Hispanic Family Terrorized By Immigration Agents:

Seven members of a Hispanic family from Los Angeles became victims of a mistaken drug raid at a home in the city of Norco in Riverside County by nearly 40 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security, Immigration (HSI) agents.

“Where’s the money? Where are the drugs?” the agents shouted at a terrified Carmen Bonilla. At about 3:45 in the afternoon, Bonilla, of Mexican origin, and her daughter-in-law, Leticia, were cooking in anticipation of their husbands’ arrival from work. The agent insurrection would end at 7 that evening.

“I heard pounding and kicking at the door; I became very frightened and when I opened the door, I saw that it was the police,” recalled Bonilla tearfully, as she showed areas of her body where she’d allegedly been struck by agents. “I asked them, ‘What did we do? What did we do? What did we do?’ ” she intimated. “I didn’t open the door out of fear.

They simply grabbed me by the arm, threw me on the ground, handcuffed me and slammed me up against the wall.”

Bonilla said she implored the agents to let her turn off the stove and grab her granddaughter, who was screaming in fear. “Shut up or we’ll shoot you! We have orders to shoot,” she said at a news conference. “I begged them to let me get to my granddaughter, but they did not understand me and continued to beat me,” she said.

Michael Martinez, a 16-year-old Norco High School student, said he was in back of the house when he heard the commotion. He was getting ready to go to a football game.

“Get down on the ground!” he remembered, as four agents descended on him and immediately handcuffed him. “I heard my mother’s screams as the baby was crying in fear, not knowing what to do. When they finally left, we had to take my mom to the hospital; she suffers from diabetes.”

Armed with a search warrant, ICE and HSI agents scoured the Bonilla home. The agents produced the warrant to Josefina Martinez, Carmen Bonilla’s daughter, after the odyssey was over and they were retreating.

“I was in the kitchen when they said to open the door or they would shoot,” said daughter-in-law Leticia Hernandez. “I saw them hit her [Carmen Bonilla]. They said they had orders to shoot. I saw them kicking her. I was inside and the baby was crying. They aimed their guns at me if I wasn’t quiet,” she said. “Where are the guns? Where is the money?”

“I told them there was nothing in the house,” Hernandez said.

The agents found neither the dealer, nor evidence of any crime. However, the Bonilla family must appear Tuesday before immigration officials, who seek to deport them from the United States.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/hispanic-family-terrorized_n_916474.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Illinois’ Bad Dream:

Immigration: An insolvent state hemorrhaging jobs enacts its version of the federal DREAM Act, holding out another carrot to illegal aliens by setting up a college scholarship fund for their children.

Illinois’ Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday illustrated why liberals tend to run governments and economies into the ground by signing into law Monday the Illinois DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a seemingly innocuous and compassionate piece of legislation that sets up scholarships for anyone with a Social Security number or taxpayer identification number.

At a time when the Land of Lincoln is driving away business and jobs through increasingly burdensome taxation, liberal ideology trumps practicality by seeking to attract illegal immigrants to a state struggling to meet the needs of its citizens.

It seeks to educate the children of illegal aliens to compete for jobs American citizens can’t find. An estimated 95,000 children of illegal aliens will benefit.

Supporters say that since the scholarships are privately funded, and Quinn was quick to make his own $1,000 donation, no state money is involved.

Yet state money will go to support a nine-member commission to establish and dispense these scholarships. State money goes to fund another interesting part of the law, the requirement for high school teachers and counselors to get special sensitivity training on the needs of illegal immigrants.

Our health care and education systems, as well as other public services, are already overburdened by the demands of serving a growing illegal alien population, yet states such as Illinois as well as the Obama administration constantly seek new ways to ring the dinner bell.

Illinois, like other states, already offers in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants at public universities, making it easier for the child of an illegal alien from Guadalajara to attend an Illinois university than, say, the child of a Marine in Des Moines just back from Afghanistan.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/580303/201108021906/Illinois-Bad-Dream.htm.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Obama Tells Latino Voters He ‘Needs a Dance Partner’ on Immigration:

On Monday President Obama took a break from debt ceiling talks to address immigration, education and the economy in a speech at the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. And while the president insisted that he remains an ally of immigrant communities, his administration’s deportation numbers tell an entirely different story.

Obama committed himself once more to “the unfinished business” of immigration reform, and asked Americans who want change to keep pressing Republicans on the issue.

“We have a system that separates families, and punishes innocent young people for their parents’ actions by denying them the chance to earn an education or contribute to our economy or serve in our military,” Obama said.

“So yes, feel free to keep the heat on me, and keep the heat on Democrats,” Obama said. “Here’s the only thing you should know. The Democrats and your president are with you.”

“Are with you,” Obama repeated. “Don’t get confused about that. Remember who it is we need to move in order to actually change the laws.”

When the DREAM Act failed a Senate filibuster threat in December, five Democrats voted against allowing the bill to move ahead to a vote. Three Republican senators backed the narrow legalization bill for undocumented immigrant youth.

Obama also said by design, American democracy didn’t allow him to exercise any power over deportation policies in the country, a claim that immigration advocates and legal experts dispute. Under President Obama, deportations have reached record highs.

On Friday, numbers from ICE confirmed, yet again, immigrant communities’ criticisms of the Obama administration deportation agenda. A little more than half of the 243,821 people who were deported from the country between October 2010 and May 23, 2011 had no criminal record whatsoever. And for those who had been convicted of some crime, those numbers were driven by a spike in deportations of people who had been convicted of drunk driving or some other traffic violations, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Under President Obama, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rapidly expanded the program Secure Communities, which allows immigration officials to peer into the databases of anyone who’s booked in any local or county jail that has a standing agreement with the federal government allowing them access to that information.

Obama said that while he wanted to push ahead with immigration reform overhauls, he needed “a dance partner here.” “And the floor is empty,” Obama said, chastising Republicans who have turned away from any kind of non-enforcement immigration bill, even though plenty of Republicans have backed reform policies in years past.

Obama’s speech, widely seen as an address to the nation’s Latino voters and immigrant communities, was punctuated by a silent protest led by undocumented youth and shouts from the audience of “Yes, you can!” urging Obama to use his administrative authority to provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of immigrnat families who are being separated by deportation.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/obama_tells_latino_voters_he_needs_a_dance_partner_before_he_can_move_on_immigration.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Immigration: Brown signs Dream Act:

It seems Assemblyman Gill Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) has finally succeeded in getting at least half of the California Dream Act passed. On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 130, the bill that allows undocumented immigrant students attending California state colleges or universities to apply for scholarships funded by private donors. Three previous attempts at similar bills failed or were vetoed.

AB 130 doesn’t guarantee students access to additional funds nor state aid. A companion bill, AB 131, remains stuck in the Senate. That bill would allow illegal immigrants to apply for state loans and grants.

Brown’s decision is sure to stir strong reaction. Opponents argue that AB130 rewards and encourages illegal immigration, while supporters say it allows those students who had no say in how they were brought to the U.S. access to a college degree. Brown signed the bill during a stop at the Los Angeles City College Library, where Cedillo was hosting a town hall meeting.

Brown signed the bill the same day President Obama spoke publicly about the fate of comprehensive immigration reform. Obama blamed Republicans in Congress for thwarting reform efforts. Speaking to the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, Obama said Republicans who once offered bipartisan support for legislation, including a national DREAM Act that would create a conditional path to legalization for those young illegal immigrants who attend college or enlist in the military, now only endorse enforcement efforts.

“Five years ago, 23 Republican senators supported comprehensive immigration reform because they knew it was the right thing to do for the economy and it was the right thing to do for America,” Obama said. “Today, they’ve walked away. Republicans helped write the DREAM Act because they knew it was the right thing to do for the country. Today, they’ve walked away.”

Republicans have criticized the White House for failing to secure the border with Mexico and have called on Obama to step up enforcement efforts.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/07/immigration-brown-signs-dream-act-.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Snyder sees immigrants as a key to state’s economy:

DETROIT — Michigan has seen the results of what immigrants can do to help the economy through companies such as Meijer Inc., Masco Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., and should be attracting more immigrants who can repeat those successes, Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday.

Speaking at a conference on immigration and Michigan’s economy at Wayne State University, the governor pointed out that the Meijer retail chain was founded by a Dutch immigrant, the building products maker Masco ( MAS – news – people ) by an Armenian immigrant and Dow by a Canadian.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/07/18/general-financial-administration-mi-immigration-michigan_8571458.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.