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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Jailed border agents not on White House pardons list
The White House announced another round of pardons this week and once again, former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos did not make the cut.
Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively for shooting a Mexican drug runner and trying to cover it up.
Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal illegal immigrant.
Lawmakers — including Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Dianne Feinstein of California — have urged president Bush to pardon the agents.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has taken up the cause of Ramos and Compean in the House, was upset at the latest round of White House pardons.
“The fact that the president has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people,” he said. “For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”
Read about the latest White House pardons here.
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Virginia lawmakers softening on immigration
The Washington Post reported this week that “Virginia, known for some of the nation’s toughest policies on illegal immigration, appears to be abandoning its hard-line approach as state officials consider proposals to help foreign-born residents assimilate, including increasing the number of English classes.”
In the coming weeks, the Virginia Commission on Immigration will send the state’s governor two dozen recommendations, most of which would help immigrants instead of penalizing them, the paper said.
The recommendations include shortening the Medicaid residency requirements for certain qualified immigrants, offering in-state tuition to immigrants who meet specific criteria, and creating an immigration assistance office, the Post said.
Read the story here.
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Groups denounce “wave of hate crimes”
Several groups, including the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, joined forces Monday to denounce what they called an “alarming wave of hate crimes” against minority communities across the country.
The event was triggered in part by an incident earlier this month in Suffolk County, N.Y., where a group of white teenagers allegedly beat and stabbed a Hispanic immigrant to death.
Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, said that violence against immigrants and Latinos has increased substantially in recent years because of “the anger and hatred” surrounding the immigration debate.
“Words have consequences. And hateful words have hateful consequences. In Suffolk County, hate has trickled down to a new generation of Americans,” she said, at a press conference.
According to prosecutors, the six teenagers in Patchogue, N.Y., were searching for Latinos to attack.
Murguia said local officials such as Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, and conservative talk show hosts on radio and cable television are “stoking the fires of anti-immigrant sentiment” which lead to such crimes.
Levy said in a written statement that critics are blurring the distinction between legal immigration, which he and millions of Americans approve of, and illegal immigration.
“It is reprehensible that anyone would suggest that the tens of millions of Americans who favor secure borders are necessarily intolerant or bigoted,” he said. “Since when is enforcing the law seen as something negative and inflammatory?”