WASHINGTON "” The nomination prospects for Julie Myers to take charge at the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency took a major downturn Wednesday after Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., placed a temporary hold on the nominee following a Halloween costume party gone wrong.
Any senator can place a hold on a nomination, but the move led one senior Senate Republican aide to tell FOX News that the nomination now "could very well be dead."
Myers, tapped to be the nation's top immigration enforcer, was one of three judges at a costume party at a Homeland Security Department office party last Wednesday. The panel awarded the "best original costume" prize to an employee who had dressed in dreadlocks, dark makeup and a prison uniform.
The outfit, viewed by some staffers as racially insensitive, caused enough department embarrassment to lead not only Myers to apologize, but her boss, Secretary Michael Chertoff, as well.
The employee who wore the costume has not been identified, but ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said he was counseled by his supervisor. He was not wearing blackface but makeup that was a darker color than his skin, Nantel said.
Myers and others who saw him could not tell he was wearing makeup, Nantel said, and they learned he wore makeup when some employees complained later that day.
Myers currently is assistant secretary in charge of ICE, but her tenure depends on being confirmed by the Senate "” she received a recess appointment from President Bush but that appointment expires in January.
McCaskill, who has locked horns with Myers before over agency enforcement of illegal immigrant hiring, wrote Myers a letter saying, "Given the nature of the functions performed by ICE, this incident strongly undermines the claim that you can effectively lead the organization."
A photo of Myers with the employee and any others taken by the official photographer showing the costume were discarded, Nantel said.
McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said the senator will keep the hold on Myers until she gets answers to several questions, including why a photograph of Myers with the costumed employee was destroyed.
In the letter, McCaskill also asks for a complete explanation of what happened at the party, including a detailed account of Myers' interaction with the costume wearer and an explanation of why Chertoff said she was "surprised" by the costume.
Myers was given a recess appointment last year after Democrats objected to her over what they said was a lack of policy experience. She has since won over many of her critics, including all Democrats but McCaskill on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which approved her nomination in September.
But one committee Democrat, Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii said Wednesday he thinks the nomination should now be reconsidered. The Senate was set to vote out the nomination by the end of next week.
Myers apologized to employees last Friday in an e-mail, saying some costumes were found to be offensive. On Friday, she called the National Association of African Americans at DHS to inform the group of what had happened, according to a letter sent to association members by the group's vice president, Sjon Shavers.
"I and the senior management at ICE deeply regret that this happened," Myers said in her e-mail, which the department's public affairs office provided to The Associated Press. "As the head of the agency, I have the responsibility to ensure every employee is a valued member of the ICE team."
Shavers, an ICE special agent, said he learned of the incident from Myers and that his group had not received any complaints.
"These kinds of things, incidents, happen all the time, so we handle them on a case-by-case basis," Shavers said.
FOX News' Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ARE IMMIGRATION LAWS BACKFIRING? A NEW STUDY SAYS YES
By WINK News Story Updated: Nov 7, 2007 at 5:52 PM EST
Gainesville, Fla. - According to a study just released by the University of Florida, laws designed to discourage immigration, might be backfiring.
Border Security and other Homeland Security laws have been much tighter since September 11th, and because of that, people in the U.S. illegally are thinking twice before leaving, for fear they won't get back in.
The study also reveals illegal immigrants are finding creative ways to get driver's licenses or other state issued ID's.
Another issue - because of the newer restrictions, many relatives can't get into the U.S. to visit.
"So, in the past, your daughter was here for a couple of years and her mother came and visited. Now, the mother can't get a tourist visa, so what it's doing is it's separating families for long periods of time," says Maxine L. Margolis from the University of Florida.
By Claire Conrad For the Arizona daily Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.08.2007
The Democrats' removal of funding for a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border from a defense-spending bill Tuesday has Republicans up in arms.
The provision, authored by Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered $3 billion in funding to help secure "operational control" of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The funding was intended to pay for 700 miles of fencing to be completed by the end of the 2009 fiscal year. It also would pay for more Border Patrol agents, 300 miles of vehicle barriers, 105 radar and camera towers and enough beds to detain 45,000 illegal entrants daily. Some money was earmarked for states to help them pursue illegal entrants who had overstayed their visas and to help employers comply with employee-verification requirements.
"In removing these funds, Democrats are sending the American people the troubling message that Congress is not serious about securing the border," Kyl said in a news release.
The funding was initially part of President Bush's broad immigration bill that fell apart in June.
Republicans then moved to attach the funding to a Homeland Security measure. It passed in July, 89-1. The vote indicated that the GOP would help override Bush's promised veto of the Democrats' Homeland Security budget .
In September, Senate Republicans added the money to the defense spending bill. Demo-crats stripped the funding from the bill Tuesday in a House-Senate conference committee.
"It's simply unbelievable when you consider that just last month the Senate voted 95 to 1 to approve this crucial funding to secure our border," said Kyl. "One could say that Democrats voted for border-security funding before they were against it."
The provision will likely pass later this year as a part of the Homeland Security Department's spending bill.
The White House has indicated that Bush would allow an extra $3 billion for border security measures, even though it exceeds his budget.
â— The Associated Press contributed to this report. â— Claire Conrad is a University of Arizona student who is apprenticing at the Star. Contact her at 807-7776 or starapprentice@azstarnet.com
CHICAGO (AP) - Twenty-three illegal immigrants were arrested Wednesday after allegedly using fake security badges to work in critical areas at O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac, authorities said Wednesday. The workers were all employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc. of Bensenville and were contracted out to work for carriers that included United Airlines, KLM and Qantas, said Elissa A. Brown, special agent in charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office of investigations in Chicago.
The eight-month investigation, which involved federal, state and Chicago authorities, also resulted in the arrest of Ideal Staffing's corporate secretary and office manager. Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park were each charged with one federal count of harboring illegal aliens for gain and one federal count of misuse of Social Security numbers.
The workers face state criminal charges and deportation, Brown said.
"The investigation identifies a vulnerability that could compromise national security, while bringing criminal charges against individuals who built an illegal workforce into their business practice," Brown said. at a news conference that included U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine, and representatives of the Chicago Department of Aviation, the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The workers were being held in the Cook County Jail, while Gurin and Benitez were scheduled for a preliminary appearance later Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Brown said.
Benitez is allegedly an illegal alien from Mexico, and Gurin employed her and signed her airport badge application while knowing her illegal status, Brown said.
Much of the investigation centered on the airport security badges issued by the Department of Aviation, Fitzgerald said. Agents found that 110 of the 134 badges issued to Ideal Staffing workers did not match the individuals who carried them, he said.
The discrepancies were first noted in March by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector, Fitzgerald said.
"If we are to ensure public safety, we must know who has access to the secure areas of airports," Fitzgerald said. "A fundamental component of airport safety is preventing the use of false identification badges, and punishing those who commit or enable such violations."
According to affidavits in a complaint against Gurin and Benitez unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the applications for the 110 bogus badges listed Social Security numbers that either did not exist, or that belonged to other individuals, some of whom were deceased.
One affidavit from a temporary worker who cooperated with authorities said Benitez told him to look through a box containing some 20 airport security badges and to pick one with a picture that resembled his own face.
The affidavits allege that Ideal Staffing told workers they needed to have identification, but the documents did not have to be legitimate, and also accused the company of supplying some workers with deactivated badges issued in other names.
Ideal Staffing officials did not return a telephone message left after business hours Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Brown, Fitzgerald, and other officials declined to answer repeated questions about how workers could use deactivated badges to enter secure areas of the airport, saying the investigation was ongoing and not all details could be revealed.
Devine said his office has issued more than 100 arrest warrants in the case.
The workers arrested, 21 from Mexico and two from Guatemala, face a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted on the state charges, authorities said. If convicted on both federal charges, Gurin and Benitez could face total sentences of 15 years apiece.
By Anita Kumar Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 9, 2007; Page B01
RICHMOND, Nov. 8 -- House Republican leaders, who made immigration a centerpiece of the fall campaign, said Thursday that efforts in the Virginia General Assembly to crack down on illegal immigrants probably are doomed because of losses their party suffered in the election this week.
"It's dead on arrival," said Del. David B. Albo, (R-Fairfax), who chairs the Virginia Crime Commission, which is considering immigration proposals. "It's very disappointing."
House leaders said they still would introduce anti-illegal immigration bills, including those that would prohibit illegal immigrants from attending public colleges, require sheriffs to check immigration status and suspend the business licenses of companies that hire illegal immigrants.
They said, however, that even if the GOP-led House approves the proposals, they are not optimistic that the Senate, which will be controlled by Democrats for the first time in a decade, would consider any of them. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has said he believes immigration policy is largely a federal issue.
"It's going to be a lot tougher," said Del. Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott), chairman of the House Republican caucus. "I'm sure it's not on the top of [the Democrats] list. . . . But we are going to push forward."
Sen. Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who is poised to become majority leader in the Senate, accused Republicans of using the illegal immigration issue to try to win voters in Tuesday's legislative elections and said his chamber would not tolerate the same kind of "grandstanding." Many of the House and Senate candidates who embraced the party's stance on illegal immigration lost, including several in Northern Virginia.
Saslaw said he would consider all legislation but immigration is not one of his priorities. Instead, he would rather see lawmakers revisit the costly and contentious abusive-driver fees, the budget shortfall and education funding.
"I'm willing to look at all legislation," he said. "It doesn't mean I have to vote for it all."
More than 50 bills dealing with illegal immigration were proposed during the legislative session this year. Only seven were sent to Kaine for his signature, including increased penalties for housing violations.
Many of the bills died after they reached the Senate, which is now controlled by a group of moderate Republicans who often collaborate with Democrats. After Tuesday, Democrats have a 21-seat advantage in the 40-member chamber, with one race undecided.
Tim Freilich, legal director for the Virginia Justice Center for Farm and Immigrant Workers, said he hopes legislators will be thoughtful when considering proposals next year.
"Unfortunately, I think there will be many proposals introduced that I would consider to be both anti-immigrant and anti-Virginia," he said. "More than 10 percent of Virginians were born outside the United States. When you hurt Virginia's immigrants you hurt Virginia."
Republicans across the state, and some Democrats in conservative districts, seized the issue this fall, unveiling countless proposals to curb illegal immigration and talking it up on the campaign trail. But many candidates who campaigned the loudest for tough sanctions against illegal immigrants did not win.
"I am hoping that the people will really understand that the election sent a message that voters don't reward them for this issue," said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, who represents several immigrant groups, including the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations.
But Corey A. Stewart (R) said his election to a full term as chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors proved that many Virginians want local and state government to step in because the federal government has failed to address the country's immigration problem.
Although state and local governments can do little to resolve immigration concerns, a Washington Post poll in early October found that 53 percent of Virginians said they want state and local governments to do "a lot" to deal with illegal immigration.
Since an immigration overhaul package died in Congress this summer, several organizations in Virginia have formed to try to address illegal immigration, and several localities have acted.
Prince William voted to curtail government services to illegal immigrants, and Herndon voted to close a controversial day-laborer center frequented by many illegal immigrants. Fairfax County officials are trying to determine which county services could be denied to illegal immigrants, although they have not decided to do that.
Sen. John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke), who sits on two Senate committees that often consider immigration bills, said he could consider any proposals that come up during session next year.
"We need to look at the proposals first," he said. "Some of their ideas are preposterous. Others we could work with."
The state crime commission would consider several proposals next week, including automatically denying bail to illegal immigrants who commit crimes unless they can prove they are not flight risks, and having authorities ask all arrestees about their immigration status. A new Virginia Commission on Immigration, which also is scheduled to meet next week, will advise Kaine and the General Assembly on what, if any, state policies should be adopted to address illegal immigration.
Sen. John C. Watkins (R-Chesterfield), who chairs the commission on immigration, said he expects the issue to be debated by his group and later by the General Assembly.
"It took two years to come up with a commission and put it in place," he said. "Why did we go to all the trouble of putting the commission in place?"
U.S. IMMIGRATION AGENCY SETS NEW POLICY AFTER ARREST OF BREAST-FEEDING MOTHER
The Associated Press Published: November 9, 2007
CLEVELAND: U.S. immigration officials said they have enacted a new policy to show greater consideration for breast-feeding mothers, days after authorities arrested a Honduran woman in Ohio on an immigration violation and separated her from her crying baby.
Sayda Umanzor, 27, admitted to being in the United States illegally when sheriff's deputies and federal agents knocked on the door of a house in Conneaut, Ohio, on Oct. 26.
Umanzor was breast-feeding her 9-month-old daughter, Brittany, at the time, and the baby cried as her parents were led away.
"It was like a piece of me was torn away," Umanzor said Thursday, speaking through an interpreter.
The baby cried incessantly over the next several days as she went without breast milk and Umanzor suffered soreness from engorged breasts.
Today in Americas Bush's loyal 'families of the fallen'Students take reins of anti-Chávez protestsMerkel meeting with Bush; Iran at center of talksGreg Palmore, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said the agency approved Wednesday a new policy to address the needs of breast-feeding mothers.
"It basically ensures that you take humanitarian issues involving nursing moms into consideration," he said Friday. "It also ensures we make contact with state social service agencies to address caregiver issues."
In Umanzor's case, the first jail where she was held did not know it had a nursing mother until Monday, when Lucia Stone, a Spanish-speaking representative of the La Leche League of Ohio, alerted them, said jail commander William Schultz.
Schultz said jail officials then accepted a breast pump and tried to work with local Spanish-speaking mothers to get milk to the baby, but the two sides failed to connect, and the milk had to be thrown out.
Umanzor was transferred to a county jail in Tiffin, Ohio, before immigration lawyer David Leopold secured her release Tuesday night. Leopold argued it was inhumane to hold a nursing mother and unnecessary to jail someone who the ICE knew how to find.
Umanzor was permitted to rejoin her children and was fitted with an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts. She is expected to be deported soon.
Umanzor's husband, Marcus Antonio Bejarano, also an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was taken into custody. A 5-year-old son, David, also has been ordered deported. The couple's 9-month-old baby and a 3-year-old daughter, Alexandra, are U.S. citizens.
NEW POLICE POLICY KEEPS SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES FROM IMMIGRATION CROSSFIRE
Posted: Nov 7, 2007 09:10 PM EST By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter
A march by students from Catalina High School to Tucson Police Department headquarters on Tuesday served to make a simple point.
"Everyone should feel safe at school and not worry about Border Patrol," said Mariaelva Zamarron, a Catalina High School junior.
The students protested how Tucson Police called the Border Patrol to their school. When police responded to a report about a student carrying marijuana, they determined that he was an illegal immigrant. The student's entire family was apprehended. But students have a problem with the Border Patrol coming into their school, and the Tucson Unified School District agrees.
"As a public school district, we are required to educate the children living within our attendance boundaries and that's what we do. We don't require proof of residence," said spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander.
"I'd rather have the teachers teaching my kids than determining if they're citizens. That's not their job. My job is to determine their citizenship. Theirs is to teach," said Border Patrol agent Sean King.
Now Border Patrol won't be called to a school or church when Tucson Police find a suspect at one of those places to be in the country illegally. Instead, police will notify immigration and customs enforcement to find that person elsewhere.
The new policy follows what the school district and Immigration and Customs Enforcement already have in place.
"If they're reporting it at a later time or through different channels than they did this last instance, as long as it's being reported and investigated through the proper steps," King said.
Police put their new policy into practice on Tuesday. They told ICE about an illegal immigrant at Rincon High, after they took him to juvenile court on drug charges.
TORN FROM THEIR SONS, DEPORTED GOMEZES START AGAIN IN COLUMBIA
The Associated PressPublished: November 9, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia: "Welcome to your homeland," the immigration official said as he fingerprinted Julio and Liliana Gomez. "Here you'll never be considered illegal."
That's how the couple said they were greeted last week after being deported from Florida to their native Colombia "” a move that separated them from their sons whose battle to avoid the same fate has become a test case for hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth in the United States.
The sons "” 18-year-old Juan Gomez and 20-year-old Alex "” were born in Colombia and taken as toddlers by their parents to the United States in 1990. The family later sought political asylum because of threats Julio Gomez said he received from leftist rebels who killed his brother, but the request was rejected and the family ordered to leave the United States in 2003.
Instead, they stayed illegally in Miami.
Their case likely would have gone unnoticed among the thousands of deportations processed every day if not for a text message that Juan "” a recently graduated high school honors student with Ivy League ambitions "” sent to friends as he was being taken away in handcuffs from the family's home in July.
Today in Americas Bush's loyal 'families of the fallen'Students take reins of anti-Chávez protestsMerkel meeting with Bush; Iran at center of talksOvernight they mounted a sophisticated campaign on his behalf, contacting lawmakers in Washington and using the popular networking Web site Facebook.
An outpouring of sympathy for Juan and Alex "” even from illegal-immigration critics like CNN pundit Lou Dobbs "” prompted several federal lawmakers to write legislation that lets the brothers stay in the country until 2009, pending action on the bill.
But no such lifejacket was thrown to their parents and 84-year-old grandmother, who are now living with Liliana's sister in Bogota and trying to reacquaint themselves with a country they fear less but barely recognize after nearly two decades in the United States.
Between trips to the mall, where strangers offer hugs of support, they anxiously await news from their children.
"They've never been separated from us their entire lives," Liliana said, wiping away tears. "They don't know how to cook, they can't work and have nobody to take care of them."
The couple told The Associated Press they sold their small party rental business for US$30,000 (€20,400) to be able to support their sons in Florida. Miami Dade College has offered to waive tuition for Juan, who finished near the top of his class but had trouble applying to Harvard because of his undocumented status.
But the money is running out fast.
Despite being deported, Julio Gomez said his family's dream, like that of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, remains the American dream.
"God bless America," he said, flashing his U.S. Social Security card. "It's a beautiful country and it gave my children the opportunity to have a better future."
That future is now in peril for increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants, as aggressive immigration enforcement led to a record 27,900 detentions in the 2007 fiscal year ending Sept. 30, about 10,000 more than the previous year, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Deportations also rose, from 177,000 two years ago to 261,000.
"It doesn't matter if you succeeded in school or grew up here as infants," said Josh Bernstein of the Washington-based National Immigrant Law Center. "The law is very harsh."
Legislation is pending that would grant permanent residence to students who finish high school and go on to college or the military. Known as the Dream Act, it could benefit some 360,000 graduates and another 715,000 still in school, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent Washington think tank.
But the bill has lain idle since it was first proposed in 2001 and was blocked again last month by a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate.
"The Gomez brothers are a symbol of young people who came to the United States because of their parents' decision," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, a sponsor of the Dream Act. "Their only decision was to work hard, study and make their communities proud."
IMMIGRANTS DENIED ELECTRICITY, KU CONSIDERS POLICY CHANGE
Friday, Nov 09, 2007 - 06:18 PM
No proof of identification, no electricity. That has been a policy of Kentucky Utilities for years, but with winter on the way that policy is worrying some people who do not have proof of identification.
Illegal immigrants are among those KU denies service to because they do not have proper identification. Some immigrants say because they cannot get electricity they live with someone who has it and that causes overcrowding issues in the community.
The chance for immigrants to get identification cards slipped through their fingers earlier this week when Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry shot down his immigration commissions recommendation to provide ID cards to all immigrants.
But there still may be hope for those without accepted forms of ID, KU has been reviewing its policy and could make changes.
"We have however had considerable discussion over the past few months as to whether we need to modify that policy to make it a bit easier for some people to get service by means of something other than a photo ID," Cliff Feltham a K.U. Spokesperson explained.
The Utility company says their current policy is in place so they know who is paying the bill and also to protect paying customers as the cost of unpaid bills can be passed along to them.
This is a rather scarry possibility but I think we are on the path of creating an underclass who have the potential of rebellion. We had the opportunity with the Dream Act to start a healing process but the minority kept it from passing. Prof. Oppenheimer, who wrote this commentary was interviewed on CNN 11-09-07 and his argument made sence. It's too bad we have so many mean spirited folks that just can't quite get it.
REID: AFTER PARTY, BUSH SHOULD RETHINK ICE NOMINEE
By Matthew Hay Brown
Praise for a white Department of Homeland Security employee who dressed for an office Halloween party as a dark-skinned, dreadlocked prisoner could cost the the official who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement her Senate confirmation.
President Bush used a recess appointment to install Julie Myers as assistant secretary of homeland security in January 2006 after her nomination stalled in the full Senate. Bush renominated her in January 2007, but the Senate has yet to vote on her confirmation.
Now one senator has placed a temporary block on that vote, and Majority Leader Harry Reid is saying that the White House may want to reconsider its support for the embattled administrator.
"I believe that people who serve in government should be sensitive to religious issues, racial issues – personal issues," Reid told reporters today. "And from what I know about the Halloween party, this woman was involved in awarding a prize to something that I think was very insensitive to what our country's trying to work through.
"I personally would take a real close look at that before we are able to go the mat," he said. "I think the White House should really take another look at this person."
Reid spoke a day after Sen. Claire McCaskill said she had placed a legislative hold on the confirmation vote. The Missouri Democrat, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, said the incident "shows a lack of judgment that should in fact be held against her as she is trying to lead an incredibly large and important organization that deals with all kinds of ethnic backgrounds."
Myers was a member of a three-judge panel who gave a "most original costume" award to the employee, who was wearing a bronzer to darken his skin, fake dreadlocks and a striped prisoner's uniform. Myers subsequently apologized to homeland security staff in an e-mail; the employee has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an inquiry.
"As the leader of that organization, she should have immediately recognized the problem and asked that person to leave" McCaskill told CNN. "And what really happened was, she judged the costume as one that should get a prize and be recognized and she had her photograph taken with the person in the costume – and only later came back and apologized and said it was a problem."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he still has confidence in Myers.
"Sometimes people get caught by surprise and they're presented with a circumstance," he told CNN. "I know she's mortified by the fact that she encountered this situation. So she's made amends. I think the person whose idea it was to dress up like this, we need to look at what the appropriate discipline is. ... We do not tolerate any racism, whether it's intentional or unintentional, in the execution of our duties."
Myers, 38, is the niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard B. Myers and the wife of U.S. Attorney John F. Wood, a former chief of staff to Chertoff.
Posted by Matthew Hay Brown on November 8, 2007 2:25 PM | Permalink
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Originally posted by chuck: This is a rather scarry possibility but I think we are on the path of creating an underclass who have the potential of rebellion. We had the opportunity with the Dream Act to start a healing process but the minority kept it from passing. Prof. Oppenheimer, who wrote this commentary was interviewed on CNN 11-09-07 and his argument made sence. It's too bad we have so many mean spirited folks that just can't quite get it.
Thanks Chuck for your comments. Here's another worth reading. Mississippi Burning is ringing a bell.
From Heads Up thread on Jail ID Program Stirs Fear 11/10/07:
quote:
Some of the stories sound like they're straight out of the civil rights era -- "Mississippi Burning," with an immigration twist:
The Catholic Church in Oklahoma has the courage to challenge the Oklahoma lawmakers who are passing these thoughtless laws(HB 1834)that will result in the creation of an underclass in this country. See the letter below:
The courage of the Archbishop of Oklahoma City and the Council of Priests there should be rewarded at least by wide publication throughout our Church. The full statement to Governor Henry is below and can be found as indicated at the archdiocesan website.
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