By Miriam Raftery

May 9, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- For the first time, the United States government will offer legal counsel to immigrant detainees with mental disabilities facing deportation hearings. This is the first expansion of the right to counsel in 30 years – the result of an ACLU lawsuit. Before to last week's federal court ruling, these individuals were not guaranteed legal representation  even though they clearly demonstrated tremendous difficulty in representing themselves in the complicated legal proceedings against them.

José Gonzalezis a 33-year-old man who doesn't know his own age and, in many aspects of his life, has the cognitive ability of a two-year-old. Both his parents are lawful permanent residents of the United States, and José had a pending petition for residency. Until last week's historic ruling, the government expected José to represent himself in a deportation hearing – after holding him for five years in a detention facility.

May 4, 2013 (El Cajon) – Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District’s Board of Trustees voted on April 16 to adopt a resolution calling on Congress to enact the comprehensive immigration reforms being hammered out by a bipartisan “gang of eight” legislators (four Republicans and four Democrats).

The resolution was introduced by trustee Mary Kay Rosinski  and passed with five votes in favor.  The action comes on the heels of similar resolutions adopted by San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego City Council.

Proposed resolution calls for pathway to citizenship and respect for human and civil rights in enforcement

April 4, 2013 (San Diego) --Following the lead of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) and the San Diego City Council, the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) may also add their voice to the immigration reform discussion taking place around the City and the nation.

By Miriam Raftery

January 30, 2013 (Washington D.C.) –One day after a bipartisan coalition of Senators (four Republicans and four Democrats) introduced a framework for immigration reforms,  President Barack Obama has announced a four-part plan for comprehensive immigration changes 

The President's plan includes a pathway to citizenship, strengthening border security, cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers, and streamlining our legal immigration system.  For details on the President's plan, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/01/29/watch-live-president-obama-speaks-comprehensive-immigration-reform.  For the Senators' framework, see http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/562528/reform0128principlessenatefinal.pdf.

January 10, 2013 (San Diego’s East County)--ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Congress less popular than cockroaches (Salon)
• High court to tackle Native American adoption dispute (CNN)
• Congress lets Violence Against Women Act wither away (MSNBC)
• New immigration policy aims to limit family separations (KPBS)
• Disappearing Mule Deer A New Reality Throughout Western U.S. (NPR)
• Gabrielle Giffords takes on the gun lobby (CNN)
• Texas school can force teenager to wear locator chip: judge (Reuters)
• Hillary Clinton released from hospital after treatment of blood clot (Los Angeles Times)
• Fiscal cliff deal sneaks in Wall Street gifts, NASCAR perks (Huffington Post)
• Al Jazeera buys Al Gore’s Current TV (CBS)
• Canadian oil sands pollute nearby lakes. Report is blow to Keystone pipeline.(Christian Science Monitor)
• State Department made "grievous mistake" over Benghazi: Senate report (Reuters)

WORLD

• Indian proposes ban on child labor (Washington Post)
• UN says more than 60,000 dead in Syrian civil war (U-T San Diego)
• Malala's father given diplomatic role in UK(U-T San Diego)
• Protecting Native rights: idle no more  (LA Progressive)
• Biofuels cause pollution, not as green as thought - study (Reuters)
• Online comments hurt science understanding, study finds (Journal of Science)

Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.

December 5, 2012 -- (San Diego’s East County)--East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL/REGIONAL

• No fairy tale: The saga of the Mother Goose Parade, B-list celebrities, embezzled funds  (UT San Diego)
• Desert wind farm jolts San Diego (UT San Diego)
• She spent money on whatever she wanted (IT San Diego)
• Council counters Madrid on Fair Trade (UT  San Diego)
• Santee Crime report: $30,000 burglary at Padre Dam, thefts at Santana High (Santee Patch)
• Mayor, Councilman Ewin play hardball over lost softball in testy meeting (La Mesa Patch)
• Fire board member works for ambulance firm (UT San Diego)
• Old problems plague merchants group (La Mesa Today)

STATE

• California Legislature welcomes largest freshman class since 1966 (Sacramento Bee)
• California says federal immigration detention requests are voluntary (Reuters)

Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.

By Daniel J. Smiechowski

December 3, 2012 (San Diego)--Locally in San Diego, as well as nationally, the Republican Party is on its way to the Land of Oz. We're not in Kansas anymore, says Dorothy to Toto. Federalists and Whigs and Republicans, oh my! Yes Wizard, demographics do count and America's GOP better not hide behind the curtain.

November13, 2012 --  (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• War opens inside GOP on immigration (The Hill)
• Can police collect DNA before conviction? Supreme Court to hear case. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Supreme Court appears ready to nuke the Voting Rights Act (Mother Jones)
• CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair (NBC News)
• Obama wins Florida, sweeping all battleground states (CNN)
• George P. Bush gears up for political run in Texas (KPBS)
• Obama, Boehner reiterate plan to work on ‘fiscal cliff’ but offer differing ways to do so (Washington Post)
• Marijuana legalization victories could be short-lived (Reuters)
• After Sandy, communities mobilize a new kind of disaster relief (Common Dreams)
• West Nile cases still climbing as temperatures drop (NPR)

WORLD

• To combat sanctions, Iran buys up gold (NPR)
• Wind farm noise does harm sleep and health, say scientists ( UK Telegraph)
• Strong earthquake off Guatemala kills at least 48 (Reuters)

Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.

September 27, 2012 --  (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Judge rules Arizona can enforce strict provision to immigration law (Reuters)
• Worrisome levels of arsenic in rice (Consumer Reports)
• Massive tumors in rats fed genetically modified corn (CA Right to Know blog)
• More than 1,000 pastors plan to challenge IRS by endorsing candidates (Fox)
• As tax credit wanes, jobs vanish in wind power industry (New York Times)
• Tesla offers free solar travel with new super-charged tech (RawStory)
• Senators to Hilary: Show us the ambassador’s cables (ForeignPolicy)
• Mormons want to expel Romney critic (Daily Beast)
• Whose next in line for a kidney transplant? The answer is changing (NPR)

WORLD

• Out with color: Islamists force Timbuktu women to wear black veils or face corporal punishment (Observers)
• Fake Italian pilot traveled in cockpit, police say (Reuters)
• Marijuana and cancer: Researchers find cannabis stops metastasis in aggressive forms of cancer (Huffington Post)
•  Report: restrictions on religious views rise worldwide (Jerusalem Post)
• Second day of anti-Japan attacks rock China (NPR)
• Man held in revenge plot over Muslim cartoons (Christian Science Monitor)
• Russia reveals shiny state secret: It’s awash in diamonds (Christian Science Monitor)
• Pakistani TV stations air a real ‘made in USA’ video. Will it calm violence? (Christian Science Monitor)
• The terrorist veto (City Journal)

Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.

By Patrick Osio

“By virtue of his father’s birth in Mexico where he was automatically a Mexican citizen by birth, makes US born Mitt Romney a second generation Mexican American. His actions against the Hispanic immigrant community reflect a loss of gratitude for Mexico granting the Romney family refuge from religious persecution they suffered in the U.S.” – Patrick Osio

September 14, 2012 (San Diego) -- Anyone born in the United Sates is a native-born citizen. Also, anyone who is born of American parents visiting or living in a foreign country, and is registered by those parents with the nearest U.S. consulate or Embassy, becomes a “native-born” citizen, though not born in U.S. territory. The child thus enjoys dual citizenship as a native-born in both the country of birth and the U.S.

U.S.
 
GENERAL NEWS
 
Supreme Court says Montana cannot ignore Citizens United ruling (NPR)
 

• Supreme Court says Montana cannot ignore Citizens United ruling (NPR)
• Supreme Court rules juvenile life without parole is cruel and unusual punishment (Chicago Tribune)
• GM Grass linked to Texas cattle deaths; fields found toxic with cyanide produced by crop (CBS)
• E-mail change angers Facebook users (CNN)
• Thousands evacuated as wildfire nears Colorado towns (USA Today)
• With no vote, taxpayers stuck with tab on bonds (New York Times)

• Issa: No evidence White House covered up `Fast and Furious’ fallout (Los Angeles Times)
• Obama invokes executive privilege over ‘Fast and Furious’ documents (Los Angeles Times)
• Rubio sticks to GOP doctrine over immigration (The Hill)
• Cash rules at Romney retreat while Condoleeza Rice steals the show (Yahoo news)

• Analysis: Mexican ruling party faces defeat but may back reforms (Reuters)
• Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi named Egyptian president (CBS)
• Morsi quits Muslim brother hood, vows to unite country (NBC)

• Iberdrola to explore sale of U.S. wind plants and projects (Recharge News)
• Quatar takes state in Iberdrola (The National)
• Texas wind energy fails again (National Review)
• Presidential projects on wind power flawed according to new book (KXXV)
• The trouble with turbines: an ill wind (Nature) 

• Feds make first arrest in BP Gulf Coast oil spill (CBS)
• Justices to hear appeal over controversial Arizona immigration law (CNN)
• Obama takes on college costs, eyes young voters (Bloomberg)
• Radioactive particles from Japan detected in California kelp (Los Angeles Times)
• Romney sweeps five northeast primaries (USA Today)
• Mitt Romney: Mothers should be required to work outside home or lose benefits (HuffingtonPost)

• Stirring Mexico volcano closes schools, raises alert (Reuters)
• Afghan girls in school after poison attack (BBC)
• Japan fears nuclear plant sits atop active geological fault (Reuters)
• Hollande and Sarkozy head for runoff in French election (NY Times)

September 16, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (R-El Cajon) has introduced H.R, 2952, a measure requiring immigration officials to expedite deportation of undocumented immigrants.

August 26, 2011 (Jacumba) – An “international traveler” who crossed the U.S.-Mexican border was shot by a property owner in Jacumba around 5:27 p.m. yesterday. The shooting occurred in the 42000 block of Old Highway 80. The patient was life-flighted to Sharp Memorial Hospital.

March 30, 2011 (Washington D.C.) Earlier this month, Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (R-El Cajon) introduced bipartisan legislation, the Unlawful Border Entry Prevention Act, which includes San Diego Congressman Brian Bilbray among its cosponsors. The measure would provide the Secretary of Homeland Security with full discretionary authority to build up to 350 miles of additional infrastructure on the Southwest border.

Lawsuit Charged Lack Of Medical And Mental Health Care Led To Death and Unnecessary Suffering

January 17, 2011 (San Diego)--Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have agreed to provide immigration detainees with constitutionally adequate levels of medical and mental health care as part of an agreement last month to settle an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.  The suit charged that deficient care at the San Diego Correctional Facility caused unnecessary suffering and death.

As part of the settlement, ICE has also agreed to change its policy on medical care that had led to the denial of what ICE deemed to be "non-emergency" care, including heart surgeries and cancer biopsies.

August 14, 2010 (Washington D.C.) – President Barack Obama signed the Southwest Border Security Bill into law yesterday. The measure will significantly increase resources in the San Diego area.

“Today's action by Congress answers my call to bolster the essential work of federal law enforcement officials and improve their ability to partner with state, local, and tribal law enforcement,” the President said of the measure. "This new law will also strengthen our partnership with Mexico in targeting the gangs and criminal organizations that operate on both sides of our shared border.”

Update:  The injured man, Anastasio Hernandez, died Saturday. The County Medical examiner's office listed high blood pressure, methamphetamine use, and the physical altercation with officers as contributing factors in his death.

May 29, 2010 (San Diego) – San Diego Police homicide detectives are investigating the serious injury of a 32-year-old Mexican border crosser. Following a struggle, a Border Patrol agent used a Taser to subdue the suspect, who quit breathing and is not expected to survive, according to SDPD.

By Tracy Emblem

Recently Arizona enacted its own immigration bill which potentially usurps the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration.

California Congressman Brian Bilbray, Chair of the Immigration Reform Committee, and former lobbyist for FAIR (listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), offers no real solutions to the immigration debate. In response to Arizona’s new radical immigration bill, Bilbray supported its legality and explained that police could spot illegal immigrants merely by the way they dress. His remarks demonstrate a lack of critical thinking skills necessary for leadership in Congress on complex, human, social and economic issues.

February 2, 2010 (San Diego) – A statewide report on immigrants released this week reveals that 23% of residents in San Diego County are immigrants—and nearly half (45%) of those immigrants are citizens. Of all children in the region, 43% have at least one immigrant parent. These and other intriguing findings are based on data collected in the 2005-2007 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.

By Miriam Raftery

December 14, 2009 (San Diego) – In Tucson, Arizona on December 4, a federal judge ordered a theology student to reconsider his refusal to accept community service as a sentence for leaving water jugs for migrants crossing the border in an area where hundreds of border crossers have died in the past year alone. Walt Staton was convicted of littering by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He plans to appeal his conviction.

But the judge warned, if Staton refuses to accept his sentence(which included community service, a year of supervised probation and a one year ban on entering the federal wildlife refuge where he left water jugs), he could be fined $100,000 and spend up to a year in prison, the Arizona Daily Wildcat reported.

By Enrique Morones

October 1, 2009 (San Diego) – Today marks the 15th anniversary of the wall of death—the border wall of shame. Since October 1st 1994 and the launching of Operation Gatekeeper here in San Diego, thousands have died. Nobody knows the exact number: 5,000, 6,000, 10,000. How many more?

June 2, 2009 (San Diego) – “This economy is built off immigrants, and immigration reform will benefit the economy,” El Cajon resident and Center for Social Advocacy spokesperson Estela De Los Rios said at a press conference Friday in San Diego, where community leaders announced launch of the Reform Immigration For America Campaign (www.immigrationforum.org).

March 1, 2009 (Washington, DC -- Congressman Bob Filner has re-introduced H.R. 937, the Visitors Interested in Strengthening America (VISA) Act. The bill gives Port Directors the discretion to issue humanitarian visa waivers to Mexican children making brief, pre-scheduled visits to the United States for medical, educational or recreational purposes. This legislation does not affect the number of legal or illegal immigrants living in the United States - the children and accompanying adults will visit for one day and then return home to Mexico.