News and Headlines

Justice Prevails, for Qing at least
Monday, March 8, 2010 - Qing Hong Wu is pardoned from deportation, as Governor Paterson agreed with Wu's allies and acknowledged his successful rehabilitation. Wu's case highlights the inequity and rigidity of the immigration laws, and how easily immigrants fall through the cracks of a broken immigration system. Despite holding a position as a successful IT executive, Wu was to be deported for childhood crimes he had already served years in prison for. Read more.

Qing's story: Rigid immigration law ignores successful rehabilitation and mandates deportation
Thursday, February 16, 2010 - Qing Hong Wu, 29, immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. Though a gifted student, at 15 he was convicted of robbery and sent to prison. Determined to turn his life around, Wu earned his release in three years, then worked his way up to vice president for Internet technology at a national company. When Wu applied for citizenship, however, his teenage mistakes triggered draconian consequences. Detained, and awaiting mandatory deportation to China, Wu's fate is in the hands of allies, including the criminal judge who sentenced him, now petitioning for his release. Read more.

ILCM to host Midwest Coalition for Human Rights Fellow
Thursday, February 16, 2010 - ILCM seeks a law graduate, law or graduate-level student to serve as a summer legal assistant for the Minnesota Detention Project. The Project pairs attorneys from ILCM and other local immigrant services providers with detained immigrants to provide brief advice and representation. The fellow must have Spanish language skills and must be able to travel to local county detention centers. Get more information and be sure to apply by March 3rd!

Twist on the American Dream story: owning a football team
Thursday, January 28, 2010 - Did you know that Zygi Wilf, owner of the Minnesota Vikings was born to a family of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s? Wilf's family benefited from post WWII refugee admissions policies and he went on to be a national real estate mogul. (Thanks to Greg Siskind for the story.)

Supreme Court preserves judicial review for immigrants seeking to reopen their removal proceedings
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - On January 20, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued this important opinion in Kucana v. Holder, No. 08-911, affirming that the U.S. circuit courts of appeals have jurisdiction to review cases brought by immigrants who have moved to reopen their removal proceedings, but who were denied reopening by immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The ruling will keep federal court doors open to thousands of immigrants pursuing relief from removal and vindicates the position that ILCM and other immigrants' rights groups presented in this amicus brief to Supreme Court. For more information visit our Litigation project page.

As military citizenship fast-track is formalized, immigrant soldier serves in Afghanistan
Thursday, January 21, 2010 - Kofi Law's immigration story is a model of patriotism: he came to the U.S. from Togo at 22, taught himself English, supported himself through two mechanics training programs, became a U.S. citizen, joined the Army and is now on tour in Afghanistan. The Deparment of Homeland Security on Friday formalized a fast-track citizenship path for Kofi's many fellow foreign-born servicemen and servicewomen in the Armed Forces without citizenship. Their applications will be streamlined and expedited.

Department of Homeland Security announces Haitian TPS: refuge given to support recovery efforts
Friday, January 15, 2010 - Answering the call from advocates across the country, Secretary Janet Napolitano today designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the U.S. as of January 12, 2010. On that day, an earthquake centered in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince Tuesday may have killed upwards of 50,000 residents, the Red Cross estimates. The refuge applies to the 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented Haitians who will now be eligible to work legally in the U.S. and can directly help their families, communities and all of Haiti in this saddest crisis. ILCM will work with all eligible Haitians in Minnesota seeking assistance with TPS. Please call 1-800-223-1368 and identify yourself as a Haitian seeking TPS, or click on our Haitian Resources page, at right.

KaRen in Minnesota celebrate the year 2749
Tuesday, January 11,, 2010 - Minnesota's KaRen community - one of over 200 ethnic groups from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) - celebrated their new year last week at the Roseville Lutheran Church. The community has grown to over 3,000 individuals living in the Twin Cities, and according to this MPR news story, though the numbers of refugees arriving from camps in Thailand are small, secondary migration from the greater U.S. to Minnesota has contributed to a significantly-increasing population in the state. Last year alone, the number of KaRen refugees arriving in Minnesota outnumbered the number of arriving Somali refugees two-to-one.

No Human Being is Illegal: Mobilizing for Humane and Just Immigration Reform event to be held
Monday, January 12, 2010 - The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and several community partners are hosting a two-day event featuring Liberation Theologian Dr. Miguel De La Torre, author of Trails of Hope and Terror: Testimonies on Immigration. ILCM, the Interfaith Coalition on Immigration, Advocates for Human Rights, Jewish Community Action, the Minnesota Da'wah Institute and others will meet Saturday and Sunday, January 30 and 31st, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka. Download the PDF registration form.

Report: The Economics and Policy of Illegal Immigration in the United States
Friday, January 8, 2010 - The Migration Policy Institute published a report last month compiled by researchers at the University of California-San Diego and the National Bureau of Economic Research detailing the economic and policy impact of "illegal" immigration in the U.S. The report states that business owners find undocumented immigrants to be useful during times of recession due to their relative economic flexibility. Because of this and other factors, "Policy inaction is a result not only of a partisan divide in Washington, but also of the underlying economic reality that despite its faults, illegal immigration has been hugely beneficial to many US employers, often providing benefits that the current legal immigration system does not."

At dawn of new year, pressure for reform
Thursday, January 7, 2010 - On the opening of the new year New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed to help the Obama administration pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform. That same day, four Florida college students--three of whom are undocumented-- began a four month protest walk to Washington. With a reform bill on the horizon, the New York Times editorializes:

"After years of tightening the screws, the system is hopelessly frozen. Those who want to fix it will have to shut out the choruses of no-amnestys and over-my-dead-bodys, sidestep the false arguments and press into the headwinds while holding firm to the core of the better solution. To legalize the undocumented, collect their unpaid taxes, free them to earn more and spend more, to get the immigrant escalator to the middle class moving again. The country needs it; the economy needs it; the immigrants need and deserve it."

Three gifts to immigrants on Epiphany Sunday
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - This editorial from the Catholic Spirit encouraged its readers on the day of the Feast of the Epiphany - which also fell on Immigration Sunday - to give three gifts of their own to new Americans: First, to help dispel the myths that prevail about immigrants. Second, to take an opportunity to experience the lives of immigrants for themselves. And third: to explore their own family's history of immigration.

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