Groups Ask Congress To Cut Border Enforcement Funds

By Ruxandra Guidi SAN DIEGO — According to the Washington-based think tank National Immigration Forum, funding for the Border Patrol has grown by about 1,000 percent since 1993. Its operating budget is now $1.4 billion and it rises, on average, about $300 million annually. The National Immigration Forum is one of a handful of pro-immigrant groups pressuring Congress to make cuts to border enforcement as a way to save taxpayers more than $2.6 billion. "We believe that, at this juncture, ...

Occupy ICE Camps Out In Front Of Immigration And Customs Enforcement Office In San Diego

"Stop deporting workers! Stop deporting workers!," protestors chanted outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in San Diego Yesterday. A California janitor's union, joined by immigration activists and workers, rallied in the plaza in front of a Federal building which houses San Diego's ICE offices as part of a movement they call Occupy ICE or Occupy La Migra. La Migra refers to border patrol and immigration officials in Spanish. Holding picket signs and setting up tents,...

Feds To Review Immigration Cases, Focus On Serious Crimes

By Jill Replogle On Thursday the Department of Homeland Security announced the next step in the Obama administration’s policy of prosecutorial discretion. Attorneys for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin reviewing all new cases in immigration court, and some pending cases, in order to focus resources on prosecuting undocumented criminals and other high priority cases. The policy of prosecutorial discretion was drafted in June, but the government had given few concrete ...

Immigrant rights, community and labor leaders to “Occupy” San Diego Federal Building.

Media Advisory For Thursday, November 17, 2011 Contacts: Sandra Diaz, (619) 534-2927 Christian Ramirez, (619) 885-1289 Adriana Jasso, (619) 808-7277 Immigrants and other supporters say, “Hardworking immigrant families didn’t wreck our economy, the banks did.” San Diego, CA — Led by the SEIU USWW Janitors Union, workers, immigrant rights organizations and community members will rally in front of the downtown federal building and to “occupy” the plaza area in front of the Federal b...

FORUM: The law is the law? Not really

Opinion piece in the North County Times by Bill Flores Columnist Thomas K. Arnold recently wrote (Wednesday, Nov. 2) that he feels sorry for the authorities in Escondido. They are, after all, just enforcing the law. This thinking seems to be pervasive among those who comment or blog in the NC Times, as if a piece of legislation is monolithic and written in stone. The law is the law, right? It is an exceedingly impractical position to take. Should cities be responsible for enforcing "the la...

Occupy Oakland arrestee faces deportation

Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer Occupy Oakland protesters held a rally today in support of a veteran East Bay activist who faces possible deportation to Mexico after being arrested during Monday's police sweep of the movement's encampment outside City Hall. Records show that 36-year-old Francisco "Pancho" Ramos Stierle of Oakland is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin because of a federal immigration hold. Footage of the early morning police raid shows Sti...