agents held three immigrants as witnesses and arrested two men accused of human smuggling. An inspection at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint around 10:15 a.m. found the driver didn't have a commercial license and the passenger didn't have legal papers. A second inspection revealed 30 illegal immigrants, including one child, inside a compartment hidden by furniture in the back of the truck, accessible by a trap door. Border Patrol agent Mark Endicott declined to release the names of the suspected smugglers. He says the driver is a Mexican citizen who had a border-crossing card to legally enter the United States.
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Authorities have arrested two men who were allegedly smuggling 30 illegal immigrants into the United States in a hidden compartment inside a trailer. U.S. Border Patrol said Friday that agents inspected a semi-truck at a checkpoint in San Diego County on Thursday and found the driver didn't have a commercial license and the passenger didn't have legal papers. Agents say they found 30 illegal immigrants, including one child, inside a compartment hidden by furniture in the back of the trailer. Border Patrol agent Mark Endicott declined to release the names of the suspected smugglers. He says the driver is a Mexican citizen who had a border-crossing card to legally enter the United States.
A man believed to be an illegal immigrant and a member of the notorious Central American gang MS-13 was in a Dallas County jail Friday after a lengthy standoff in Irving with police and U.S. marshals. Juan Manjivar, 36, was being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on warrants from California for parole violations and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to jail records. There also was a "hold" placed on him for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which indicates that he is suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
