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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

TX Groups Applaud Obama Decision to Ease up on Deportations

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Friday, August 19, 2011   

AUSTIN, Texas - Immigrant advocates in Texas and around the nation this week expressed coordinated outrage over the Obama administration's record-breaking deportation efforts. As if on cue, the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced that it would review as many as 300,000 pending cases, possibly allowing low-priority offenders to remain in the country.

Meanwhile, a report released earlier this week revived concerns among Latino groups about the federal Secure Communities fingerprint-sharing program. S-COMM was designed to enlist local law-enforcement authorities to help Immigration and Customs officials capture serious criminals. However, says Esther Reyes, director of the Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition, that's not what happened.

"It's making law enforcement focus on people who have committed minor violations, and the immigrant community is less likely to come forward to the police now if they're a victim of a crime or a witness of a crime."

The report, compiled by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, lists law enforcement officials from around the country who say they want to opt out of S-COMM. While the administration Thursday did not say it would end the program, as immigration advocates would like, officials did - for the first time - admit that its mission of removing serious criminals from the nation has ensnared far more non-threatening immigrants than intended.

Thursday's announcement suggested that the administration may grant work permits in some cases, such as to students and immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents. Critics are already calling the move amnesty, saying it will essentially stop the deportations of everyone except those convicted of crimes.

The debate is part of a harsh political climate that has led to immigrant scapegoating, according to Reyes. Rather than catching individuals who come to America seeking a better life, she says, the solution is to address structural and economic policies - both in this country and in countries from which immigrants are fleeing.

"We could really benefit from taking a step back and analyze what's really going on rather than trying to blame a group of people who are, more than anything, contributing to this country."

A coalition of immigrant-rights and civil-liberties groups will convene a forum next month in Austin to address S-COMM's impact on Travis County, which has seen nearly 1,900 removals since the program's inception in 2008.

The full report is online at altopolimigra.com. Monitor Travis County efforts at reformimmigrationfortexas.org.


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