Immigration

Immigration Policy: People Are Still Falling into the Gaps

San Francisco Has Mixed Feelings About Arizona Immigration Decision

In April 2010, Supervisor David Campos issued an official resolution to boycott the state of Arizona to demonstrate his opposition toward the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which gave cops the authority to check the status of residents without probable cause. Campos wanted to "stand in soli ... More >>

Days of Rage: Immigrants and Allies Must Fight Back

In April 2010, Supervisor David Campos issued an official resolution to boycott the state of Arizona to demonstrate his opposition toward the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which gave cops the authority to check the status of residents without probable cause. Campos wanted to "stand in soli ... More >>

Bordering on Revolution: America's War on Mexicans Has Gone Too Far

In April 2010, Supervisor David Campos issued an official resolution to boycott the state of Arizona to demonstrate his opposition toward the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which gave cops the authority to check the status of residents without probable cause. Campos wanted to "stand in soli ... More >>

Cindy Chang, Sunday School Teacher, Released After Three-Week Detention at Arizona Immigration Checkpoint

​Cindy Chang was driving from San Jose to Phoenix for a friend's wedding early this month when she was stopped at an immigration checkpoint in Eloy, Ariz. These structures are common this close to the border. Chang, a 26-year old Sunday school teacher who has lived in the Bay Area since her f ... More >>

Mexican Border Crossings Lowest in Decades, Study Finds

​A new study by researchers at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs upends a lot of the conventional thinking about the effects of U.S. immigration policy -- most notably the contention that harsher security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border have kep ... More >>

Wells Fargo Totally Committed to Screwing Over Diverse Populations

​At this point we've come to expect that Wells Fargo will screw over middle-class Americans. But it seems in the spirit of being inclusive, the big bank is now screwing over immigrants, too!At least that's what a group of H-1B visa workers are claiming in a suit filed this week in San Francis ... More >>

Majority of San Francisco's Illegal Immigrants Live in the Mission District

Missionites: up to 15 percent of your neighbors are undocumented.​San Francisco's highest concentration of illegal immigrants lives in the city's Mission District -- a zip code of day laborers, black-market hot dog vendors, and fake document peddlers.The Public Policy Institute of California relea ... More >>

Carlos Santana Criticizes Georgia's New Immigration Law

"Really, Georgia?"​Beware, people of states with drastic immigration laws: Santana is angry with you.  Days after Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed off on a new Arizona-style regulation, Carlos Santana brought the immigrant-friendly spirit of Bay Area liberalism to baseball's yearly Civil Righ ... More >>

Sheriff Michael Hennessey to Give Illegal Immigrants a Break

Talk to the hand, ICE.​Today we woke up to the news that Sheriff Michael Hennessey has found a loophole in the federal fingerprinting program that identifies illegal immigrants in the county jail. And as of June 1, Hennessey will no longer hold illegal immigrants booked into county jail on minor m ... More >>

California Leads The Nation in Imprisoning Criminal Immigrants

10 percent of California's inmates are non-citizens.​It's not a winning spot to brag about, but the Golden State is No.1 when it comes to incarcerating criminal immigrants. In fact, California is the only state to break the 100,000 mark. What's worse -- the state is shouldering the majority of the ... More >>

U-Visa: Illegal Immigrants Become Legal Residents Via Crime Victimization

10 percent of California's inmates are non-citizens.​It's not a winning spot to brag about, but the Golden State is No.1 when it comes to incarcerating criminal immigrants. In fact, California is the only state to break the 100,000 mark. What's worse -- the state is shouldering the majority of the ... More >>

Gay Binational Couples Fighting Deportations On Obama's New DOMA Stance

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Return to Sender

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

How Would Immigration Reform Look if the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Mexican Macroeconomics

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

FAIR-y Tales

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesnít Work

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

Held Captive

Coyotes who smuggle immigrants torture and extort their victims, helped by out government's failure to enact immigration reform.

Arizona Immigration Law's Appeal Will Come Through San Francisco

The immigration debate is coming our way...​In the wake of Arizona's passage of the draconian and controversial SB 1070, San Francisco kick-started the boycott bandwagon and Mayor Gavin Newsom forbade city officials to travel to the Grand Canyon State. Now that Arizona law will be traveling to San ... More >>

Tom Ammiano Mangles Profane Spanish at Unique Immigration Rally (PICS)

Tom, what are you saying?​As promised, San Franciscans came out against Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law today, in a protest also aimed at the federal identification program known as Secure Communities ("S-COMM for short"). A picturesque group positioned in front of the Federal Buil ... More >>

Arizona and America Join Joe Arpaio in Rushing to Inquire: Are Your Papers in Order?

Tom, what are you saying?​As promised, San Franciscans came out against Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law today, in a protest also aimed at the federal identification program known as Secure Communities ("S-COMM for short"). A picturesque group positioned in front of the Federal Buil ... More >>

ILLEGAL from Terry Greene Sterling

Read a penetrating chapter from former Phoenix New Times investigative reporter Terry Greene Sterling's book: ILLEGAL: Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone

Immigration Activists Set to Rally Downtown Tomorrow

Jerry, we have a complaint! ​Buoyed by a federal judge's decision to block the "papers please" components of the Arizona immigration law that goes into effect tomorrow, San Francisco activists and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano are now turning their wrath on California Attorney General Jerry Brown. At a ... More >>

The Education Trap

In California, many undocumented immigrants are offered cheap college tuition, only to find they can’t get jobs after they graduate.

Welcome to Mi Pueblito, Washington

The small-town, family-farm lifestyle that we love to celebrate is being preserved — thanks to Mexican immigrants.

Police Chief George Gascon Says Arizona Immigration Law Lets Thugs Run Wild

...Gascon says Arizona law will lead to lawlessness​San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon -- known for locking horns with anti-immigrant demagogue Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County while Gascon served as chief of police in Mesa, Arizona -- said the Grand Canyon State's much-maligned immigra ... More >>

Is Philadelphia More Immigrant-Friendly Than San Francisco?

Does Philly's Michael Nutter have more spine than Gavin Newsom?​Philadelphia's deputy mayor said yesterday that his city will likely cease cooperating with federal immigration officials by sharing records of local arrests, a policy change that would put it in the vanguard of so-called "sanctuary c ... More >>

Worlds Apart

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law.

Cowboy Down: Rob Krentz's Family Talks About the Life and Death of the Murdered Arizona Rancher

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law.

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law.

Is San Francisco Not a 'Rule of Law' City?

​Future illegal aliens dreaming of living the good life in Costa Mesa, Calif. are in for a rude surprise. Yesterday, in a symbolic slap at the notion of "sanctuary cities," the Orange County suburb passed a resolution declaring itself a "Rule of Law" city. "I have a lot of concerns with cities cal ... More >>

A Report from Juarez, the Bleeding Front Line of the War on Drugs

​Future illegal aliens dreaming of living the good life in Costa Mesa, Calif. are in for a rude surprise. Yesterday, in a symbolic slap at the notion of "sanctuary cities," the Orange County suburb passed a resolution declaring itself a "Rule of Law" city. "I have a lot of concerns with cities cal ... More >>

Amongst Us

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's reign of terror becomes Arizona policy, thanks to state Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer

SF Weekly Parent Company to Underwrite Legal Challenge to Arizona Immigration Bill

​Last week, there were some murmurs among local bloggers about whether SF Weekly would suffer as a result of a proposed city boycott of Arizona businesses because of the Grand Canyon State's harsh new immigration law. Editors at SF Appeal and SFist raised the prospect of city officials refusing to ... More >>

Bookie Site Lays Odds on Controversial Arizona Immigration Law

Can I get some action here? ​If the 9-11 tragedy didn't prove Americans' indomitable will and heroic ability -- to make a buck off anything, this will. The bookmaking site youwager.com has commenced laying odds and taking bets related to the controversial Arizona immigration law that inspired San ... More >>

Sanctuary Sellout

Before: S.F. coddled undocumented teen criminals. After: S.F. punishes undocumented teens who commit crimes (and some who don't, too).

Does Pleading Guilty to a Drug Charge Injure Immigrant's 'Good Moral Character'? Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Says No.

The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the government cannot use an illegal immigrant's expunged guilty plea to a simple drug offense as evidence of bad moral character in deportation proceedings. Jesus Romero came to the United States from Mexico when he was 10 ... More >>

Border Crossers

Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in S.F. are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum.

Sanctuary City: Now Endorsed by 17,945 Law Enforcement Agencies Nationwide

Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in S.F. are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum.

An Army of Uno

Struggling to find homegrown recruits, the military is persuading immigrants to enlist by dangling promises of U.S. citizenship

Funny Dinero

The mayor says the city won't help the Bushies crackdown on illegal immigrants--but why is SF still getting money from the feds then?

Immigrant Song

It's not just the national anthem being sung in Spanish that's got anti-immigration folks riled up. Which side of the fence are you on?

The Asylum Trap

Unscrupulous attorneys prey on immigrants seeking green cards with an expensive and fruitless legal scheme. Now 29 Mexicans have joined the disbarment case against one such lawyer.

The Identity Makers

In the age of terror, are the people who make fake identification documents for the Hispanic community noble public servants -- or national security risks?

The Land of Blood & Money

Foreign workers coming into the country for high-paying tech jobs often bring wives with them. When these women are beaten and abused, they have nowhere to run.

Rounding Up the Usual Sospechosos

Alleged misconduct by INS agents has activists in the Latino community angry