News

Pending Regulation to Address Separation of Families of US Citizens Caught in Immigration Law Catch-22

By Julia Preston.  "Tweak in Rule to Ease a Path to Green Card." The New York Times

January 6, 2012

"Obama administration officials announced on Friday they are proposing a fix to a Catch-22 in immigration law that could spare hundreds of thousands of American citizens from prolonged separations from illegal immigrant spouses and children.

Although the regulatory tweak appears small, lawyers said it would mean that many Americans will no longer be separated for months or years from family members pursuing legal residency. Even more citizens could be encouraged to come forward to bring illegal immigrant relatives into the system, they said."

Link to full article

Illegal Immigrants Beware: L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Can Now Run Your Fingerprints in the Field

By Simone Wilson
Nov. 28 2011
L.A. Weekly

The L.A. Sheriff's Department is busting with pride over its brand-new fleet of "state-of-the-art mobile data computers" -- the first of which are now installed in the patrol vehicles of a few lucky deputies.

In some ways, the computers are an overdue boot into the 21st century. Turns out deputies have been communicating via dinosauric, fax-speed "terminals" from 1989, and haven't even had access to a GPS system. Yikes. So thankfully, the new mobile computers take care of all that. But not without a Thanksgiving-sized side of creep sauce: The computers, which set the department back $33 million (guess this county isn't as broke as we thought), can now communicate seamlessly with handheld Blue Check devices to run fingerprints in the field.

Read more here at the L.A. Weekly Blog.

Alabama's tough immigration law questioned

Alabama Atty. Gen. Luther Strange proposes throwing out parts of the immigration law to make it easier to defend and to 'remove burdens on law-abiding citizens.

December 8, 2011
AP - L.A. Times

Reporting from Montgomery, Ala.— The top legal official in the state with the country's toughest immigration law has suggested throwing out parts of the law after challenges by the federal government and strong protests by rights and business groups.

In his first public concerns about the law, expressed in a letter to legislative leaders obtained by the Associated Press, Alabama Atty. Gen. Luther Strange said the proposed changes would make the law "easier to defend in court" and "remove burdens on law-abiding citizens."

Read more here.

Rural communities struggle with lack of lawyers

Chicago Tribune
By Kristi Eaton
December 11, 2011

MARTIN, S.D.— Quentin Riggins' family told him he was crawling in diapers when he first met their attorney, Fred Cozad. As long as Riggins can remember, the attorney's name was scrawled on a chalkboard his grandmother kept next to the phone with the names and numbers of her closest friends and family.

Read more here.