NEWS BYTES

The University of California Board of Regents recent voted to allow some undocumented immigrant students to attend state schools at the in-state tuition rate.  To qualify, the student must have attended a California high school for at least three years and have graduated from a California high school.  The student must also certify that they are taking steps to legalize their immigration status, or that they will do so as soon as they are eligible.  At many schools, the difference between in state and out of state tuition is more than ,000 a year.

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Last week, as a new federal aviation security law went into effect, nine airport screeners who could lose their jobs because they are not US citizens filed suit, claiming the citizenship requirement is unconstitutionally discriminatory.  It is believed that about 20 percent of the nations 28,000 screeners are permanent residents.  The plaintiffs claim that in addition to being discriminatory, the law will deprive the country of many of its most experienced screeners. 

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The District Attorney in Dallas, Texas recently announced that his office would seek to dismiss 59 cases in which Mexican nationals had been arrested on drug charges.  Officials say that the cases, which were investigated by two undercover police officers, need to be dismissed because evidence was falsified, and in most cases, no drug possession actually occurred.  Officials also believe that the two officers were targeting immigrants.  The FBI is also investigating. 

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A new coalition of anti-immigrant groups calling itself United to Secure America has started an advertising campaign calling for increased immigration restrictions.  Currently the ads are running on TV and in newspapers in Missouri.  The ads call upon people to write to Congress and urge them to decrease the annual level of immigration, and feature photos of some of the people involved in the September 11^th attacks. 

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The INS recently arrested 20 undocumented immigrants who were working at the Seattle-Tacoma International airport.  The arrests followed an audit of the airport’s I-9 records, which revealed that there were more than 100 undocumented workers at the airport.  Half of those arrested had high-level security clearances. 

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Officials in Georgia are investigating the possibility that five driver’s license examiners sold as many as 400 licenses to undocumented immigrants.  Bribery charges have also been filed against two people the state says acted as brokers between immigrants and the examiners. 

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INS Commissioner James Ziglar recently announced that the agency is drafting new rules on international adoptions to ensure that the children adopted are really orphans.  Recently adoptions from some countries have been halted amid concerns that the children had been sold or stolen.  According to Ziglar, the new rules will allow prospective parents to apply for a visa for the child before the adoption is completed.  This should allow the INS to run a background check on the child and verify their eligibility for adoption before the parents leave the US to pick up the child.