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Law Firm's Scam Reopens Hundreds Of Asylum Cases Stephen Magagnini Nov. 16, 2009 For years, Sacramento's Sekhon & Sekhon law firm was renowned as a beacon of hope. The firm, boasting a 95 percent success rate, helped more than 1,000 immigrants from a half-dozen nations get political asylum in the United States based on a fear of persecution. Many of those new Americans now stand to be deported, because as many as 700 – coached by the firm's lawyers and interpreters – told phony stories of torture and rape to immigration judges and asylum officers. In June, following a three-month...

After years on the run, Gilda Ghanipour stumbled upon a retired immigration judge and his Pepperdine law students, who championed her quest for asylum. She won her case. But she doesn't know it. Director Bruce Einhorn, second from right, and students of Pepperdine Law School's Asylum Clinic. They championed Gilda Ghanipour's quest for asylum. (Ann Johansson / For The Times / October 22, 2009) Gilda Ghanipour has spent the last nine years on the run. Abandoned by her Muslim family for converting to Christianity, she has shuttled from one address to the next, terrified of being deported to her native...

Nuremberg - The daughter of a close associate of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has requested asylum in Germany, after attending a human rights film festival in Nuremberg, a festival spokesman said on Tuesday. Filmmaker Nargef Kalhor, 25, had refused to return to her native Iran after the festival and applied for asylum instead. She is currently in a refugee centre near Nuremberg, the spokesman added. Kalhor's father Mehdi Kalhor is said to be one of Ahmadinejad's closest confidants. The former documentary film producer has advised the Iranian president on cultural issues since August 2005. Nargef Kalhor attended the Nuremberg festival...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO -- A Northern California family whose daughter underwent forced circumcision in Indonesia is entitled to seek political asylum in the United States, a federal appeals court said Monday.</p> <p>The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco criticized immigration officials who, in ordering the family deported, decided that the girl had suffered no serious harm when her genitals were mutilated as a newborn.</p>

A Swedish gay rights organisation has called on the government not to deport any homosexual Iraqi asylum seekers in the light of a shocking new report categorising an extermination campaign against gay men in the Middle Eastern country. The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) has now called on the Swedish government to halt all deportations to Iraq of people who have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. "We urge Sweden to investigate the possibility of evacuating homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people who are at risk of being subjected to 'sexual cleansing',"...

July 15, 2009 California is the biggest destination for those granted asylum Every year the federal government grants refugee and asylum status to "persons who have been persecuted or who have a well-founded fear of persecution" in their native countries. The legal difference between a "refugee" and an "asylee" is the former requests refuge outside the United States, while the latter requests it after entering this country. The U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics compiles data on these two groups. Its latest report indicates that 60,108 persons were admitted to the United States as refugees in 2008. The leading countries of...

Speaking for the European Union presidency, Swedish migration minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that the EU supported requiring visas for Canadians travelling to the EU in response to Canada’s decision to impose visa restrictions on Czech nationals. "As the presidency of the EU, we are in favour of this reciprocity," Swedish Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Tobias Billström told AFP. "But it's up to the Commission to handle the proposal, because the Commission is responsible for the reciprocity mechanism," he added. Canada imposed visas on Czechs to stave off what it said was a steady influx of Roma asylum...

Whenever a dictatorship is near falling there are only a few limited options for the dictator: 1. Institute a brutal crackdown, and murder a substantial fraction of your subjects in hopes that the survivors will be cowed into submission. 2. Die. Usually in a very unpleasant and humiliating fashion. 3. Seek sanctuary in another country. Even the likes of self-admitted cannibal Idi Amin was able to find a country that would accept him. Should the mad mullahs of Iran be backed into a corner they will turn even more vicious. Sun Tzu recognized that putting an enemy in this position...

Julio Ledezma had been chief of police in La Junta, a town of 8,700 in northern Mexico, for barely three months when a pair of strangers paid him a visit. They said an aide to the mayor had sent them, and they bore gifts: a briefcase stuffed with cash and a truck for Ledezma's personal use. In return, the new chief was to distract federal police at security checkpoints with fake calls for assistance. He could take the bribe -- and be owned by the Juarez cartel. As drug violence has worsened in Mexico, businesspeople, journalists and other professionals have...

Stephen Whittle, left, and Simon Sheppard , convicted of disseminating hate speech in Britain, skipped bail and came to Los Angeles in July 2008, thinking they’d find asylum in the U.S., where such laws are less stringent. Instead, they have spent the last 10 months held in the Santa Ana city jail after a federal immigration judge denied them asylum and put them on a slow track back to Britain.

Nearly half of the predominantly Iraqi-refugees residing in Vännäs in northern Sweden have decided to permanently move out of the area after being terrorized by what police called “a lynch mob” in early May. “I thought that Vännäs was the perfect place for us. And there are many, many friendly people here. But we still don’t dare to stay; I’m seriously concerned about my children’s safety,” said father of five Ismail Ramadan to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper. Ramadan’s family and several others have decided to abandon plans of starting a life in the small community outside of Umeå less...

"This is the first food I've eaten in four days," Habiba Mohammad Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali girl says while opening a packet of high-energy cookies from the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). Habiba, and 150 other refugees, just spent three days crossing the hazardous Gulf of Aden, fleeing the conflict in Somalia and arriving on the beach of Bab al Mandeb, in the extreme west of Yemen. Refugees who make it to land receive automatic political asylum, but survivors sometimes report being forced overboard in deep waters far off shore by traffickers. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has buried...

No welfare for terrorists. That is my message to the Obama administration's suggestion that taxpayers should foot the bill for terrorist detainees it wants to release into our society so they can start a new life in America...the Obama administration this month sought to make this terrible idea a reality...(and) was nearly successful in releasing 30 terrorists into communities in Northern Virginia but was stopped thanks to efforts by Republicans who understand the danger... The suggestion by National Intelligence Director Dennis C. Blair that we should provide these terrorists public welfare prompted me to introduce legislation called the No Welfare...

CARACAS, Venezuela – A leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez has decided to seek political asylum abroad rather than face a corruption charge in a trial he says would be stacked against him, an ally said Monday. Opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who went into hiding three weeks ago, decided not to appear in court Monday because the case against him is being used for "political persecution," said Omar Barboza, who heads Rosales' political party. "He won't present himself before a court that's been turned into a political tool," Barboza told reporters. "When there's a state of law in Venezuela, Manuel...

By way of both the Gateway Pundit and Black Five, I came across this Fox News report: An Iraqi translator who has earned commendations for risking his life repeatedly to save the lives of many American soldiers in combat has been denied a visa to live in the United States because of nonviolent actions he took to overthrow Saddam Hussein — at the same time the U.S. government was calling for regime change in Iraq. Jasim, whose name is being withheld for his safety, has received strong support from the U.S. military, and the Department of Homeland Security approved his...

Fewer people are seeking asylum in Sweden, with the number of applications dropping 33 percent last year, according to new statistics. "During 2008, 24,342 persons sought asylum in Sweden, which is a decrease of 11,865 applications compared to 2007," Statistics Sweden (SCB) said in a statement on Friday. Two-thirds of applicants were men and one-third were women, a common proportion since 2000, it added. Over 100 nationalities were represented among the asylum seekers. The largest group was Iraqis who accounted for a quarter of applications. However, SCB noted that the number of Iraqi asylum seekers was down dramatically. "Iraqis represented...

BOSTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to grant asylum to a Brazilian gay man who's married to an American man still living in Massachusetts where they wed. Genesio (jeh-NESS-e-o) "Junior" Oliveira (all-EH-ver-a) was forced to return to Brazil in August 2007, when his application for asylum was denied. The Associated Press does not typically name rape victims, but Oliveira allows his name to be used.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to send reinforcements to the Southwest border to help contain the rampant violence of the Mexican drug cartel wars. Thirty-seven agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are being deployed to the region. An official familiar with the plan said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is considering reassignment of at least 90 officers to the border. The official requested anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the US wants to increase the military assistance it provides Mexico for its fight against drugs trafficking. Mr Gates said Washington was more prepared now to help Mexico in its fight against the cartels which control the flow of illegal narcotics. Mr Gates said aid could come in the form of military hardware, training and intelligence support to help the Mexican authorities in their fight against the well-armed and organised drugs traffickers. "It clearly is a serious problem," Gates said. But he pointed to Mexican President Felipe Calderon as the main reason for this...

El Debate (Sinaloa) 2/24/09 Three of four youths abducted Monday night were found murdered in farmland near Costa Rica, Sinaloa, some 20 miles south of Culiacan. The victims were ages 17, 19 and 20. The fourth youth abducted with them has not been located. All the bodies had signs of torture and had been shot repeatedly in their backs and heads. Their hands were tied behind them with cord. [Photo relates.] murder —– “A small fortune” in US currency was seized by Mexican federal authorities in Culiacan. The Army confiscated more than $380,000 as well as two vehicles from a...

What we now face in Mexico (clearly one of the most unstable countries in the World today) is a convergence of asymmetric threats. The threats posed by the instability in Mexico are many. It is not only the flow of drugs to the U.S. It is not only the violence related to the cartel turf battles. And frankly, it is not only the inability of the Calderón government to exert any real control over the violence or stem the flow of illegal narcotics across the U.S. border that is troubling. What this means is a combined and ever blending threat...

El Universal (Mexico City) 2/20-21/09 A presumed area boss for the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in the State of Mexico was arrested in mid-afternoon in the major business district of Santa Fe in Mexico City during a high-security operation by the Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI) with Army support. He was identified as Gerardo Gonzalez Benavides, aka Abraham Esparza Blancarte, “Tony la Mentira” and “La Bitch.” He was believed to be in charge of the drug traffic operations in cities such as Cuautitlan and Tultitlan in the state that surrounds the Federal District. The subject is considered to be an...

Across the border from McAllen, Texas, a war has been raging in affluent Mexican neighborhoods, main streets and shopping areas as cartels openly fire rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles at law enforcement authorities. No one is safe – not even young children as they walk to school. "We heard a lot of gunshots," cried one child as he escaped Felipe Carrillo Puerto Primary School holding his father's hand Tuesday morning. The street wars between police and gangs shut down parts of Reynosa, Mexico, as Mexican media estimated the death toll at 20 with dozens injured... \ A U.S. federal...

Texas State Senator, Dan Patrick, was on FoxNews this morning at 8:45am. He said he had some “breaking news to share”. Boy was it!!! The Texas State Legislature had been trying very hard to get the Obama Administration to respond to a critical situation on the Texas Border. The Administration had not gotten back with Texas as of last night. So the State of Texas told Washington D.C. basically they could go jump, and “we’ll take care of Texas!”. As of last night… the Texas National Guard has been put on High Alert!!! This is the first time in history!...

Below are excerpts from a Feb. 9 letter to President Barack Obama from representatives of 127 immigrant and civil-rights organizations and churches nationwide, including Marleine Bastien of Haitian Women of Miami and Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. Immigrant communities look forward to working with your administration. Certainly you have many pressing priorities. We are compelled, however, to bring to your attention a life or death matter: Haitian deportees face hunger, homelessness and unemployment, if not worse, in the wake of four killer storms that further devastated our hemisphere's poorest nation. We urge you to immediately stay deportations...

Texas crafts plan for Mexico collapse

At a time of increased violence, corruption, and financial strain, Mexico is reported to be on the verge of collapse. US troops stationed near the border are warned not to go into Mexico, 200 Americans have been killed in Mexico since 2004, and the U.S. Department of Defense recently listed Mexico second only to Pakistan as a country capable of completely collapsing. In response to what appears to be near-anarchy in Mexico, Texas law enforcement is preparing for the worst; though, officials acknowledge that preparations for a huge influx of refugees may also be necessary. The town of Juárez, Mexico,...

BOSTON -- A national group is calling on President Barack Obama to deport his aunt, an illegal immigrant who was living in Boston. The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC filed an arrest request with Immigration and Customs Enforcement Monday and issued a public demand for Obama to deport Zeituni Onyango. Onyango is currently under a court's order to leave the country or be deported, according to ALI-PAC. Onyango is currently living in Ohio and has vowed to fight against being deported. Four years ago, an immigration judge instructed her to leave the country after her request for asylum from her...

A federal grand jury in Seattle has charged two people in an alleged immigration fraud conspiracy, saying they advised straight immigrants to claim homosexuality in applying for political asylum. Steven Mahoney and his wife, Helena, were arrested today and scheduled to make initial appearances at U.S. District Court in Seattle in the afternoon. Prosecutors say Steve Mahoney ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent, and held himself out as an expert in immigration affairs. They say the point was to make money by advising immigrants on how to stay in the U.S. According to an indictment unsealed Tuesday, the Mahoneys in...

More Proof The Inmates Are Running The Asylum By Doug Patton December 9, 2008 In the inmates-are-running-the-asylum department, too many cases are popping up to ignore them. Here are a few modest examples: Amsterdam has organized a "Pink Christmas" festival featuring a nativity scene with two Josephs and two Marys. The rationale for this bizarre display is "to increase the range of options for homosexual men and women during the Christmas holiday week" and to "encourage people to think about homosexuality and religion." Just what I want to think about at Christmastime. In Bloomington, Indiana, an undercover pro-life college student...

It is a little slice of Long Beach, Calif., brought here by a former gang member by way of a federal prison, an immigration jail and then expulsion four years ago from his homeland, the United States, to the homeland of his parents, Cambodia. The former gang member is Tuy Sobil, 30, who goes by the street name K.K. The boys are Cambodian street children he has taken under his wing as he teaches them the art he brought with him, break dancing, as well as his hard lessons in life. K.K. is not here because he wants to be....

PURCELLVILLE, Virginia, Nov. 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A homeschooling family who recently fled Germany has filed for political asylum in the United States. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike formerly of Bissingen, Germany, along with their five children made it to the United States in August of this year. The family has settled in Eastern Tennessee where they have been warmly welcomed by local homeschool supporters and are being assisted by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). "The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has dramatically intensified," said HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. "They are regularly fined thousands of dollars, sent...

Zeituni Onyango was ordered to leave the country in 2004 by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya. Her illegal-immigrant status was revealed to the public days before Obama's election on November 4, and now she is fighting the deportation order. Contrary to popular opinion, Obama will not have executive power to unilaterally grant her, or anyone, legal immigration status when he becomes president. His only course of action would be to appeal to Congress to file a private bill providing citizenship. But for President Obama, it would be an avenue dotted with pitfalls....

Spain: Osama bin Laden's son seeks asylum 27-year-old landed at Madrid airport using a passport from Saudi Arabia updated 6:52 a.m. CT, Tues., Nov. 4, 2008 MADRID, Spain - A son of Osama bin Laden was in Spain and was seeking asylum, Spain's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. Omar Osama bin Laden requested asylum immediately after arriving at Madrid airport Monday on a flight from Cairo, Egypt, that had been going on to Casablanca, Morocco, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules. The official said Omar Osama bin Laden was traveling on a passport...

Six asylum seekers are claiming up to £300,000 in compensation after they were held in detention following their entry into the UK, it was confirmed today. Lawyers for the six said the claim had been lodged for up to £50,000 each on grounds of false imprisonment. The asylum seekers arrived in the UK unaccompanied, saying they were under 18, but did not have documents to prove it, according to reports. At least three were detained with adults for up to two weeks at an immigration centre while their ages were checked. Mark Scott, of solicitors Bhatt Murphy, said the claimants...

Federal Judge Release Gitmo Detainees into U.S.by Kenneth Hanner (more by this author) Posted 10/07/2008 ET Updated 10/07/2008 ET A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release of several Chinese Muslim detainees from Guantanamo Bay into the United States. The men all are ethnic Uighurs and come from a region of China that borders Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Chinese government considers them terrorists and the U.S. has refused to return them to their home country due to fears they will be persecuted. The men were detained by the U.S. since their capture in 2001. In 2004, their status as enemy...

A British woman has been raped by a gang of asylum seekers in Calais, it has been alleged. The journalism student wanted to highlight the plight of migrants who sleep rough in a squalid camp at the French port before trying to sneak into Britain. She was subjected to a horrific attack by six Afghan men she intended to write about, it was claimed. French riot police rounded up 200 migrants for questioning. Ten remained in custody tonight and police said it was possible all had been involved in the rape, which detectives described as 'extremely brutal'. Police said the...

A British student has been gang-raped by illegal immigrants in Calais, it has been revealed. The woman was writing a story on asylum seekers for her journalism course when she was attacked, police said. Up to 100 men have been rounded up as potential witnesses to the crime, which is alleged to have taken place in a notorious squatter camp nicknamed 'The Jungle'. Police said the attack was of a particularly 'brutal nature'.

WASHINGTON — Immigrants seeking asylum in the United States have been disproportionately rejected by judges whom the Bush administration chose using a conservative political litmus test, according to an analysis of Justice Department data. The analysis suggests that the effects of a patronage-style selection process for immigration judges — used for three years before it was abandoned as illegal — are still being felt by scores of immigrants whose fates are determined by the judges installed in that period. The data focuses on 16 judges who were vetted for political affiliation before being hired and have since ruled on at...

Schools are telling children to change out of uniform to avoid being attacked on their way home, a government adviser revealed today. [ ED: Liberalism at its finest in the UK ]

A doctor who bound a 14-year-old girl with washing line and raped her has been jailed for 12 years. The terrified girl hid in a wardrobe after calling 999 following her ordeal, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday. Mohammad Sajjad was led weeping to the cells after a judge told him his “deep remorse” was just self-pity. Sajjad, a qualified doctor who was granted asylum in the UK, had been employed as a learning disabilities healthcare assistant in the Bradford area. The court heard he three times tied the girl’s hands tightly with red washing line and bound her feet before...

Mexican law enforcement officials are walking into U.S. ports of entry in increasing numbers to seek political asylum, and the flow may soon become a flood as Mexico's battle with the drug cartels intensifies. Our first instinct is to welcome them, but there is more at stake than humanitarian sentiments. The problem is that if our immigration laws are stretched to grant asylum to law enforcement personnel on the grounds that their own government cannot protect them, any Mexican threatened by these violent criminal gangs can claim the same right of asylum. U.S. immigration law does not easily accommodate these...

Imagine yourself to be the PM of the PC kingdom of Sweden, Northern Europe. You'd face a situation of non-european mass immigration gone out of hand, while you simultaneously dispose of government vaults bulging with money donated by/stolen from humane and well educated/obedient and brainwashed Swedish tax payers. What would your decision be? Bribery is immoral, but sometimes it's just too tempting. The article (the source is SR/SVT, Sweden's equivalent to BBC): "Few refugees here are taking advantage of money from the Swedish government to subsidize returns home. Individual asylum-seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia can get more than 3000...

James Corey Glass, apprentice mortician and United States Army deserter, was keeping an unusually close eye on the text messages coming into his cellphone. He was hoping to hear that a court had blocked the Canadian government’s attempt to send him back to the United States. On Wednesday afternoon, the message came: Mr. Glass, 25, could remain in Canada while he appealed his removal order by the country’s Immigration Department. It was a welcome reprieve, he said, but well short of a guarantee that he and other deserters could make Canada their new home. The Canadian government’s effort to remove...

Parliament on Tuesday voted to allow US resisters of the Iraq war who fled to Canada to stay in this country, thus avoiding military court-martial in the United States. The non-binding motion passed 137 to 110, with support from all three opposition parties, which hold a majority of seats in the House. It urged the government to allow conscientious objectors "who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations" to stay in Canada. "Canada has always been a place which has welcomed those who seek peace and who seek freedom," opposition Liberal...

FRESNO, Calif. — The valedictorian at Fresno's Bullard High School won't be attending college in the United States this fall because he's scheduled to be deported. Arthur Mkoyan's 4.0 grade-point average qualified him to enter one of the state's top universities. But the 17-year-old and his mother have been ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum failed.

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- Britain said Tuesday that it is granting asylum to a gay Iranian teenager who fears that he could face execution if forced to return to his homeland. Britain's Border Agency said it would allow asylum for Mehdi Kazemi, who traveled in 2005 to London to study English and while there learned that his lover in Iran had been charged with sodomy and hanged. Kazemi, 19, then sought asylum in Britain, but it was rejected, then in the Netherlands. The Netherlands' highest court rejected his claim in March, ruling that Britain was responsible for the case...

Ex-Saddam colonel fights to remain in Yorkshire Last Updated: 1:43am BST 12/04/2008 A former lieutenant colonel who served under Saddam Hussein's regime has been living in Yorkshire for the past two years. Jafa'ar Ali Hassan, 60, trained soldiers during the Iran-Iraq war and claims his uncle was a personal adviser to the tyrant. He fled his homeland via Kurdistan and is understood to have paid £12,500 to reach the UK via Turkey. Mr Hassan has been living with his wife in council accommodation in the village of Worsbrough near Barnsley, since 2006. He is now fighting deportation to Iraq after...

DEMING, N.M. (AP) - The police chief of a Mexican border town has requested asylum in the United States, where he told authorities his two officers have fled and he does not know their whereabouts. The Luna County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Border Patrol say Emilio Perez of Palomas came to the port of entry at Columbus late Tuesday night, requesting political asylum. The agent-in-charge of the Border Patrol station in Deming, Rick Moody, says Perez is in the protection of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Authorities have reported an increase in drug-related violence in Palomas, where at...

Two gay Iranians living in Britain say they fear for their lives after their partners were sentenced to death by Iranian authorities and their requests for asylum in Britain were denied. Advocates for Mehdi Kazemi, 19, and Pegah Emambakhsh, 40, say they will face harsh physical punishment, prison, and possible execution if forced to return Iran. The two cases have provoked an international public outcry and have increased scrutiny of British policies toward gay and lesbian asylum-seekers. While studying English and science in the U.K., Kazemi learned that his boyfriend had been executed for sodomy back in Iran. His father...