Our overloaded immigration courts - latimes.com

Our overloaded immigration courts - latimes.com

A recent report by the American Bar Assn. calls for making the court system independent of the Justice Department to reduce "public skepticism" and increase respect, and paints a harrowing picture in which final decisions are rushed, haphazard and inconsistent. At times the outcome of removal proceedings depends less on the facts of an immigrant's case than on which judge hears the case, the report says. It calls for hiring 100 additional immigration judges as soon as possible, adding new training and requiring more written, reasoned decisions from judges.


RAD~At least I am not alone in noticing this. We'll take one in Manchester please!

Interesting LA Times Article on "Paper Sons" and the Chinese Exclusion Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act was one of America's most bigotted, but least remembered (here on the East Coast at least) moments of poor immigration policy. Bad laws set the stage for bad acts of course (think of prohibition for example) and the Chinese Exclusion Act is no exception to that rule.

When Asian people could find no legal avenue to come to America - they found illegal ways to do so...generations later their decendants (surprisingly to some perhaps) are no different than any other families in the neighborhood and they have not even destroyed America. 

Economic study of the benefits of legalization getting good press

I think it is a good sign that the study I highlighted friday on the "blawg" got good press not only from major newspapers like the LA Times but also from industry publications like Lawn & Landscape Magazine. Here is an exerpt:

"If we are going to create a solid recovery with good wages, we have to fix this hole that we have at the bottom of the labor market," said the author, Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, an associate professor with the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. "This is not about bringing in a lot of workers. This is about your neighbors and if we are better off where everybody in the economy has the ability to fight for their families and to contribute more to the economy rather than staying in the shadows."



RAD~Meaning no disrespect to the publishers of the Lawn & Landscape -- but upon seeing the title of their magazine I was immediately reminded of "Horse & Hound" the magazine that Hugh Grant feigned to be reporting for at a press junket for a science fiction movie that Julia Roberts' character was starring in in the movie "Notting Hill".