* The Kentucky Post has reported on the status of the case where the federal government prosecuted a landlord for renting apartments to illegal immigrants. The jury found in favor of the defendant, whom the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund represented, and agreed with his argument that he did not intentionally harbor undocumented immigrants. Immigration News Daily also reported on the case and claimed:
The case is thought to be the first time that the government has prosecuted a landlord merely for renting to illegal immigrants.
* The DMI Blog posting titled, “Immigration Raids Tend to Spare Employers,” questions why employers are so rarely arrested during ICE raids:
Even though Department of Homeland Security talks big about cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants, federal officials explain that is easier to prove that an immigrant is here illegally than it is to build a case against the employer.
According to ICE, that it is tougher to build a criminal case proving that an employer knowingly hired an undocumented than to prove that an immigrant is here illegally.
The ICE policy of not arresting employers is somewhat ironic in the context of many federal government methods of enforcing immigration laws, and represents a striking contrast to the government’s decision to prosecute the landlord in Kentucky.
- In the past weeks, there have been a number of YouTube videos showing the effects of the ICE raid on Postville, Iowa. One video, shown in a New America Media posting, depicts the struggles that families in the community are having in the aftermath of the raid.
- Standing FIRM has posted a video clip of a story on the June 28 protest in Houston, Texas. The protest was a response to the recent ICE raid on a plant called Action Rags USA. Another Standing FIRM posting offers numerous details about the raid:
…agents arrested 166 of the 186 employees. ICE released 73 people who had medical problems or were sole care providers. Another 20 were released by cause they either were here legally or were born here… [Of] the remain[ing] 73 who are detained, 70 of them are women, so only 3 of them are men.
- Citizen Orange has posted a hilarious YouTube video, courtesy of “Capitol Hill Gangsta.” Capital Hill Gangsta (aka Ray William Johnson, a college student in New York and YouTube video commentator) uses the video to dispel a number of myths about immigrants in the United States.
- According to Monday’s New York Sun, New York City Mayor Bloomberg has reinforced his pro-immigration stance by claiming that America is “committing mass suicide” by restricting immigration into the country. According to The Sun, Bloomberg said:
There are people around the world who want to come and create here and add jobs and excitement and innovation, and we’re keeping them in Canada and in Europe and Asia and not letting them here…
