Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee
October 1, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
by ALBERT RAMON / KVUE News
kvue.com
Posted on April 29, 2010 at 4:46 PM
Updated Thursday, Apr 29 at 6:23 PM
When you think of a spelling bee, you probably think of middle school kids competing against each other.
Not today – an adult spelling bee was full of characters and all for a very good cause.
This is the seventh year the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas has hosted the Great Grown-up Spelling Bee. This year’s competition was held downtown at the Austin Music Hall. Teams of three all work for correct spelling and for most original costume.
It’s a way to have fun, have a laugh and raise money for a very important cause.
One in five adults in Central Texas can not read at a basic level. The Great Grown-up Spelling Bee raises money to help the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas to continue to provide outreach in the community.
This year, more than $75, 000 has been raised, which will help assist more than 150,000 people who need literacy services and classes in the area.
“So many of the programs are volunteer driven, they run with very few resources. So that is our role to bolster those programs that have very few resources. But a little bit of money goes a long way,” said Meg Poag, executive director of the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas.
“There are a lot of really impassioned people that can do a lot with very little. And $75, 000, that’s a ton for an organization like ours,” said a member of ACE: A Community of Education.
Seventy local literacy providers will benefit from Thursday’s spelling bee — all with one goal in mind: Make the literacy rate 100 percent in Central Texas.
Travis County leads nation in deporting 'noncriminal' immigrants, groups find
August 11, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Sheriff said he questions findings but will look into whether conclusions drawm from compiled data are accurate.
By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 12:34 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
Published: 10:35 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010
Undocumented immigrants with no criminal histories are being deported from Travis County at a higher percentage than any other county in the United States, according to government statistics obtained and analyzed by several advocacy groups.
According to the groups, 82 percent of deportations of jail inmates through a federal fingerprint-sharing program in Travis County were of “noncriminals,” such as those with no violent histories.
The statistics were compiled by officials for national advocacy groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, which obtained raw data through a federal freedom of information request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton, alerted to the statistics Tuesday, said he questions what the numbers show.
“We are going to have to do some looking into this,” Hamilton said. “I think those numbers are skewed, but we will find out.”
The expulsions have happened in recent months as federal agents nationally began reviewing fingerprints of inmates booked into county jails through a database-sharing program called Secure Communities. Federal officials have said the program helps identify and prioritize criminal immigrants who threaten public safety.
However, immigration advocates said the number of deportations of Travis County inmates highlights a problem with the program:
People with no criminal histories are being removed.
“Secure Communities is marketed as a program that has as its mission targeting the worst of the worst – the most dangerous criminals most likely to present a danger to their communities,” said Bridget Kessler , clinical teaching fellow at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York , who was involved
in the effort to compile the numbers. “So 82 percent doesn’t seem to represent the mission of the program at all.”
Critics said the program is similar to the Arizona law that makes local police and sheriffs central to enforcing immigration laws.
Federal officials said Tuesday that Secure Communities is in place in all 25 counties along the U.S.-Mexico border; the Obama administration wants it operational nationally by 2013.
According to statistics from October 2008 through June of this year, 46,929 people identified through Secure Communities were removed from the country. Of those, 12,293 were considered noncriminals.
California had the highest percentage of immigrants deported who had carried out serious crimes. In Georgia, 39 percent of 624 immigrants removed were noncriminals, the highest among all states, statistics showed.
Travis County led all counties with the highest percentage of deported noncriminals, the advocacy groups reported.
Sheriff’s spokesman Roger Wade said the department has a policy of not talking to inmates, suspects or crime victims about their immigration status. He said if inmates are targeted by federal officials because of immigration, officials release them to various agencies, including ICE, when they are ordered by a judge.
On Tuesday, several Austin immigration advocates said they were not surprised by the Travis County statistics.
Thomas Esparza Jr., an Austin immigration lawyer who opposes the program, said, “What we told the county commissioners is that this
was going to sweep the wheat up with the chaff, and that’s obviously what’s happened here. They’re very efficient here in Travis County. Everybody gets a hold put on them.”
Nicole True, an Austin criminal defense and immigration attorney, said the program unfairly targets immigrants accused of minor, nonviolent offenses and makes Austin immigrants less likely to report crimes.
“It would make more sense if immigration (enforcement) focused on violent felonies … where most people in the community would agree that that’s a dangerous person,” True said. The program “breaks apart a lot of families and creates a lot of fear.”
tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605
Additional material from staff writer Jeremy Schwartz and The
Associated Press.
Additional Guidance on Surviving Widows of USC Spouses – USCIS Central
July 22, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Additional Guidance Regarding Surviving Spouses of Deceased US Citizens and their Children.
Historic Passage of the Bill to End the Widow Penalty
July 14, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Frequently Asked Questions on the Historic Passage of the Bill to End the Widow Penalty
Congress Ends the Widow Penalty
On October 20, 2009, the Senate voted to pass the Department of Homeland Security Apporopriations Bill Conference Report that contained a provision to end the widow penalty. The House precviously voted to pass the bill. The bill became Public Law Number 111-83 upon President Obama’s signature on October 28, 2009.
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status by Thomas Esparza Jr
July 13, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
SECTIION 7: ::
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
In order to help certain undocumented children present in the United States obtain lawful immigration status, federal law established provisions for “Special Immigrant Juvenile” (SIJ) status. While life in the United States can be very difficult for anyone without lawful immigration status, unaccompanied juveniles are especially vulnerable. Many have been orphaned, abandoned, or suffered domestic abuse and receive no assistance in their country of origin. They may not have had access to a formal education. Many have been the targets of gang violence or exploitation by organized crime. Some of these children find their way to the United States and are apprehended by immigration or law enforcement officials and placed in removal proceedings. The SIJ provisions permit undocumented children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by their parents and come under the jurisdiction of a U.S. juvenile court to become lawful permanent residents.
