Florida Chock-Full o' Foreigners: Six Fun Facts From New Census Data

Categories: Immigration
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PAAAARTYYYY
Sound the alarm! Slide down the polls! Gold Five to Red Leader, we have inbound data sets!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new batch of data yesterday, and the Pulp has done some spreadsheet surfing to bring you the hottest numbers from the report. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hug your pet and salute the flag. So buckle up, because here are six of the most interesting revelations about Florida and the United States that can be gleaned from the new report, based on numbers from early 2010.
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Why Arizona-Style Immigration Law Stands Little Chance in Florida

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Florida Senate
Budget chairman Alexander voted against the bill last year.
As the U.S. Supreme Court debates the Arizona law destined to make life miserable for brown-skinned people, advocates on both sides of the immigration-reform issue are freaking outSenate Bill 1070 requires Arizona cops to detain immigrants they suspect are in the country illegally and check their status. Not carrying immigration papers in public would be a state crime. If the highest court in the land says this is constitutional, won't cops in the Sun-Baked State start doing the same thing?

No, probably not. Florida is crazy but not entirely stupid. Take state Sen. JD Alexander, the Republican budget committee chairman who last year voted against Florida's proposed anti-illegal immigrant bill, which never passed the state House. Alexander happens to be a citrus grower, and big growers do not want to lose their workforce of cheap, often-illegal labor. As he told the Miami Herald last May, "I probably know more about the reality of these issues than anybody else on the floor." More >>

Southwest Ranches Town Council Promises Meeting for Feedback on ICE Detention Center

Categories: Immigration
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Are ICE officials ready to listen to this?
The Southwest Ranches Town Council has announced the time of a proposed meeting between local residents and officials from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to discuss a controversial new immigrant detention facility project that town officials appear to have been trying to move forward with as little public involvement as possible. 

Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff previously told the Pulp that "Despite the fact that [the facility] could be built tomorrow, the town has respectfully requested a meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whereby the town hopes to create a forum whereby [lawyers say "whereby" a lot] all residents can ask any additional questions they may have concerning this facility."

Those residents will doubtless have a lot of questions to ask.
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Southwest Ranches, Pines Residents Rally Against Immigrant Pen and "Cone of Silence"

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Photos by Stefan Kamph
The Pulp tried to attend last night's meeting of the Southwest Ranches town council, but BSO Deputy Lee Roselli and Cmdr. Wallace Haywood wouldn't let us inside the council chambers. So we remained outside with the 50 or so local residents who were loudly protesting an immigrant detention facility that the town wants to build on a nearby plot of land. Another complaint: the lack of transparency surrounding its approval and development. 
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Private Prison Contractor, Homeland Security "Asked" Southwest Ranches Council Not to Talk

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CCA says "STFU!"
​Here in Florida, we have a broad array of sunshine laws designed to promote open government. Local governments routinely have to disclose information simply because citizens ask for it. But apparently there's one thing that can clamp the mouths of local officials for good: a private prison contractor asking nicely.

Bill Di Scipio is a Southwest Ranches resident who has vocally opposed the planned construction of an 1,800-bed immigrant detention facility that would be run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private prison contractor. At a Town Council meeting on September 22, he asked why council members had told him they weren't allowed to discuss the facility. (Read about another council member's unusual response to his request.)

After the public comment period, Vice Mayor Freddy Fisikelli asked the town's longtime lawyer, Keith Poliakoff, for an explanation.
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Anthony Mangione, ICE Chief in South Florida, Arrested After Kiddie-Porn Investigation

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BSO
Anthony Mangione
Anthony Mangione, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's South Florida Office since 2007, was arrested today and is being held at the Broward County main jail at the behest of the U.S. Marshals Service. Mangione was the subject of a child pornography investigation starting in April, after AOL alerted a nonprofit group about images that were reportedly downloaded at his IP address. Mangione was placed on administrative leave earlier this year, just before he had planned to retire.

No details are available about the charges against Mangione at this time, though computers had previously been seized from his house in Parkland and from ICE's Miami-Dade offices. 
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Dream Act Bill Filed in Florida Legislature

Categories: Immigration
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The Dream Act would help immigrant students.
A bill that would make college more affordable for undocumented immigrants has recently been filed in the Florida Legislature.

If passed, the Dream Act would allow undocumented immigrants who attended three or more years of high school in Florida to qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. To qualify for in-state tuition, these prospective students would also have to prove that they graduated from high school and are enrolled in college courses. Prospective students who do not have legal immigration status would also have to prove that they are trying to obtain legal residency status or citizenship.


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Southwest Ranches Has Pretty Parks and Horses; How About 1,800 Jailed Immigrants?

Categories: Immigration
For a while, there wasn't much public outcry about Southwest Ranches' proposal to woo the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a for-profit prison contractor, to build an 1,800-bed immigrant detention facility at the edge of the Everglades. Yesterday, immigrants-rights advocates and local residents clustered at the intersection of Griffin and Dykes roads to denounce the town council's efforts to court the facility, as well as the proliferation of for-profit detention.

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Stefan Kamph
Alejo Stark, a Davie resident and Brown University student.
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Florida Counties Lead Nation in Non-Criminal Deportations via Secure Communities

Categories: Immigration
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An ICE raid in Miami
A coalition of immigrant-rights groups is publicizing data obtained after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that shows a new program that aims to identify dangerous criminals who are here illegally is having major side effects, intended or not.

The "Secure Communities" program is being implemented by federal mandate in counties across the U.S. Here's how it works: when a suspect is booked at a county facility, the routine fingerprint scan is sent to a federal database of known legal immigrants. If a match is not found, the suspect isMore >>

Cuban Exile Who Worked for the CIA Accuses Reporter of Distortion

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Here's the score in America; if you've ever "waged a violent campaign" against a communist leader, then you're a "cold-war veteran" and totally not a terrorist. And if you've publicly admitted that you "organized a wave of bombings" in that communist country, that's cool; just don't lie to a judge during an immigration hearing about your involvement in those attacks.

And that's all according to our paper of record, the New York Times. The Times is so damned objective that even though its own reporter recorded Luis Posada Carriles admitting that he planned a string of 1997 bombing at tourist spots in Havana, Cuba, it won't call Posada a terrorist. It'll just quote anonymous Cuban officials who accused the United States of harboring "the bin Laden of this hemisphere."
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