LAPD Chief and LA County Sheriff back driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants

L.A. Times: Wading into a politically charged debate, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said California should issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. The chief becomes one of the most prominent local figures to support the idea and his stance is certain to further inflame critics who are already angry at Beck’s efforts to liberalize the rules on how his officers impound the cars of unlicensed drivers. “My personal belief is that they should be able to” have licenses, Beck s...

Referendum drive to overturn California’s Dream Act fails

Opponents of California's Dream Act have failed in a signature-gathering drive aimed at overturning the new law that will permit some undocumented immigrants to receive publicly funded college aid. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly informed supporters of the referendum drive through a written statement today that the campaign had fallen short of qualifying for the ballot. The effort garnered 447,514 signatures, not the required 504,760 valid voter signatures required to place the matter before ...

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,...

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...

Morgue To Charge For Storing Bodies; Many Are Deceased Migrants

By Jill Reploggle TUCSON — The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to start charging rent for bodies that aren't picked up from the county morgue in a timely manner. The new fee is aimed at reducing overcrowding – primarily from deceased border-crossers. Pima County provides autopsy services and morgue space for much of the state. Many of the bodies held at the morgue are of migrants who die crossing into the U.S. from Mexico - 230 of them in 2010. To house the excess bodies, th...