immigration
I just learned from the blog of Town Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt that the Chapel Hill police have detained yet another local resident on a federal immigration warrant. Isn't this exactly what the Town's policy prohibits? After the wrongful detention and eventual release of Sima Fallahi, the Police Chief assured the Council that our local officers would no longer be acting on civic immigration warrants.
Tonight the Chapel Hill Town Council has on its agenda a petition from the Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee proposing A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A POLICY ON ARREST FOR CIVIL IMMIGRATION VIOLATION and A RESOLUTION TO REDRESS SOME OF THE HARM CAUSED BY THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF SIMA FALLAHI. See the pdf of the resolutions and full text bellow the fold. Tonights full agenda is located here. Learn more about what happened to Sima in the OP posts Free Sima and Sima Update.
(Text is subject to change)
A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A POLICY ON ARREST FOR CIVIL IMMIGRATION VIOLATION AGENDA #3a(3)
A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A POLICY THAT THE CHAPEL HILL POLICE DEPARTMENT WILL NOT SEEK TO ARREST PERSONS WHEN THE SOLE BASIS FOR ARRESTING SUCH PERSONS IS THAT SUCH PERSONS HAVE OR MAY HAVE COMMITTED A CIVIL IMMIGRATION VIOLATION
I read on two blogs (but not in the papers, hmmm) that Sima Fallahi is expected to be released very soon. The Mill said on 2/1/07 that it could be "any day now" and Orange Chat wrote the same on Monday:
An attorney for Sima Fallahi, the Carrboro resident facing deportation to her native Iran, confirms that she could released soon. We'll know in roughly two weeks whether her failed attempt at asylum status will be reopened, said attorney Randall Stroud.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement are considering Fallahi for "low flight risk" status. That means she could come back to Carrboro and check in periodically with immigration agents as the courts are reviewing her case.
- newsobserver.com |Orange Chat - Sima's lawyer: She could be out 'any day now', 2/12/07
I was outraged when I learned about the detention of an Iranian woman who has been peacefully living in Carrboro for several years.
Sima Fallahi, 48, was detained last week after living in the United States for two decades. Her 104 Shelton St. duplex is a few blocks from Carrboro Elementary School, where she served in the Parent Teacher Association, and Weaver Street Market, the local natural foods hangout. Her paintings have hung in Town Hall.
Now Fallahi sits in a Mecklenburg County federal prison.
Her Western ideals, out-of-wedlock daughter and Unitarian beliefs would cause her to be "persecuted, tortured and/or killed" if deported, Fallahi wrote in a 1998 application for political asylum.
Mayor Mark Chilton and state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird urged Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, to intervene.
- newsobserver.com | Fate of mom, girl worries Carrboro
The News and Observer reports that the United Way of Chatham County has abruptly cut their funding to El Vinculo Hispano (The Hispanic Liaison). The United Way says that their move is because the organization has an overly high percentage of their budget dedicated to administrative costs. However, there seems to be ample evidence that the move is also motivated by a backlash to EVH's successful organization of immigrants rights rallies and advocacy in Siler City and Chatham County.
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