Debris
«chaque notaire porte en soi les débris d’un poète.»Archive for immigration
Liars & Terrorists & Judges, Oh My
Cross one item off my to-do list. Today I completed a revised draft of an article I’d been lingering over, and submitted it for publication. The article, Liars & Terrorists & Judges, Oh My: Moral Panic and the Symbolic Politics of Appellate Review in Asylum Cases (for some reason, SSRN shows only the abstract), is a critical assessment of a provision in the 2005 REAL I.D. Act that seeks to restrict judicial review of administrative decisions in asylum cases. I welcome feedback from Debris readers.
As a reward for getting this done, I will be buying the materials to build a Pirogue (a.k.a. Cajun canoe) with young Alfie Debris.
The answer is, “a quaint, outdated concept”
One of the questions immigrants may face on the new U.S. citizenship exam asks, “What is ‘rule of law’?” Is it really fair to expect immigrants to be able to explain a concept that has utterly eluded the current President and Vice-President and the recently-departed Attorney General?
Unions condemn latest immigration raid at Smithfield
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last night raided the Smithfield Foods pork plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina — the second such raid that that location this year. ICE has been conducting a series of similar raids throughout the country, rounding up alleged undocumented workers. The Change to Win (CtW) labor coalition, and two of its member unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have issued statements condemning the raids. The CtW statement characterized the raids as “political theater” by the Bush Administration, aimed at “pleasing its base” rather than “finding a real solution on immigration.” The statement also noted “the human cost” of the Administration’s actions:
We see the cost in families torn apart by armed agents at gunpoint. We see the cost in thousands of innocent U.S. citizens and legal immigrants being rounded up and detained for questioning. We see the cost in lives turned upside down. We see the cost in whole communities coming to fear the knock on the door in the dead of night.
This latest raid by ICE further calls into question the wisdom of the Administration’s decision to bring military-style tactics to immigration enforcement. We reject any immigration policy that relies on employing ‘shock and awe’ tactics against hard-working people, many of whom are citizens or fully documented legal immigrants, and we call on Congress to reform our immigration system so that every working man and woman in this country has a chance to achieve the American Dream.
Tales of the completely expected
According to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), House Democratic Caucus chair Rahm Emanuel has said that House Democrats “will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president.” Writing at jspot.org, Matthew Borus appears shocked:
Representative Emanuel is a fellow Jew who attends a modern Orthodox congregation in Chicago. Is he really willing to sacrifice, in the name of political expediency, the lessons of both Jews historical experience as unwanted immigrants in so many lands (including this one), as well as the Halakhic injunctions to honor the stranger and to remember, as the Torah repeats many times, that we were strangers in the land of Egypt?
Is that a serious question? Can Borus (or anyone else) seriously imagine that there is anything at all Rahm Emanuel, Clintonista/DLCite par excellence, is unwilling to sacrifice in the name of political expediency?
No fair trial for fair-fight defendant
Graeme of Left in East Dakota has called my attention to what appears to be a grave miscarriage of justice.
Mevludin Hidanovic was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail for his alleged role in a brawl at a West Fargo, ND fair last summer. Hidanovic, who was at the fair with his family, has steadfastly denied any involvement in the fight. After the trial, one of the jurors, Becky Rettig, acknowledged that she had pressed for a guilty verdict based on Hidanovic’s Roma Bosnian ethnicity. In a detailed affidavit, Rettig — who says hers was initially the sole vote in favor of a conviction — explained how she influenced the other jurors:
- I used my own experiences with ethnic groups, specifically Bosnians and/or Gypsies, to influence the jury.
- I told the jury that I had personal experience with Bosnians and that they stole from my business and in the same experience lied to me regarding the theft and their conduct. Even though I had never met Mr. Hidanovic, or any of the witnesses, Mr. Hidanovic and the witnesses’ race was discussed in a negative way.
- I interjected into the deliberations the concept that if Mr. Hidanovic wasn’t guilty of this crime he was guilty of something else.
Despite this evidence, a state court judge has denied Hidanovic’s request for a new trial. If the conviction stands, Hidanovic, who fled war-torn Bosnia in 1992 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1999, will face deportation after serving his sentence.
Illegal immigration takes its toll in the corporate suites
In a special report on “Immigration: The Human Cost“, the Onion News Network addresses the plight of corporate executives losing their jobs to low-paid illegal immigrants.
(Thanks to TomPaine.com for the tip.)
