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,...

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...

DHS Documents: Local Police Not Required To Hold Undocumented Immigrants For U.S. Government

By Elise Foley WASHINGTON -- Local law enforcement agencies are not required to hold undocumented immigrants at the request of the federal government, according to internal Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by a coalition of groups critical of the Secure Communities enforcement program. The documents could provide ammunition for jurisdictions that no longer want to participate inSecure Communities, which allows federal immigration authorities to use fingerprints to scan th...

Truth-Out.org: Targeting Immigrants

by: Nancy Murray and Kade Crockford, Truthout and ACLU Massachusetts | Special Feature Ten Years Later: Surveillance in the "Homeland" is a collaborative project with Truthout and ACLU Massachusetts. "Let the terrorists among us be warned," then-attorney general John Ashcroft intoned before the US Conference of Mayors on October 25, 2001: "If you overstay your visa - even by one day - we will arrest you." Ashcroft's vow to "use all weapons within the law" against nonci...

The 10 Numbers You Need to Know About E-Verify

By Philip E. Wolgin E-Verify is an immigration enforcement tool. It is the federal government’s Internet-based system that allows employers to check whether prospective employees are legally authorized to work in the United States. Currently, only 4 percent of all American businesses use the system, but House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) has introduced the Legal Workforce Act of 2011, H.R. 2164, to make E-Verify mandatory for all employers across the country. This mand...

Opposition Grows to Mandatory E-Verify Legislation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As Congress considers legislation that would require all employers to verify their employees' social security numbers, critics of mandatory E-Verify say the legislation is a guaranteed failure when it comes to California's agriculture industry. A new report from the immigration reform organization America's Voice finds that the legislation being sponsored by a number of California's Republican Congressional representatives is riddled with problems. The report highli...