In the news today: July 16, 2007

• A New York appeals court has ruled that spouses of Chinese women affected by stringent population controls in their country do not necessarily qualify for asylum in the U.S.
• A Tulsa couple could be deported back to Mexico even though they are the parents of four American citizens.
• The Des Moines Register has a handy compilation of where GOP presidential candidates stand on immigration.
• The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote a great news-feature on how Texas ranchers near the border feel about the border fence.
  
• John McCain's campaign staff dwindles even more.
  
• Earlier: McCain's stances on immigration, Iraq blamed for lagging campaign

Video game: You win if you escape deportation

In what is likely the most interesting immigration-related news tidbit in the pop culture sphere, ABC News reports that a New York-based human rights group called Breakthrough has designed a video game called "ICED!", or "I Can Escape Deportation!".

The game, free to download here starting this September, allows players to step into the role of an undocumented immigrant in the United States, with the ultimate goal of avoiding deportation by the immigration authorities.

From the ABC News article:

ICED! players are required to make "moral choices." Jumping turnstiles in the subway or robbing stores causes players to lose points and puts them in danger of getting caught by an immigration official and detained or deported.

Conversely, players can gain points and avoid detention by planting trees, helping the elderly or volunteering around their community.

According to Breakthrough's Web site, the game simply and directly "teaches players about the unjust nature of U.S. immigration policy."

Random deportation trials, long lines to use the phone and sexual harrassment in detention centers are among the situations depicted in the game.

In the news today: July 13, 2007

• A Mexican couple gets a one-year deportation reprieve as their 17-month-old daughter undergoes surgery for a rare heart defect reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
• A Pakistani held at an immigration detention center has sued the Immigration Department for placing him in a room with a heroin user as well as for violence and harrassment endured while a detainee, reports ABC News.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that 10 more suspects have been arrested in an "ongoing federal investigation into a scam involving Asians willing to pay thousands of dollars to immigrate to this country by entering into phony marriages with U.S. citizens from Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Southern California."

In the news today: July 9, 2007

• The Boston Globe published a really well-written news-feature in Saturday's paper about a five-year-old girl who faces a deportation hearing that could potentially separate her from her family in the U.S. The article will surely pull heart-strings as well as fan some people's flames.
• The Austin American-Statesman reports that border fence construction in southern Texas may significantly damage the Rio Grande eco-system.
• USA Today published a news-feature today on illegal immigrants who seek refuge from the immigration authorities in places of worship.
• The Hartford Courant reports that 26 of 32 illegal immigrants arrested in raids in New Haven, CT last week are back home after their families posted bail.
• The Ashland City Times (Tennessee) published a profile of the Maury County sheriff who is either revered or abhorred for his illegal immigration crackdown.
  

Qualtrics poll: Most Americans favor deportation for illegal immigrants

Qualtrics, an Internet-based survey group, found that 68 percent of respondents favor deportation as the answer to illegal immigration; another 20 percent feel that illegal immigrants should be given legal status and a chance at citizenship.

Missing soldier's wife gets green card

The wife of a soldier missing in Iraq can strike one worry off her list: the Department of Homeland Security gave her a green card this weekend, FOX News reports. Having entering ilegally from the Dominican Republic, Yaderlina Hiraldo Jimenez had earlier been served deportation papers. Her G.I. husband, Alex Jimenez (right), has been missing since mid-May.

Former CA city councilwoman faces deportation

The AP reports that Zoila Meyer, a former California city councilwoman may face deportation for illegally voting in the 2004 election because she did not become a citizen after moving to the country from Cuba as a one-year-old.

Meyer is a legal resident and the mother of four citizens; she has said she did not realize voting was a "deportable offense."