The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged immigrants’ rights

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill to Be Introduced Dec. 15

By | 12.11.09 | 11:49 am

Though there’s been lots of talk so far about comprehensive immigration reform from advocates, a handful of lawmakers, and even President Obama when he addresses Latino groups, no one has yet introduced a bill in Congress.

That’s expected to change on Tuesday, Dec. 15, when Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is More…

Franken Challenges Napolitano on Imprisonment of Asylum Seekers

By | 12.09.09 | 12:07 pm

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning why it is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is imprisoning people coming to the United States seeking asylum from persecution abroad.

“A 2005 congressionally authorized bipartisan commission found that it wasn’t appropriate More…

ICE Responds to Immigrant Detention Reports

By | 12.02.09 | 3:43 pm

When I posted my piece earlier this afternoon on the exploding immigrant detainee population that’s increasingly being moved to far-away prisons around the country, I had not yet heard back from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency with a response, although I’d asked for one as soon as More…

Lou Dobbs Already Flip-Flopping on ‘Amnesty’?

By | 11.25.09 | 12:17 pm

After years of slamming anyone who proposed any sort of “amnesty” for “illegal aliens,” former CNN host Lou Dobbs has apparently changed his tune. On Friday, he told the Spanish-language TV station: “We need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.”

Pressure to Close GTMO Puts Some Prisoners at Risk

By | 10.01.09 | 1:11 pm

As the pressure grows on the Obama administration to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay by January, so too does the risk that some of the Guantanamo detainees cleared for release could be returned to countries where they’ll face persecution or torture, More…

Immigrants’ Advocates Not Letting Up on Obama

By | 08.27.09 | 12:41 pm

The federal immigration program that allows local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws is becoming a thorn in the side of the Obama administration.

It’s part of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s tough-on-illegal immigrants strategy, and it wins President Obama points from conservatives who fear More…

Report Finds ICE Violates Its Own Detention Standards

By | 07.28.09 | 2:04 pm

A new report released today by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and the law firm of Holland & Knight concludes that the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit has been systematically violating its own standards governing the More…

Immigration Program Expands, Despite Abuse Record

By | 07.23.09 | 6:00 am

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has made a name for himself using controversial tactics targeting illegal immigrants in Arizona. The chief law enforcement officer of Maricopa County and author of the book “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio boasts that he’s arrested some 30,000 undocumented immigrants, many More…

New DHS Rules Disappoint Immigrants’ Advocates

By | 07.17.09 | 2:54 pm

New Department of Homeland Security agreements governing state and local police departments’ enforcement of immigration laws are not relieving their critics’ concerns.

Known as 287(g) authority because of the section of the immigration law that authorizes it, this delegation of federal law enforcement power to local police has sparked More…

Another Twist in U.S. Immigration Policy

By | 03.17.09 | 7:05 am

Maybe it’s because I’m relatively new to the immigration beat, but I’m consistently surprised at the twists and turns of immigration policy that lead to absurd and shocking results.

Not only are most immigrants in detention centers imprisoned for months or even years despite not having committed a crime, More…