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IN THIS ISSUE
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AMENDED EXECUTIVE ORDER 12989:
Requires That Federal Contractors Use Basic Pilot/E-Verify |
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New on NILC’s Website (since
June 19, 2008) |
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Read this issue of
IMMIGRANTS’
RIGHTS UPDATE
online at: |
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www.nilc.org/pubs/iru/iru2008-07-17.htm |
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AMENDED
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12989:
Requires That Federal Contractors Use Basic Pilot/E-Verify |
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President Issues Executive Order Mandating That Federal Contractors
Use Controversial and Error-Prone Basic Pilot/E-Verify |
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Last month, President George W. Bush amended Executive Order 12989 in order
to mandate that certain public and private federal contractors use the
severely flawed and inaccurate Basic Pilot/E-Verify program to verify the
employment eligibility of all newly hired employees and also to reverify the
eligibility of existing employees working under the contractor’s contract
with the federal government. This action is a significant change in policy
and law that drastically alters the current requirements of Basic
Pilot/E-Verify and represents the administration’s unlawful, unrealistic,
and wrong-headed approach to solving our nation’s immigration problems.
This latest example continues the trend of disregarding workers’
constitutional and due process rights as the administration pursues its own
brand of enforcement-only strategies.
Read more >> |
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NEW ON NILC’s WEBSITE (since June 19, 2008) |
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Government Unjustly Coerces Guilty Pleas and Criminalizes Workers |
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Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in U.S. History: A Personal
Account
(by Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D., a certified federal court
interpreter; 7/08).
REQUIRED READING
for any immigrants’ rights advocate. One brief excerpt:
“It is no secret that the Postville [Iowa] ICE raid was a pilot
operation, to be replicated elsewhere, with kinks ironed out after
lessons learned. Next time, ‘fast-tracking’ will be even more
relentless. Never before has illegal immigration been
criminalized in this fashion.” Professor Camayd-Freixas’s
essay is available in a blog on
The Sanctuary. |
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Lawsuit Challenging
Exclusion of Attorneys from Interviews |
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National Lawyers Guild v. Chertoff
(Complaint
for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, 2/14/08) |
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Lawsuit challenging ICE policy and practice of
excluding attorneys from interviews with workers detained after a Feb. 2008
Los Angeles worksite raid. |
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Violations of Detainees’ Human Rights |
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Voices from Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the
Northwest Detention Center (Seattle University School of Law
International Human Rights Clinic and OneAmerica, 7/08). Among
other problems, the study found violations of attorney-client
privilege; threats and physical intimidation used to pressure
detainees to sign papers; mistreatment by guards and federal
marshals; inadequate medical care; inadequate treatment of mentally
ill detainees, including refugees who had been persecuted in their
homelands; insufficient food and incidents of food poisoning; severe
overcrowding; and language barriers. (Link is to OneAmerica’s
website.) |
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No-Match Letter
Insufficient Proof That a Worker is Employment-Ineligible |
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Aramark Facility Services v. Service Employees International Union, Local
1877, No. 06-56662 (9th Cir. June 16, 2008). |
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Decision by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals |
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Summary of decision (Listing of worker’s Social Security number in a
no-match letter is not sufficient to establish constructive knowledge that
the worker is employment-ineligible.) |
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Settlement
Provides for Expedited Immigration or Citizenship Processing |
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Expedited Processing Available for Certain Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Beneficiaries (Current and former SSI beneficiaries can request
expedited processing of Forms I-485 and N-400 -- permanent residence and
naturalization applications -- if the individual’s application has been
pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for more than six
months.) (USCIS questions & answers, 6/5/08; posted 6/30/08.) |
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Immigrants’ Needs Overlooked |
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Disaster Preparedness in Urban Immigrant Communities: Lessons
Learned from Recent Catastrophic Events and Their Relevance to
Latino and Asian Communities in Southern California (Tomás
Rivera Policy Institute and Asian Pacific American Legal Center,
6/08).
KEY FINDINGS:
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Government agencies and nonprofit relief organizations are not doing
enough to provide culturally sensitive disaster preparedness
education in languages that reflect the demographics of the
populations being served.
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Currently, no tools are in place to provide immediate translation of
all emergency information in a rapid manner to limited
English-proficient populations in Southern California.
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First responders rely on bilingual family members, often children,
to provide translation for officers, deputies, fire personnel, etc.
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All first response personnel interviewed said that immigration
status is not considered when providing disaster services, but none
of their agencies had in place mechanisms by which to reassure the
public that this is in fact the case. (Link is to Tomás Rivera
Policy Institute website.) |
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Massachusetts New Americans Initiative: A Pro-Immigrant Measure |
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Description of the initiative (An economic and social plan to
help Massachusetts develop an integration-based agenda for refugees
and immigrants and support for the communities where they live.)
(7/08; posted 7/14/08.) |
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Massachusetts Executive Order 503: Integrating Immigrants and
Refugees into the Commonwealth (7/9/08; posted 7/14/08.) |
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FOIA-obtained Information about Federal Immigration Enforcement |
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Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse (at Syracuse University).
TRAC’s Immigration
Project makes available written reports on immigration matters
-- administrative and criminal enforcement, agency staffing, etc.; a
tool that provides one-click access to the latest monthly data on
the criminal enforcement of immigration law, along with explanatory
text; detailed reports on the handling of asylum matters by over 200
immigration judges; a library of reports on immigration matters by
the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research
Service, and inspectors general; and a plain-English glossary of
frequently used words and acronyms common to the immigration world.
An excerpt from a recent TRAC Immigration e-newsletter:
“Immigration cases continue to heavily dominate federal enforcement
efforts, making up . . . 58% . . . of all federal prosecutions
in April, according to timely data obtained and analyzed by [TRAC].
By comparison, prosecutions falling under the general category of
drugs and narcotics made up only 16% of the total, while matters
classified as involving white collar violations limped in at just
under 5% for the same month. The very heavy federal emphasis
on immigration cases became especially notable in February, March
and April and is concentrated in selected judicial districts along
the border with Mexico. The surge in this area is being
advanced under a program called ‘Operation Streamline.’” |
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