Winter 2013 National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly News Alert!

by Lee Siu Hin Immigrant Solidarity Network Tuesday, Dec. 03, 2013 at 10:17 PM
info@immigrantsolidarity.org Los Angeles: (213)403-0131 New York: (212)330-8172 Washington DC: (202)595-8990 P.O. Box 751 South Pasadena, CA 91031-0751

In This Issue: 1) 100,000 Immigration Prosecutions Reach All-time High in FY 2013 2) Does the President Have the Power to Stop All/Most Removals? 3) Chinese Americans protest against Jimmy Kimmel skit 4) Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone" 5) UT's Young Conservatives Hosting "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" Game (and Cancelled!) 6) Updates, Please Support NISN! Subscribe the Newsletter!

 

Winter 2013 National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly News Digest and News Alert!

National Immigrant Solidarity Network
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Winter 2013 U.S. Immigrant Alert! Newsletter
Published by National Immigrant Solidarity Network

Please Download Our Newsletter: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Winter13.pdf

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2013: What Happened to the Immigrant Reform?

In This Issue:

1) 100,000 Immigration Prosecutions Reach All-time High in FY 2013
2) Does the President Have the Power to Stop All/Most Removals?
3) Chinese Americans protest against Jimmy Kimmel skit
4) Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"
5) UT's Young Conservatives Hosting "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" Game (and Cancelled!)
6) Updates, Please Support NISN! Subscribe the Newsletter!

  

Please download our latest newsletter: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Winter13.pdf

At Nearly 100,000, Immigration Prosecutions Reach All-time High in FY 2013

TRAC Report

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during FY 2013 immigration prosecutions reached an all-time high, with new cases being filed against 97,384 defendants. This number is up 5.9 percent over the past fiscal year, and up 22.6 percent over the past five years, according to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) and obtained from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys under the Freedom of Information Act.

Table 1. Growth in Immigration Prosecutions by Lead Charge
FY 2013 Prosecutions                97,384     53,789     37,346
FY 2012 Prosecutions                91,941     48,009     37,123
% Change from previous year     5.9%      12%          0.6%
% Change from 5 years ago        22.6%     8.4%       76.2%
% Change from 10 years ago     367%      1226%      233%
% Change from 20 years ago     1420%     6922%     1557%

As shown in Table 1, the largest component of these were prosecutions for illegal entry under 8 USC 1325, which made up 55 percent of immigration prosecutions during FY 2013. The next largest group of these prosecutions were classified as illegal re-entry under 8 USC 1326, comprising 38 percent.

Growth patterns for illegal entry and re-entry prosecutions have been quite different. As shown in Table 1 and contrasted in Figures 1 and 2, prosecutions for illegal re-entry increased only slightly this past year, while those for illegal entry rose by 12 percent.
However, a different picture emerges when FY 2013 prosecutions are compared with the number during the last year of President Bush's administration, five years ago. Over this time frame, prosecutions for illegal entry increased by just 8.4 percent, while illegal re-entry prosecutions zoomed up by 76.2 percent.

As we see in Figure 1, prosecutions for illegal re-entry took a big jump in FY 2009 and FY 2010 — right after President Obama assumed office — and then continued to climb, though at a much slower pace. In contrast, those for illegal entry reached their all-time peak of 54,113 during FY 2009 — the first year of President Obama's administration — and then declined during FY 2010 through FY 2011. However during the past two years, illegal entry prosecutions have again begun to rise, though their reported level in FY 2013 is still slightly less than it was in FY 2009.

Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"

American Civil Liberties Union

The problem

Normally under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the American people are not generally subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches.

The border, however, has always been an exception. There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply. For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a "routine search."

But what is "the border"? According to the government, it is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the "external boundary" of the United States.

As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.

Border Patrol has been setting up checkpoints inland - on highways in states such as California, Texas and Arizona, and at ferry terminals in Washington State. Typically, the agents ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship. Unfortunately, our courts so far have permitted these kinds of checkpoints - legally speaking, they are "administrative" stops that are permitted only for the specific purpose of protecting the nation's borders. They cannot become general drug-search or other law enforcement efforts.

However, these stops by Border Patrol agents are not remaining confined to that border security purpose. On the roads of California and elsewhere in the nation - places far removed from the actual border - agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing.

The bottom line is that the extraordinary authorities that the government possesses at the border are spilling into regular American streets.

Much of U.S. population affected

Many Americans and Washington policymakers believe that this is a problem confined to the San Diego-Tijuana border or the dusty sands of Arizona or Texas, but these powers stretch far inland across the United States.

To calculate what proportion of the U.S. population is affected by these powers, the ACLU created a map and spreadsheet showing the population and population centers that lie within 100 miles of any "external boundary" of the United States.

The population estimates were calculated by examining the most recent US census numbers for all counties within 100 miles of these borders. Using numbers from the Population Distribution Branch of the US Census Bureau, we were able to estimate both the total number and a state-by-state population breakdown. The custom map was created with help from a map expert at World Sites Atlas.

What we found is that fully TWO-THIRDS of the United States' population lives within this Constitution-free or Constitution-lite Zone. That's 197.4 million people who live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

Nine of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas as determined by the 2000 census, fall within the Constitution-free Zone. (The only exception is #9, Dallas-Fort Worth.) Some states are considered to lie completely within the zone: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Part of a broader problem

The spread of border-search powers inland is part of a broad expansion of border powers with the potential to affect the lives of ordinary Americans who have never left their own country.

It coincides with the development of numerous border technologies, including watch list and database systems such as the Automated Targeting System (ATS) traveler risk assessment program, identity and tracking systems such as electronic (RFID) passports, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), and intrusive technological schemes such as the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBINet) or "virtual border fence" and unmanned aerial vehicles (aka "drone aircraft").

This illegitimate expansion of the extraordinary powers of agents at the border is also part of a general trend we have seen over the past 8 years of an untrammeled, heedless expansion of police and national security powers without regard to the effect on innocent Americans.

This trend is also typical of the Bush Administration's dragnet approach to law enforcement and national security. Instead of intelligent, competent, targeted efforts to stop terrorism, illegal immigration, and other crimes, what we have been seeing in area after area is an approach that turns us all into suspects. This approach seeks to sift through the entire U.S. population in the hopes of encountering the rare individual whom the authorities have a legitimate interest in.

If the current generation of Americans does not challenge this creeping (and sometimes galloping) expansion of federal powers over the individual through the rationale of "border protection," we are not doing our part to keep alive the rights and freedoms that we inherited, and will soon find that we have lost some or all of their right to go about their business, and travel around inside their own country, without interference from the authorities.

 

Also Read..

11/25: Does the President Have the Power to Stop All/Most Removals?

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1560

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1561

 

11/10: Chinese Americans protest against Jimmy Kimmel skit

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1558

 

11/18: UT’s Young Conservatives Hosting “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” Game (and Cancelled!)

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=1564

Please download our latest newsletter: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Winter13.pdf

 

Useful Immigrant Resources on Detention and Deportation

Face Sheet: Immigration Detention--Questions and Answers (Dec, 2008) by: http://www.thepoliticsofimmigration.org

Thanks for GREAT works from Detention Watch Network (DWN) to compiled the following information, please visit DWN website: http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org

Tracking ICE's Enforcement Agenda
Real Deal fact sheet on detention
Real Deal fact sheet on border

- From Raids to Deportation-A Community Resource Kit
- Know Your Rights in the Community (English, Spanish)
- Know Your Rights in Detention
- Pre-Raid Community Safety Plan
- Raids to Deportation Map
- Raids to Deportation Policy Map


More on Immigration Resource Page
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/resource.htm

 

Useful Handouts and Know Your Immigrant Rights When Marches
 
 
Immigrant Marches / Marchas de los Inmigrantes
(By ACLU)

Immigrants and their supporters are participating in marches all over the country to protest proposed national legislation and to seek justice for immigrants. The materials available here provide important information about the rights and risks involved for anyone who is planning to participate in the ongoing marches.

If government agents question you, it is important to understand your rights. You should be careful in the way you speak when approached by the police, FBI, or INS. If you give answers, they can be used against you in a criminal, immigration, or civil case.

The ACLU's publications below provide effective and useful guidance in several languages for many situations. The brochures apprise you of your legal rights, recommend how to preserve those rights, and provide guidance on how to interact with officials.

IMMIGRATION
Know Your Rights When Encountering Law Enforcement
| Conozca Sus Derechos Frente A Los Agentes Del Orden Público

ACLU of Massachusetts - Your Rights And Responsibilities If You Are Contacted By The Authorities English | Spanish | Chinese

ACLU of Massachusetts - What to do if stopped and questioned about your immigration status on the street, the subway, or the bus
| Que hacer si Usted es interrogado en el tren o autobus acerca de su estatus inmigratorio

ACLU of South Carolina - How To Deal With A 287(g)
| Como Lidiar Con Una 287(g)

ACLU of Southern California - What to Do If Immigration Agents or Police Stop You While on Foot, in Your Car, or Come to Your Home
| Qué Hacer Si Agentes de Inmigración o la Policía lo Paran Mientras Va Caminando, lo Detienen en su Auto o Vienen a su Hogar

ACLU of Washington - Brochure for Iraqis: What to Do If the FBI or Police Contact You for Questioning English | Arabic

ACLU of Washington - Your Rights at Checkpoints at Ferry Terminals
| Sus Derechos en Puestos de Control en las Terminales de Transbordadores

LABOR / FREE SPEECH
Immigrant Protests - What Every Worker Should Know:
| Manifestaciones de los Inmigrantes - Lo Que Todo Trabajador Debe Saber

PROTESTERS
ACLU of Florida Brochure - The Rights of Protesters
| Los Derechos de los Manifestantes

STUDENTS
Washington State - Student Walkouts and Political Speech at School
| Huelgas Estudiantiles y Expresión Política en las Escuelas

California Students: Public School Walk-outs and Free Speech
| Estudiantes de California: Marchas o Huelgas y La Libertad de Expresión en las Escuelas Públicas

 

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