In a deft strike at the Maricopa County Sheriff's highly controversial anti-immigrant round-up/deportation neighborhood sweeps, AZ Governor Janet Napolitano (D) has issued an executive order directing the state's Department of Public Safety (DPS) to give priority to targeting the tens of thousands of felons in the state: The executive order directs the DPS to immediately deploy a squad to address the backlog of nearly 60,000 open felony warrants statewide, with priority on gang-related felonies and fugitives who are undocumented immigrants.

Nina Bernstein at the New York Times brings us another story of government immigration overreach.

He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university. She was “a totally Virginia girl,” as she puts it, raised across the road from George Washington’s home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

But on April 29, when Mr. Salerno, 35, presented his passport at Washington Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection agent refused to let him into the United States. And after hours of questioning, agents would not let him travel back to Rome, either; over his protests in fractured English, he said, they insisted that he had expressed a fear of returning to Italy and had asked for asylum.

Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit — meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon — eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out.

Mr. Salerno’s case may be extreme, but it underscores the real but little-known dangers that many travelers from Europe and other first-world nations face when they arrive in the United States — problems that can startle Americans as much as their foreign visitors.

GOP Pal Employer Going Scot Free as Largest Ever ICE Raid Nets over 390 Illegal Immigrants and Sweeps them to Detention! at Immigration Talk with a Mexican American.

The Republican Approach to Immigration Policy: Treat Immigrants Like Cattle Tactics Hurt Party’s Image, Make Problem Worse, and Terrorize Immigrant Families at Immigration Prof Blog. Also The Efforts to Crack Down on "Voter Fraud," i.e., Latino Voters.

Despite clarification, NC bars undocumented students! at A Dream Deferred.

In the biggest workplace immigration raid this year, federal agents swept into a kosher meat plant on Monday in Postville, Iowa, and arrested more than 300 workers.

The authorities said the workers were suspected of being in the United States illegally or of having participated in identity theft and the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not say how many people had been rounded up beyond the initial 300 or whether the management and owners of the plant, AgriProcessors, would face criminal charges.

The plant has 800 to 900 people and is the country’s largest producer of meat that is glatt kosher, widely regarded as the highest standard of cleanliness.

DeWeese letter to Beck: "Just Say NO to SAVE Act!" (Even the ANTIs Agree!) at Immigration Talk With A Mexican American.

An open letter from famous ANTI Leader Tom DeWeese (American Policy Center) to famous ANTI Leader Roy Beck (Numbers USA) advocates "Just Say NO to the SAVE Act!" As I have shared, and as DeWeese explains, we ALL lose our Civil Liberties if this heinous Act is passed.

Watch The Immigration Detention Gold Mine at A Dream Deferred.

PBS has now done a series on “Immigrant Detainees- A New Profit Center?” giving us a look into how the private corrections industry is profiting from immigrants held in detention facilities.

Texas History: A Story from 1844 at Dream Act Texas. Also read Underground Youth Movement.

An organization of 20 undocumented youth have devoted themselves to demonstrating humanity for undocumented immigrants, whose country was once chosen for them and one they choose for themselves today.

This update from The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 10, 2008, gets my vote for the "What's Going On?" Award of the month. Its lead intrigues:

After two days of confusion over whether North Carolina’s 58 community colleges may admit illegal immigrants, federal officials cleared the air somewhat on Friday, stating that “it is left for the school to decide whether or not to enroll” those students, The News & Observer reported today.

In a statement released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the officials said, “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not require any school to determine a student’s status.” The statement, issued at the request of the newspaper, noted that illegal immigrants were subject to being prosecuted and deported. But the statement said colleges were not required to report such students unless they had violated the terms of their student visas under the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

Although the news is good for the moment, it will be surprising if this ICE opinion doesn't receive swift and unwelcome attention from the always-wrong Right. While the measure affects only 112 of some 297,000 NC students, it is doubtful that the GOP will overlook any opportunity, no matter how small, to attack and alienate hard-working students preparing for lifetimes of contributing to the US economy. Stay tuned to Citizen Orange for developments in this case as they occur. 

Continue reading The Chronicle's update. 

Privatized Prisons for Immigrants: The Expansion Continues at The Sanctuary.

Since the launch of the "global war on terror," a large majority of Americans have conveniently been led to cower under the pseudo-protective umbrella of a permanent Nation Security State.

Deporting DREAM Act Students: Exporting American Talent Overseas at A Dream Deferred. While many nativists romance about "the best and the brightest" their attrition through enforcement strategy certainly does not take this into account. The recent comment by Douglas Bruce, "I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don't think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado,", goes to show what nativists see when they think of undocumented migrants. This bigoted view of other human beings is one of the most important hurdles we must overcome in this struggle. Viewing those from Latin American countries as "peasants" is certainly an elitest attitude that cannot provide the proper stage nor dialogue to move us forward as caring human beings in a world community. We must support those that dream because "nothing happens unless first we dream." - Carl Sandburg

At Brave New Films watch Mexico's deported children. Though it may be hard for some to understand what I see here is a desire to work and provide so great that no obstacle can stand in the way. That is an exhibition of courage and strength which I find admirable. While migrants are vilified for "breakig the law" - truly they are simply working for a better future. How can that be against the law?  Essentially what nativists attempt to construct is a faulty and baseless visual pairing migrants to undesirables, such as drug dealers and theifs, who break the law for profit.

Gretchen Morgenson at the NY Times has a story today about the strategic harassment of tenants—many of them migrants—by big real estate companies in New York City.  I posted about this last month here.  

As Morgenson explains, it’s part of a financial plan to make big bucks on the backs of low-income tenants. 

Private investment firms have been amassing what may seem like unusual stakes in New York real estate: they have bought hundreds of apartment buildings with thousands of rent-regulated units across the city that produce decidedly meager returns.

As regulatory filings and promotional materials show, the companies expect to generate higher returns quickly by increasing rents after existing tenants vacate their units. Their success depends upon far higher vacancy rates than are typical in rent-regulated apartments in New York.

Some residents and tenant advocates say that they began seeing what they consider a pattern of harassment of low-income tenants this year and suspect that it is a result of the new owners’ business models. Tenants have been sued repeatedly for unpaid rent that has already been received by the landlords; they have been sent false notices of rent bills, lease terminations and nonrenewals; and they have been accused of illegal sublets.

BREAKING NEWS! ICE RAIDS SWEEP ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS!! at Immigration Talk With A Mexican American.

Immigration raids near schools in Berkeley and Oakland have sent waves of panic in the communities and may keep undocumented students from attending class,

DMI Blog give us Immigration Officials Turn to Schoolyard Bullying.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in California have stooped to a new, almost unbelievable low: intimidating schoolchildren.

Houston Latino History - 1977- 1978 at Dream Act Texas.

"Mr Joe Campos Torres was arrested by six police officers for being disorderly in a bar. They beat him so badly that the jailer refused to accept him and told them to take him to hospital. Instead they dropped him into the Buffalo Bayou "to see if he could swim". His body was found three days later. "