NEWS BYTES Responding to concerns that area hospitals are overcharging immigrants for healthcare, hospitals in Miami and Dade County will hold training sessions to implement a new method of dealing with immigrant patients. Workers will receive both cultural and sensitivity training. More importantly, immigrant patients will be charged on the basis of their income, rather than their immigration status, as is often the case now. Patients will still be asked about their status, but only for purposes of reimbursement from state and local governments.
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The Denver police force, while denying charges that members of the force are racist, will begin an investigation into allegations of discrimination and claims of police abuse by area Hispanic residents. The investigation begins just after the Colorado Progressive Coalition claimed to have evidence of 350 separate incidents where police questioned people in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood solely because of their ethnic background.
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Seven Chicago police officers have been placed on administrative duty as the department investigates the possibility that they were involved in shaking down Polish immigrants during routine traffic stops.
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The authority for designating J-1 exchange programs has been transferred from the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs of Certain Functions to the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs.
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According to a study recently released by the Urban Institute, about one in five children entering American’s schools this year is either foreign-born or the child of an immigrant. In some states, such as California, the number is even higher – almost 50 percent, while in New York and Arizona, it is over 30 percent. The percentage of immigrant and first generation children in schools has increased three fold over the past thirty years, up from 6.5 percent of the student population in 1970. The countries of origin of the children have also shifted, from a primarily European background to a Latin American background. The study is not available online, but the Urban Institute’s website is www.urban.org.
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It appears that the efforts of the governor of Iowa to encourage immigrants to settle in the state to help sustain the state’s population will not be met with approval. According to a recent poll taken by the Des Moines Register, 58 percent of respondents said they would oppose efforts to increase immigration to Iowa, while on 34 percent said they would support such efforts. Iowa was one of only two states whose population shrank from 1980 to 1990. Census Bureau officials expect the population to have increased by only three percent when the latest results are revealed.
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An examination of Honolulu city voter registration has revealed about 550 people registered to vote who are not US citizens. The state Republican Party Chairwoman has called upon the state attorney general to investigate. City officials have asked anyone who is registered to vote and is not a citizen to request that they be taken off the voter registration list, in part at least to protect themselves. Voting when one is not a citizen is grounds for deportation, but merely being registered to vote is not.
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A number of immigration related bills have been approved by the California General Assembly and await only Gov. Gray Davis’s signature before becoming law. Among them are a law that would allow aliens in the process of legalizing their status to obtain a driver’s license, a law that would allow students in the processing of legalizing their status to receive in-state tuition to state universities, and a bill that would significantly increase penalties for unscrupulous immigration consultants.
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This week saw the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York City. Leaders from over 160 nations attended, including Cuban president Fidel Castro. It was his first trip to the US in five years. While it did not happen, lawyers for Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Cuban exiles that flies over the Florida Straits searching for rafters, sought to have Castro arrested and charged with murder in connection with the 1996 downing of one of their planes. The Cuban government said the plane was shot down only after it violated Cuban airspace, but attorneys for the Brothers maintain that Castro’s aim was to kill Jose Basulto, the leader of Brothers to the Rescue. < 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. | 
