Northwest Indiana Discussion

http://posttrib.suntimes.com/7933068-537/us-immigration-sweep-includes-onearrest-in-hammond.html


U.S. immigration sweep includes one arrest in Hammond
The Associated Press September 28, 2011 6:44PM

Updated: September 28, 2011 6:46PM

A national sweep of criminal illegal immigrants has nabbed 38 people in Indiana, including one in Hammond.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that the Indiana arrests included a 37-year-old Mexican national residing in Hammond convicted of aggravated drunken driving.


The 38 were from Colombia, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras and Liberia and Mexico. Other arrests in Indiana were in Indianapolis, Danville and Noblesville.

More than 1,900 ICE officials spent the past week arresting nearly 3,000 criminal illegal immigrants. Everyone arrested had at least one criminal conviction and more than half were convicted of at least one felony. They will now face deportation.

I am so fed up with this crap! The governor of CT thinks illegals have a right to vote, Obama is stripping the troops on the boarder to about nothing and now we have people suing the states who should be put on a bus to their home country instead of trying to nullify our laws. Where but in Amerika can a known criminal demand the same rights as a legal citizen?

This crap must stop! We need to seal the boarder, set up a guest worker program so we can keep track of these visitors, install a process that ensures people go home when their visa expires, and improve the process for those who want to actually immigrate and not just come to work a few years to return home. We also MUST end the practice of automatic citizenship for anyone born on US soil even if both parents are foreign nationals. In this day it simply makes no sense. This isn't the 1860s. That law is as outmoded as the laws that allowed 13 year olds to get married. Even in the 1960s the state of Tenn granted full adult status (yes including the right to buy booze) to anyone married regardless of age. So just because a law has been on the books a long time doesn't mean it is a sacred cow.


http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... 0bfbb.html

HAMMOND | An East Chicago-based organization has issued a second legal challenge to Indiana's new immigration law, federal court records state.

Union Benefica Mexicana filed a lawsuit Tuesday against state and region officials, claiming portions of Senate Bill 590 are unconstitutional. The bill, which passed earlier this year, requires most Indiana businesses to check the immigration status of new employees, forbids distributing state aid to illegal immigrants and prohibits local governments from refusing to abide by federal immigration law.

Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana to challenge the legislation. That lawsuit still is pending.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, who was named in Union Benefica Mexicana's lawsuit, said his office will seek to postpone both federal lawsuits until after the U.S. Supreme Court considers the challenge to Arizona's immigration statute.

"Indiana will join with other states in seeking a ruling from the Supreme Court that will provide some guidance to states on immigration, since Congress has thus far failed to enact or enforce federal immigration policies," Zoeller said in a written statement.

Also named in Union Benefica Mexicana's lawsuit are the state of Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich, Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel, Porter County Sheriff David Lain, LaPorte County Prosecutor Bob Szilagyi and LaPorte County Sheriff Michael Mollenhauer.

Union Benefica Mexicana claims some of the laws created by the bill are unconstitutional and violate its membership's civil liberties.

The organization describes itself in court records as a nonprofit "whose mission is to provide cultural, educational and health programs to the Hispanic community and others in Northwest Indiana." Its membership includes U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents and undocumented individuals, business owners, workers and day laborers, court records state.

Union Benefica Mexicana argues creating a state immigration system "encroaches on the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration, and will lead to erroneous determinations by state and local officials of an individual's immigration status," court records state.

In the lawsuit, the organization claims it has had to "divert scarce resources from critical programs in order to educate and assist individuals affected by SB 590." It also claims the laws will deter current and prospective members from seeking immigration relief because local law enforcement will continue to stop and detain them anyway.

Union Benefica Mexicana is asking the court to declare the legislation unconstitutional. It also is seeking a preliminary injunction, to later be made permanent, that would prohibit the defendants from enforcing the legislation.

Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... z1h8jttLyd