Comorian rebel leader Mohamed Bacar was taken into custody on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion April 4 at the request of Comoros, which is demanding his extradition. French officials are also considering Bacar’s request for asylum. Bacar fled… Read moreFrance jails Comoros rebel leader following AU intervention
Some 5,000 protesters shut down the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on April 3 in a dramatic demonstration against President Rene Preval’s government for failing to slow the rising cost of food and other staple products; they also protested… Read moreHaiti: protesters demand food
On April 2 some 400 people demonstrated in Ouanaminthe, a city in eastern Haiti that shares the border with the Dominican city of Dajabon, to press demands for justice from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the… Read moreHaiti: protesters blame UN for death
On the evening of April 3 Mexican federal police agents arrested two activists in the northern state of Chihuahua for their roles in militant protests blocking federal highways: Cipriana Jurado Herrera, a leader in the movement demanding justice for the… Read moreMexico: border activists arrested
In an April 1 statement, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the federal government plans to speed up completion of 470 miles of border fence in the southwestern US by the end of 2008 by using two waivers to bypass… Read moreLaws to be waived for border fence
On April 2, several dozen demonstrators gathered in front of Penn Station in Manhattan to protest the collaboration of the Amtrak train company with border and immigration agents who arrest passengers traveling between US cities. With chants of “transportation, not… Read moreActivists protest immigration arrests on Amtrak, Greyhound
On April 1, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 44 workers at the warehouses of three distribution companies—Samsung, Frontier and Imperial CSS—in an industrial park in Torrance, Calif., just south of Los Angeles. ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice said all… Read moreICE raids warehouses in LA area
On March 3, jailed Palestinian professor Sami Al-Arian was informed that he would be called to testify before a grand jury in Virginia which is investigating allegations that Muslim charities aided terrorism organizations. Al-Arian responded by starting a hunger strike… Read moreAl-Arian still jailed, on hunger strike
In a decision dated March 11, US District Judge Dean Pregerson in Los Angeles ruled that the family of Salvadoran immigrant Francisco Castañeda can continue to pursue a lawsuit against individual government officials for violating Castañeda’s constitutional rights and can… Read moreJudge blasts ICE over detainee death
In a March 2 petition addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Michael Mukasey, 93 immigration detainees at Middlesex County jail in New Jersey complained about inadequate medical treatment for two fellow detainees, including a man named… Read moreNew Jersey immigration detainees protest medical neglect
On March 7, a group of Indian welders, pipe-fitters, and marine fabrication workers employed under the federal H-2B visa program filed a federal lawsuit against Signal International, alleging that they were lured to work at the company’s shipyards in Pascagoula,… Read moreH-2 workers file suit, march to DC
