NEWS BYTES Prison officials in Arizona are asking the state legislature to approve funding for a 1,000 bed prison that will hold only aliens subject to deportation. This is in spite of a state law that says that prisoners cannot be segregated on the basis of race, ethnicity or nationality. Corrections officials argue that their proposal does not violate the law, because it applies not on the basis of one of the forbidden grounds, but those opposed to the proposal say that the effect of the law will be the same.
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Immigrants and civil rights activists in Santa Fe, New Mexico are complaining that immigrant workers who gather at a city park to wait for work are being harassed by police. This comes less than three months after the city’s police were criticized for harassing undocumented workers. The police department responds that it has to respond to complaints it receives about people gathering in the park, and points out that it has not received any official complaints about its treatment of the immigrants.
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The INS announced the arrests of more than 20 immigrants in Miami with criminal records and plans to deport them. The arrests were accompanied by a press conference at which INS officials tried to stress that the agency only seeks to deport people with serious criminal histories. Nonetheless, critics say that until the 1996 immigration laws are reformed many people will be deported who do not deserve such harsh punishment. They also note that the INS does not publicize these cases.
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One of the top jockeys in the state of Washington is facing deportation on the basis of two misdemeanor drug convictions. Pedro Alvarado, who is married to a US citizen and has three US citizen children, sought permanent residency in 1995. He had been here on a visa for athletes of extraordinary ability. The INS then learned of his convictions and placed him in deportation proceedings. It is seeking to have him permanently barred from the US as a person who has assisted others in drug trafficking. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard his appeal, and should render a decision in a few months.
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The US has pledged an addition $4.5 million to various non-governmental organizations to assist in the effort to help resettle refugees and displaced persons in Croatia. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, almost 8000 people have returned to Croatia this year. They estimated that at least another 10,000 have returned without the assistance of official programs. So far this year the US has pledged $27 million for assistance in resettlement efforts in Croatia.
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A Kentucky woman has pled guilty to charges of encouraging undocumented immigrants to come to the US to work, and faces up to 10 years in prison. According to the indictment against her, she and her companion, an immigrant from Estonia, placed ads for jobs in the US in Estonian newspapers. A contact in Estonia would tell people interested in the jobs to apply for a tourist visa instead of a visa that would allow them to work, and told them to contact the couple in Kentucky when they arrived. They then charged $300 to find jobs and prepare fraudulent documents showing that the Estonians were authorized to work.
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An Immigration Judge has ruled that an 84-year-old man be deported for his participation in Nazi war atrocities. Michael Gruber immigrated to the US from Austria in 1956, but never applied for US citizenship. According to documents presented by the Office of Special Investigations, the branch of the Justice Department responsible for uncovering former Nazis living in the US, Gruber was a member of the Waffen-SS and served as a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Gruber can still appeal his case to the Board of Immigration Appeals and then to federal court.
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An immigrant forced sex trial in Little Rock, Arkansas has ended in a mistrial after the jurors were unable to reach a decision following five days of deliberation. The trial of David Jewell Jones and four other people lasted five weeks. They were accused of numerous immigration law violations in an alleged scheme designed to bring two Chinese women to the US so that Jones could engage in a sexual relationship with them. One of the women had initially claimed that Jones had raped her, but later admitted on the stand that she had lied about it. The government plans on conducting a retrial. More about the case is available in our July 28, 2000 bulletin at http://www.visalaw.com/00jul4/16jul400.html < Back | Next > Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. | 
