Post #321,711
2/18/10 10:01:51 PM
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Zero tolerance strikes again.
http://www.nytimes.c...n/19judge.html?hp
[...]
The teenager, a gifted student, was pleading guilty to a string of muggings committed at 15 with an eclectic crew in ManhattanÂs Chinatown. The judge, who remembered the pitfalls of Little Italy in the 1950s, urged him to use his sentence  three to nine years in a reformatory  as a chance to turn his life around.
ÂIf you do that, I am here to stand behind you, the judge, Michael A. Corriero, promised. The youth, Qing Hong Wu, vowed to change.
Mr. Wu kept his word. He was a model inmate, earning release after three years. He became the main support of his immigrant mother, studying and working his way up from data entry clerk to vice president for Internet technology at a national company.
But almost 15 years after his crimes, by applying for citizenship, Mr. Wu, 29, came to the attention of immigration authorities in a parallel law enforcement system that makes no allowances for rehabilitation. He was abruptly locked up in November as a Âcriminal alien, subject to mandatory deportation to China  the nation he left at 5, when his family immigrated legally to the United States.
[...]
It's senseless to have laws and rules like these that don't permit authorities to use their brains...
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #321,715
2/18/10 11:26:27 PM
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well, you can thank the democrats for that
During my trials and tribulations with the INS during the Clinton era the law changed that any potentially violent crime was a non starter, me getting into a potentially game changer with a anchorage cop years ago turned from a misdemeanor to a get the fuck out of dodge. The only thing that saved me from being a flatmate of PW was the fact I was the sole supporter of me and mine. The judge overruled the law for me in that particular case and my get out of being deported card was singed by president Bill Clinton himself (via rubber stamp of course) there is no horror worse than INS unless guantamano is involved. Defense Prosecutors and Judges all employees of INS.
If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)
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Post #321,724
2/19/10 9:50:27 AM
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Huh.
Where were you born, Box?
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Post #321,739
2/19/10 5:58:49 PM
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Flatmate of Peter - work it out
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Post #321,747
2/19/10 10:33:03 PM
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north shields england
If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)
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Post #321,731
2/19/10 2:49:31 PM
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Re: well, you can thank the democrats for that
Unless the "Clinton era law" was enacted before Congress convened in 1995, I suggest you save some thanks for the GOP majority that held both houses from early that year until 2007.
cordially,
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Post #321,748
2/19/10 10:34:13 PM
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1994 early
If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)
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Post #321,750
2/19/10 11:28:01 PM
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What's getting the 29 year old was enacted in 1996.
I'm not disputing your experience, just adding more information.
http://en.wikipedia....ility_Act_of_1996
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub.L. 104-208, Div. C, 110 Stat. 3009-546 (often referred to as "i-RAI-ruh" by federal appellate law clerks, and sometimes abbreviated to IIRIRA) vastly changed the immigration laws of the United States. In 1996 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA 96) was passed and signed by former President of the United States Bill Clinton. Title III of this new act created the notion of Âunlawfully present persons; specifically, the three-year, ten-year, and permanent bars were formed.
[...]
Constitutional issues within the law
Previously, immediate deportation was triggered only for offences that could lead to five years or more in jail. Under the Act, minor offences such as shoplifting, may make an individual eligible for deportation. The Act also applies to residents who have married American citizens and have American-born children.
When IIRIRA was passed in 1996, it was applied retroactively to all those convicted of deportable offenses. This included US residents who committed minor offences decades ago.
* However, in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Congress did not intend IIRIRA to be applied retroactively to those who pleaded guilty to a crime prior to the enactment of IIRIRA, if that person would not have been deportable at the time that he pleaded guilty. (INS v. St. Cyr).
* In spite of the 2001 ruling the way the IIRIRA law is used in practice has had so little public scrutiny and oversight so as to make its further use questionable.
In an effort to curb illegal immigration, Congress voted to double the U.S. Border Patrol to 10,000 agents over five years and mandated the construction of fences at the most heavily trafficked areas of the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress also approved a pilot program to check the immigration status of job applicants.
IIRIRA's mandatory detention provisions have also been repeatedly challenged, with less success.
[...]
Clinton signed the law. However, it was not a stand-alone bill. It was rolled into an Omnibus bill - http://www.govtrack....pd?bill=h104-3610 - so he didn't have much choice. The vote was 278/126 in the House, and 72/27 in the Senate. If he had wanted to veto it, it would have been overriden (2/3 needed).
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #321,885
2/22/10 7:24:47 PM
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And yet again. UK version.
http://motherjones.c...ease-were-british
On Friday I twittered:
If my browsing speed doesn't improve soon, I'm going to fly a plane into the internet. Don't pretend you weren't warned.
Just joking! But a reader emails me a warning that if you live in Britain, you'd better be careful with stuff like this. Paul Chambers was arrested last month for twittering a not dissimilar joke:
[...]
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
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