Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Antonio Diaz Chacon, 23, is married to an American and has been in the country for four years. But Chacon says he abandoned attempts to get legal residency because the process was difficult and expensive. Diaz Chacon revealed his immigration status to Univision this week and confirmed to The Associated Press that he is illegal, prompting chatter on the Internet and social networking sites that his case underscored immigrant rights positions in two ongoing political debates.
Some argue he is an example of the kind of immigrant the federal government will now largely leave alone. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that deportations would focus on criminals. "As exceptional as his story is," said Christina Parker, a spokeswoman for Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas, "it points to the fact that most undocumented immigrants living in the United States are not criminals. He's more than not a criminal now. He's a hero."
Others used it to blast New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's ongoing attempts to repeal a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license. The governor has put the repeal, which was defeated in the regular session earlier this year, on the agenda for a September special session. "Most are just working to support their families and to take away their driver's license would be detrimental to that," Parker said.
Diaz Chacon's status didn't play a role in Albuquerque's decision to honor his bravery. Mayor Richard Berry declared Friday Antonio Diaz Chacon Day in Albuquerque and held an afternoon ceremony where he presented Diaz Chacon a Spanish language plaque recognizing his bravery in jumping in his pickup and chasing the suspect until he crashed into a light pole. Diaz Chacon then rescued the girl as the driver of the disabled van ran into the desert. The suspect was arrested later by police.
MORE
Is there any real Christians in Kennewick? Or just blood thirsty Christians?
"As extreme as my position is, one in four voters agreed with me," he said. "It shows that people are truly fed up. You just have to live here to understand."
Nichols also said he would seek to make Kennewick an English-language-only city for all public discourse.
KENNEWICK, Wash -- A city council candidate who advocates the death penalty for illegal immigrants as well as making Kennewick an English-language-only community won enough votes in Tuesday's primary to advance to the November general election.
City council candidate advocates death penalty for illegal immigrants - Standard-Examiner
The Obama administration declared yesterday that it would grant an indefinite reprieve to an estimated thousands of immigrants facing deportation, allowing them to stay and work legally so officials can more quickly deport convicted criminals and other serious cases. Federal officials said they are launching a review of each of the roughly 300,000 cases in the nations immigration courts to ensure that new and existing ones reflect the administrations priorities to detain and deport criminals and threats to public safety.
The move is likely to inflame political tensions with immigration looming as a campaign issue in 2012, and it has major implications for Massachusetts, which has the second-longest immigration court backlog in the United States. All manner of immigrants in the courts pipeline could stand to benefit, from factory workers detained in the 2007 New Bedford raid, to same-sex couples about to be separated, to youths facing deportation. The president has said on numerous occasions that it makes no sense to expend our enforcement resources on low-priority cases, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote yesterday to Senate majority leader Harry Reid, outlining the policy.
Doing otherwise, she added, hinders our public safety mission - clogging immigration court dockets and diverting DHS enforcement resources away from individuals who pose a threat to public safety. Administration officials said they do not know how many immigrants will receive a stay on their cases, though they estimated that thousands could be affected.
Susan Long, codirector of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which studied the issue in 2007, said most cases in immigration court appear to be people accused of violating immigration, not criminal, laws. It definitely could affect a large number of people, Long said.
MORE
