In what is believed to be a first for an immigration court in Denver, a judge has found ICE agents broke the law during an immigration raid. The evidence was ordered suppressed and removal proceedings were dismissed.

Andrew Travers at the Aspen Daily News has a good recap of what happened. The press release is here, and the court's 13 page ruling blasting the ICE agents is here (Major thanks to Andrew for getting me the opinion, I had searched everywhere. Even Lexis didn't have it.)

Before 6:00 a.m., on March 24, 2009, ten ICE agents, led by Special Agent Steve Turza, surrounded a cabin believed to house undocumented workers. Shouting that there had been a highway accident outside, the agents went to 4 bedrooms on 3 floors and rousted the sleeping occupants with flashlights and the terrifying news of an accident. The agents claimed they were the police and forced their way into the bedrooms.

Only there was no accident, the ICE agents had no authority to enter the house. 9 sleeping adults and 3 children were roused and rounded up, and 8 of the adults arrested and taken to an immigration detention facility. [More...]

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today struck down Arizona's Prop 200, requiring voters to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote and proof of identification when casting ballots. The opinion is here:

Proposition 200 requires prospective voters in Arizona to present documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, ... and requires registered voters to present proof of identification in order to cast a ballot at the polls.... This appeal raises the questions whether Proposition 200 violates the Voting Rights Act § 2, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth or Twenty-fourth Amendments of the Constitution, or is void as inconsistent with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)....

We hold that the NVRA supersedes Proposition 200’s voter registration procedures, and that Arizona’s documentary proof of citizenship requirement for registration is therefore invalid.

The Court upheld the portion requiring voters to show identification when casting ballots. The likely effect: [More..]

The Nation has a feature article alleging Lou Dobbs employed undocumented workers.

Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.

From The Nation's editorial: Make it Legal:

On any given day, we've all probably eaten fruit harvested by undocumented workers or meat they butchered. These workers also make possible the lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy Americans like Dobbs and Whitman, with their estates and grounds and stables. How these millions of workers could be extracted from their jobs and deported without causing massive disruption not only to their lives but to the entire economy defies the imagination. Yet this is what Dobbs demands with his call for ever tougher enforcement.

The solution:[More...]

Last week, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT)introduced S. 3932, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ("CIR") Act of 2010, The ACLU says it has some good due process protection measures, but it falls short in other key areas, particularly the e-verify program and in its enforcement measures, many of which run counter to civil liberties.

Here are the problems with the enforcement measures:

S. 3932 .... unfortunately leaves intact the 287(g) program run by Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), which delegates certain federal immigration enforcement power to designated state and local police. Earlier this year, the DHS Office of Inspector General issued a scathing report of the 287(g) program, recommending 33 critical reforms to be implemented. ICE has failed to implement the vast majority of those recommendations and instead has expanded the 287(g) program to 70 jurisdictions.

[More...]

The Obama Administration intends to introduce a bill next year that will make it easier for feds to wiretap your internet communications.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

[More...]

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Congress to pass immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented today. He said undocumented workers have made repairs on his house and they are an essential part of our labor force.

"They're all over my house, doing things whenever I call for repairs, and I'm sure you've seen them at your house. We've got to find a way to bring these people out of the darkness and give them some kind of status."

Here's the text of the Dream Act, S. 729, as introduced in 2009. Thomas page is here. PDF version here. [More...]

Via McJoan at Daily Kos, Sen. Harry Reid says the defense authorization bill will include an amendment with the Dream Act, creating a path to citizenship for the undocumented who came to the U.S. as children.

Who qualifies? Those who have lived in the U.S. for five years, arrived in the U.S. before turning 16, and have completed at least two years of college or two years in the military.

Republicans aren't happy, but they will probably vote for the defense bill anyway. This would be a welcome first step towards much needed immigration reform.

Update: The Dove Center has been denied a permit to build a bonfire. It says it will proceed anyway. Can't they be arrested? Too bad it's not considered arson, then they could be denied bond. The damage they are causing is serious. In Afghanistan, they believe the entire U.S. is behind this:

"We know this is not just the decision of a church. It is the decision of the president and the entire United States," said Abdul Shakoor, an 18-year-old high school student who said he joined the protest after hearing neighborhood gossip about the Quran burning.

There are calls for death to Obama and the U.S.

Protesters, who gathered in front of western Kabul's Milad ul-Nabi mosque, raised placards and flags emblazoned with slogans calling for the death of Obama, while police looked on.

I do not think this is free speech. It's intended to provoke, and capable of provoking, a violent response with resulting injury or death. Terry Jones is not a Christian, he's a hate-monger, a radical and a charlatan. I hope people stop imbuing him with a sense of legitimacy by referring to his group as a church. It's a radical, fundamental sect and there's nothing Christian about it. [More...]

Giving "taking it to the streets" a whole new meaning: Via the ACLU, Forbes magazine reports that the full body scanners being used at airports are being deployed by the Government for use in street vans called called Z Backscatter Vans, or ZBVs.

American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents, Joe Reiss, a vice president of marketing at the company told me in an interview. While the biggest buyer of AS&E’s machines over the last seven years has been the Department of Defense operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Reiss says law enforcement agencies have also deployed the vans to search for vehicle-based bombs in the U.S.

“This product is now the largest selling cargo and vehicle inspection system ever,” says Reiss.

Video below of the vans in action: [More...]

A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday put gay marriages on ice pending an appeal of the trial court's decision overturning Prop 8.

The panel's decision gave no explanation for staying Walker's order directing the state to once again allow same-sex couples to marry.

The panel said the court would hear the Proposition 8 challenge on an expedited basis and hold arguments the week of Dec. 6. Another panel of three judges is expected to rule on the appeal.

Some proponents of gay marriage think stay order may actually help in the long run. [More...]

In the mail today, and reprinted with permission, (I'm leaving out the name of the town.)

I live in xxxxx, WI.

I was in the 10 items or less line at Piggly Wiggly (grocery store).

A woman had 60 items. I asked her if she could read. She replied, "Do you have a problem with this?" I said 'Yes.' She said 'Deal with it.'

I asked if she thought she could get away with this because she was fat and ugly. She dialed 911. I'm looking at a $423.00 ticket for disorderly conduct. I hired a lawyer.

Something is wrong with this world. Is it me? [Signed] J.

J. says he didn't use foul language, was not threatening and the only person affected by his comment was the woman who provoked him.

Is this worthy of a 911 call? How can it be considered a crime? My take: The woman should have been cited for misuse of the 911 emergency reporting system. J. may have been rude, but didn't commit a crime. What's your's? [More...]

President Obama said today he strongly supports the planned Islamic cultural center near the site of the 2001 World Trade Center attack:

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said, weighing in for the first time on a controversy that has riven New York City and the nation.

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."

Good for him for taking a stand, and the right one.