“The federal government is taking an important step to reassert its authority over immigration policy in the United States, said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council. “While a legal challenge by the Department of Justice won’t resolve the public’s frustration with our broken immigration system, it will seek to define and protect the federal government’s constitutional authority to manage immigration.”

Although states have always played a role in federal immigration enforcement, over the last 10 years more and more states have chosen to impose their local policies, priorities, and politics on our national immigration system. America can only have one immigration system, and the federal government must make clear where states’ authority begins and where it ends. The federal government must assert its authority to establish a uniform immigration policy that it can be held accountable for. In the current environment it is unclear who is responsible for setting immigration enforcement priorities and who is responsible for their success or failure.

Nominated by President Barack Obama, Birotte is the first black U.S. Attorney to the post, which makes him the top federal attorney in the Central District of the U.S. Department of Justice, an area that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Birotte, the 43-year-old – son of Haitian immigrants, had this to say after the swearing-in, “Becoming U.S. Attorney was the opportunity of a lifetime, an incredible gift that comes with awesome responsibility.”

In his remarks – the newly appointed U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte highlighted several priorities for the office, including white-collar crime, public corruption, violent crime and terrorism.  And above all, the office must focus on being “justice drive”.

“Justice driven means that we must maintain the highest standards of integrity, fairness and excellence that comes with working for the Department of Justice,” Birotte said.  “Justice driven is not negotiable, do the right thing, the right way all the time,” he added.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr. administered the oath of office to Birotte, and California Court of Appeal Justice Nora M. Manella, a former U.S. Attorney who hired Birotte as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1995, spoke at the event.

Birotte, who worked for the Los Angeles Police Commission – five civilians who oversee the operations of the agency – had been inspector general since 2003 and served as assistant inspector general from 2001 to 2003.

From 1995 to 1999, he was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office he now heads.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which currently employs 275 attorneys, serves more than 18 million residents in Southern California. It is the nation’s largest federal prosecutors’ office after the District of Columbia, which handles both federal and non-federal crimes in Washington.

Birotte graduated from Tufts University in 1987 and the Pepperdine University School of Law 1991. He started his legal career as a deputy public defender for Los Angeles County, a job he held from 1991 to 1995.

The tensions finally spilled over this month with passage of the nation’s toughest law against illegal immigration, a measure that has put Arizona at the center of the heated debate over how to deal with the millions of people who sneak into the U.S. every year.

A number of factors combined to produce the law: a heavily conservative Legislature, the ascent of a Republican governor, anger over the federal government’s failure to secure the border, and growing anxiety over crime that reached a fever pitch last month with the slaying of an Arizona rancher, apparently by an illegal immigrant.

“The public wants something done. They’re tired of it,” said state Sen. Russell Pearce, who sponsored the legislation. “They’ve seen the ineptness and the malfeasance on the part of the government, and they’re frustrated.”

The new law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal.

Critics warned that the law could result in racial profiling and other abuses, and they are planning a legal challenge and a November referendum to overturn the measure. Supporters of the law say it is a commendable effort to combat what is fast becoming a scourge in the U.S.

Arizona is the biggest gateway into the U.S. for illegal immigrants. The state is home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants _ a population larger than that of entire cities such as Cleveland, St. Louis and New Orleans.

The Republican-dominated Legislature has backed a series of tough immigration measures in the past decade, only to have the most aggressive efforts thwarted by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat.

But the political stars aligned this year for the GOP. President Barack Obama appointed Napolitano to his Cabinet, clearing the way for Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer to take over as governor. The GOP made a headlong rush back into the immigration debate, and Brewer signed the bill last week.

The law reflects frustration with what many lawmakers see as inaction by the federal government.

“While the Bush administration dropped the ball on border security and illegal immigration, the Obama administration can’t even find it,” said GOP state Rep. John Kavanagh.

He said lawmakers also felt compelled to act because more immigrants will come to the U.S. as the economy improves and there is a “smell of amnesty in the air” under the Obama administration.

Over the past three years, Border Patrol agents have made 990,000 arrests of immigrants crossing the border illegally in Arizona, or an average of 900 a day. The figures represent 45 percent of all arrests of illegal immigrants along U.S. borders.

Authorities routinely come across safe houses and vehicles jammed with immigrants across the vast Arizona desert. Last week, 67 illegal immigrants were found crammed inside a U-Haul truck _ a fairly typical scenario in the state.

“We’re on a hamster wheel here. We’re chasing our tail until that border is secured,” said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose territory includes busy smuggling corridors.

The volume of drugs coming through the Arizona border is also eye-popping. Federal agents seized 1.2 million pounds of marijuana last year in Arizona. That amounts to an average of 1.5 tons per day.

Pot busts have become so common that until recently federal prosecutors in Arizona generally declined to press charges against marijuana smugglers caught with less than 500 pounds.

Phoenix has also been dubbed the kidnapping capital of the U.S. amid a surge of extortion-related abductions tied to drugs and human smuggling. The city has averaged about a kidnapping a day in recent years _ some resulting in torture and death. Victims’ legs have been burned with irons, their arms have been tied to the ceiling, their fingers broken with bricks.

The anger over immigration-related violence reached a boiling point in late March when a popular cattle rancher named Rob Krentz was gunned down along with his dog on his property near the border. With authorities suspecting an illegal immigrant, politicians seized on the killing to argue that border security is dangerously weak.

“It’s something that should have been taken care of for years. It’s not something we can keep slacking on,” said Thomas Fitch, whose neighborhood near the Arizona Cardinals stadium was the site of a raid last month that netted 11 illegal immigrants in a safe house. “At the rate we’re going now, it’s going to get a lot worse.”

There has long been strong public support in Arizona for a crackdown.

In 2004, Arizona voters easily approved a law that denies some welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. It passed with 55 percent of the vote. In 2006, lawmakers put four immigration measures on the ballot, including ones that would deny other government benefits to illegal immigrants and make English the official language. Each measure passed with at least 70 percent.

At the same time, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio carved out a reputation as a national leader on illegal immigration, routinely carrying out raids in Hispanic neighborhoods that have prompted a federal investigation. He was elected to a fifth term in 2008.

As the backlash grows over the law, people like Natalia Garcia are closely watching to see how it plays out. She and her husband are illegal immigrants and are afraid that they will get swept up.

“It’s taking away our human rights because we have brown skin,” she said in Spanish while shopping at a Phoenix grocery store, adding that they will move their family back to Mexico if arrested. “Although we’ll live poor, it’s better to be together.”

“My suspicion is that you’re lying,” Judge Robert Lemkau told Katie Tagle, 23.

Ten days later, her 25-year-old ex-boyfriend Stephen Garcia shot and killed their baby son and himself and the case was routine no more. A public frenzy ensued.

The community’s anger with the judge was vocal and passionate. But it probably would have faded away as just another tragic story in a tough-luck town along the freeway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

But this is California _ one of 33 states that elects judges in some form _ and it’s Lemkau’s misfortune that his seat is before voters June 8. The judge takes little solace that a growing number of legal scholars are arguing that electing judges rather than appointing them is unseemly and corrupting.

That’s because a challenger for his job has emerged amid the controversy and the clamor lives on in the local newspapers, talk radio and the blogosphere. Academic white papers discussing the evils of judicial elections are of no help to Lemkau, who continues to weather intense criticism. About 100 demonstrators picketed his court Monday with signs calling the former prosecutor of crimes against children a “baby killer.”

“It occurred at the worst possible time for my candidacy,” said Lemkau, who had expected to run unopposed like the 29 other uncontested judicial seats on the June 8 ballot in San Bernardino County.

Lemkau’s election opponent jumped into the race after the Jan. 31 murder-suicide and is making it the focal point of his campaign, arguing that the judge’s ruling against Tagle was legally wrong and his demeanor ethically questionable.

“His treatment of Katie was horrific,” said James Hosking, a local prosecutor challenging the judge. “Judge Lemkau’s ruling in the Tagle case was indefensible.”

In particular, Hosking said Lemkau may have violated judicial ethics requiring judges to treat litigants with respect when he said he suspected Tagle was lying.

Hosking said he would have ruled in favor of Tagle until it could be determined which parent was telling the truth.

Lemkau, in his first interview since the controversy erupted, told The Associated Press he regretted calling Tagle a liar and was “crushed” as a father and grandfather by the murder-suicide. He said he couldn’t sleep for a week after hearing the news.

“The worst nightmare of a judge,” he said, “is to deny a restraining order and there are catastrophic results.”

Nonetheless, he stands by his decision “based on the evidence before me” and argues further that a contrary ruling that day wouldn’t have stopped Garcia.

“If you are a homicidal, suicidal psychopath, you are not going to be persuaded by a restraining order,” the judge said. “It’s not like I released a psychopath onto the street _ he was already on the street.”

It’s said that criminal court is full of the worst people on their best behavior while family court attracts good people at their worst. Family law court is among the most contentious branches of the judicial system and Lemkau routinely upsets dozens of litigants weekly with his rulings.

“Everyone lies in family law court,” said divorce lawyer Guy Herreman, who has appeared before Lemkau and respects the jurist as fair. “That’s just the facts of life.”

At the heart of Lemkau’s ruling are two e-mails sent by “John Hancock” and labeled “Necessary Evil” that told a long, rambling story of a father who killed himself and his 9-month-old son after his ex-girlfriend failed to reconcile with him. Tagle told the judge Garcia sent the e-mails and meant to carry out the plan. Garcia denied it.

Amid the he-said, she-said argument before him, Lemkau decided Garcia could retain partial custody of his son _ especially since another judge on Jan. 12 found that Garcia wasn’t a threat.

“All I had were the e-mails,” Lemkau said. “The source of the e-mails was indeterminate.”

Tagle last saw her baby on Jan. 28 when she handed him over to Garcia in a Victorville parking lot.

In the days before his death, Garcia posted a flurry of desperate messages on the Web to Tagle, along with pictures of him and Wyatt and video clips of the baby at a younger age.

“Are we really going to do this? I want my (expletive) family back, come back before it’s too late. Please? Anything?” Garcia wrote before posting a photo gallery of himself with his son.

In the wee hours of Jan. 31, Garcia and the baby were found dead on an isolated mountain trail about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

In a prepared statement the judge read March 3 in a courtroom beefed up with extra security, he apologized for calling Tagle a liar. The apology backfired when the grieving mother rejected it as insincere.

“He didn’t even look me in the eye,” said Tagle, who wore the same blue dress to court March 3 that she wore to her baby’s funeral. The baby’s ashes are now a centerpiece in the Yucca Valley family home Tagle shares with her parents and 4-year-old son, who was told his brother is now “living with the angels.”

Emotions are so raw and Tagle so angry that she rejected a request from Garcia’s parents to share some of the baby’s ashes. Garcia’s parents wanted to mix them in with their son’s remains.

“It’s the only way I can keep my baby safe now,” she said.

Tagle is also backing the judge’s opponent in the election.

“I don’t want to be pitied. I don’t want money. I just want to be heard,” she said. “I don’t want this to happen again. I don’t want him to make a wrong decision again.”

It’s precisely these public uproars over unpopular decisions that opponents of electing judges in contested races argue are unfair.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and others are campaigning to change the selection-process in the states that elect judges, arguing that campaign donors are often lawyers who appear routinely before the candidate-judges. They also say judges should be free to make unpopular decisions without having to worry about ballot box repercussions.

“If the judge followed the law, it is simply wrong to punish him for that,” said Northwestern University law professor Stephen Presser, a leading scholar on electing judges. “When you start electing judges, they start playing to public sympathies.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano suspends the deportation of Haitians.

MIAMI — Haitians in the U.S. illegally have for years pleaded for the same treatment the federal government gave Central Americans in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch devastated their region: temporary legal status that would allow them to stay, work and send money home to their loved ones in need.

But they have been denied, despite four tropical storms in 2008, massive floods almost every other year since 2000 and the long-running political strife that has prompted thousands to seek asylum in the U.S.

Thousands of Haitians immigrants in the U.S. are hoping Tuesday’s catastrophic earthquake will at last push Washington to honor their request. Several lawmakers support the request, including South Florida’s three Republican, Cuban-Americans in Congress, the Democrat who represents Miami’s Little Haiti and representatives and senators from Florida, New York and Los Angeles.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano temporarily halted deportations of Haitians Wednesday but advocates want a longer-term solution.

About 30,000 Haitians have orders to leave the U.S., according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. Many others are appealing their cases. Thousands of others live underground.

Among those hoping for the relief is Yvrose, a soft-spoken mother of two who declined to give her last name for fear of hurting her case.

Yvrose fled Haiti in 2003 after men searching for her husband _ a member of a political opposition party _ beat her so badly she ended up unconscious in the hospital.

She says family members spirited her by boat to the U.S., where she applied for political asylum. The request was denied and a temporary work permit was canceled last year, but an appellate board has ordered her case reheard. Now, like thousands of other Haitians, she remains in limbo _ she can stay for now due to Napolitano’s order, but she can’t work or get a driver’s license.

Yvrose, 31, said the current halt to deportations means little if she can’t get a job to help her family rebuild their home in Port-au-Prince. Her father, who supported the family as best he could in Haiti with sporadic work as a tailor, is unlikely to find jobs any time soon _ if he is still alive, she said.

“I need so much to work for my family in Haiti and to put food on the table for my kids here,” she said through an interpreter Thursday, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

Federal law permits Homeland Security to grant immigrants temporary protected status or TPS in the event of a natural disaster or civil war. Since the earthquake struck, the department has said only that TPS is an option.

Those who favor a stricter U.S. immigration policy have in the past vehemently opposed giving temporary protected status because they argued it is a backdoor to granting amnesty. TPS given to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Hondurans following Mitch was repeatedly extended for more than a decade, presumably long after those countries were able to rebuild. About 350,000 Central Americans have the designation as do about 950 Somalis and Sudanese in the U.S. since 2001 and 2004.

“TPS was invented for this kind of situation, but it has been turned into something much more permanent” said Mark Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies. “And while we probably should grant TPS to Haitians who were here before the earthquake, we really need to make sure it’s temporary.”

Krikorian said he hopes if it’s granted to the Haitians, the U.S. government will use the opportunity to revamp the policy.

“Congress and or the administration should be forced after a few months to either fish or cut bait _ to either resume deportation or grant green cards,” he said. “Either they need to home go home and start their lives over or do it here. We’re keeping them limbo.”

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, is among South Florida congressional members who have long pressed for TPS for Haitians. He and others called on President Barack Obama to grant the status immediately following the quake.

Diaz-Balart was instrumental in pushing for TPS following Mitch. Yet he and others like South Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek have been repeatedly rebuffed when it comes to the Haitians.

“This is an unfathomable tragedy,” Diaz-Balart said. “It begs the question: ‘How much does Haiti have to suffer before Haitians in the U.S. are granted TPS?”’

Immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who has represented the Haitian government, is blunt in his critique. Racism against blacks “is the only logical explanation” for why Haitians have yet to receive the designation, he said.

Randy McGrorty, head of Catholic Charities Legal Services in Miami agreed racism is a factor but not the only one.

“It’s about timing,” he said. In the decade since TPS was granted for Mitch, the debate over immigration has heated up, making any perceived effort to offer amnesty for those in the country illegally a riskier political move, he said.

Meek remains optimistic the White House will officially grant Haitians TPS in coming weeks or days.

Meek said Friday that the White House may be taking time to grant TPS in order to ensure people on the island understand it would only affect Haitians in the U.S. before the earthquake. That is to ensure those still in Haiti don’t leave the nation en masse thinking they will be granted protective status when they arrive in the U.S.

But for Yvrose, who has been out of work since her asylum case was rejected last year, time is ticking.

“I wasn’t even able to send my family anything for Christmas,” she said, wiping tears from her face. “And now? What can I do?”

Desperate Somalis pursue asylum via ‘back-door’ route to United States

LANCASTER, CA _ The asylum seeker from Somalia hung his head as an immigration judge grilled him about his treacherous journey from the Horn of Africa. By air, sea and land he finally made it to Mexico, and then a taxi delivered him into the arms of U.S. border agents at San Diego.

Islamic militants had killed his brother, Mohamed Ahmed Kheire testified, and majority clan members had beaten his sister. He had to flee Mogadishu to live.

The voice of the judge, beamed by videoconference from Seattle, crackled loudly over a speaker in the mostly empty courtroom near the detention yard in the desert north of Los Angeles. He wanted to know why Kheire had no family testimony to corroborate his asylum claim.

Kheire, 31, said he didn’t have e-mail in detention, and didn’t think to ask while writing to family on his perilous trek.

It seemed like the end of Kheire’s dream as he waited for the judge’s ruling. He clasped his hands, his plastic jail bracelet dangling from his wrist, and looked up at the ceiling, murmuring words of prayer.

Obama says al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen apparently responsible for airliner bombing plot

HONOLULU _ An al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner, training and arming the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused in the failed bombing, President Barack Obama said Saturday.

“This is not the first time this group has targeted us,” Obama said, reporting on some of the findings of an administration review into how intelligence agencies failed to prevent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Detroit-bound Northwest Flight 253.

In his most direct public language to date, Obama described the path through Yemen of Abdulmutallab. He also emphasized that the United States would continue its partnerships with friendly countries _ citing Yemen, in particular _ to fight terrorists and extremist groups.

The U.S. plans to more than double its counterterrorism aid to the impoverished, fragmented Arab nation in the coming year to support Yemen’s campaign against al-Qaida.

Obama’s homeland security team has been piecing together just how Abdulmutallab was able to get on the plane. Officials have described flaws in the system and by those executing the strategy and have delivered a preliminary assessment.

Karzai, rebuked, must rethink his Cabinet after Afghan lawmakers reject 17 of his 24 nominees

KABUL _ A chastened President Hamid Karzai must submit new Cabinet picks after defiant lawmakers rejected 17 of his 24 nominees Saturday, including a powerful warlord and the country’s only woman minister.

The Afghan parliament rejected nominees viewed as Karzai’s political cronies, those believed to be under the influence of warlords and others deemed unqualified.

“I think, unfortunately, that the criteria were either ethnicity or bribery or money,” lawmaker Fawzia Kufi said of Karzai’s picks.

The vote was a setback to Karzai, though one political analyst in Kabul speculated that it could free up the president to appoint qualified professionals rather than settle political debts.

“There were lots of demands on Karzai from people asking for Cabinet positions because they campaigned for him,” Mohammad Qasim Akhgar said. “This was the only way he could reward them and if parliament didn’t approve them, it wasn’t his fault. Very soon, Karzai will come out with a new list with the names of people he really wants to have in his Cabinet.”

Somali charged with attempted murder for attack on Dane who drew Prophet Muhammad cartoon

COPENHAGEN _ An ax-wielding Somali man with suspected al-Qaida links was charged Saturday with two counts of attempted murder after breaking into the home of a Danish artist whose Prophet Muhammad cartoon outraged the Muslim world three years ago.

The suspect, who was shot twice by a police officer responding to the scene, was rolled into a Danish court on a stretcher, his face covered. He was ordered held for four weeks on preliminary charges of attempting to murder the cartoonist, as well as the police officer who shot him.

Efforts to protect the artist _ 74-year-old Kurt Westergaard _ were immediately stepped up, as he was moved to an undisclosed location.

The suspect, described by authorities as a 28-year-old Somali with ties to al-Qaida, allegedly broke into the house late Friday armed with an ax and a knife. The house is in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of Copenhagen.

Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark’s PET intelligence agency, said Saturday the man might have attacked spontaneously.

US commander in Iraq says troop drawdown on track despite election delay

FORWARD OPERATING BASE COBRA, Iraq _ The top U.S. general in Iraq says the country’s delay in holding elections will not keep American combat forces from leaving as scheduled by the end of August.

Gen. Ray Odierno said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that he expects the U.S. to have about 100,000 troops in the country during the March 7 elections.

About 60 days after the vote, he will assess whether the country is on stable footing and then begin moving troops out.

Iraq was originally scheduled to hold elections in January but political wrangling over the election law delayed the nationwide vote until March.

Under a U.S. plan, all combat troops are slated to leave Iraq by the end of August.

Yemen sends hundreds of troops to regions of strongest al-Qaida presence

SAN’A, Yemen _ Yemen deployed several hundred extra troops to two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida’s main strongholds in the country and where the suspected would-be Christmas airplane bomber may have visited, security officials said Saturday.

The reinforcements, aiming to beef up the military’s presence in a remote region where the government has little control, were Yemen’s latest move in a stepped-up campaign to combat al-Qaida. The United States plans to more than double its counterterrorism aid to the impoverished, fragmented Arab nation in the coming year to boost the fight.

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and who announced the increased aid, arrived in Yemen on Saturday and met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Yemeni government official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The confrontation with al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen gained new urgency after the failed attempt on Christmas Day to bomb a U.S. airliner headed to Detroit.

President Barack Obama said Saturday that al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen was behind the attempt. A 23-year-old Nigerian accused in the attack, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has told U.S. investigators he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.

Cities, counties take back tax breaks they gave companies that broke promises to create jobs

CHICAGO _Cash-strapped communities have a message for corporations that promised jobs in return for tax breaks: A deal’s a deal.

As the economy sputters along, municipalities struggling to fix roads, fund schools and pay bills increasingly are rescinding tax abatements to companies that don’t hire enough workers, that lay them off or that close up shop. At the same time, they’re sharpening new incentive deals, leaving no doubt what is expected of companies and what will happen if they don’t deliver.

“We will roll out the red carpet as much as we can (but) they are going to honor the contract,” said Brendon Gallagher, an alderman in DeKalb, Ill., where Target Corp. got abatements from the city, county, school district and other taxing bodies after promising at least 500 jobs at a local distribution center.

So when the company came up 66 workers short in 2009, Target got word its next tax bill would be jumping almost $600,000 _ more than half of which goes to the local school district, where teachers and programs have been cut as coffers dried up.

The newfound boldness comes from communities and states that have long bent over backward to lure companies and jobs by offering abatements and other incentives _ to the tune of an estimated $60 billion a year in the United States, according to the Washington-based economic development watchdog group Good Jobs First.

Muslims, Hindus crank up volume in stereotype-smashing ‘Taqwacore’ punk rock bands

WAYLAND, Mass _ Artwork from the Punjab state of India decorates the Ray family home. A Johann Sebastian Bach statue sits on a piano. But in the basement _ cluttered with wires, old concert fliers and drawings _ 25-year-old Arjun Ray is fighting distortion from his electric guitar.

For this son of Indian immigrants, trained in classical violin and raised on traditional Punjab music, getting his three Pakistani-American bandmates in sync is the goal on this cold New England evening. Their band, The Kominas, is trying to record a punk rock version of the classic Bollywood song, “Choli Ke Peeche” (Behind the Blouse).

“Yeah,” said Shahjehan Khan, 26, one of the band’s guitarists, “there are a lot of contradictions going on here.”

Deep in the woods of this colonial town boils a kind of revolutionary movement. From the basement of this middle-class home tucked in the woods west of Boston, The Kominas have helped launched a small, but growing, South Asian and Middle Eastern punk rock movement that is attracting children of Muslim and Hindu immigrants and drawing scorn from some traditional Muslims who say their political, hard-edged music is “haraam,” or forbidden.

The movement, an anti-establishment subculture borne of religiously conservative communities, is the subject of two new films and a hot topic on social-networking sites.

Police find man passed out in car at Tennessee gas station, meth lab cooking in back seat

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. _ Police say a driver passed out in his car at a Tennessee gas station while a batch of methamphetamine was cooking in the back seat.

An employee at the gas station in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, called police because the car was sitting at the pump for about an hour on New Year’s Day.

Police say a chemical process to make the drug was in progress. Some meth-making ingredients can be explosive.

Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader told The Daily News Journal that gas pumps were shut off as a precaution.

Thirty-one-year-old Nathan E. Beasley is being held on a $15,000 bond on charges of driving under the influence, driving on a suspended license, reckless endangerment and manufacturing meth. No attorney was listed in police records.

NBA coach calls locker-room gun case involving Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas a ’scary thing’

WASHINGTON _ Amid conflicting reports on what happened in the Washington Wizards locker room, the matter clearly goes beyond the team’s original statement about Gilbert Arenas storing unloaded guns in his locker.

What began with the NBA looking into a possible violation of its own rules has turned into an investigation involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office and District of Columbia police. The implications are serious, with the legal system, the league and the Wizards in line to take possible action if the allegations prove true.

We’re all watching this very closely to see how the story develops right now,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Saturday. “It’s so early in the story and there’s so much speculation, it’s hard to figure out what’s fact and what’s fiction, but it is a scary thing for the NBA and we all want to see what happens.”

The Wizards said on Christmas Eve that Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a locked container in his locker, with no ammunition. Arenas said he wanted them out of the house after the birth of his latest child.

An official within the league told The Associated Press on Saturday that he was briefed before Dec. 24 by officials reviewing the incident. He said the review included a dispute over card-playing, gambling debts and a heated discussion between Arenas and another player. He said the review did not refer to Arenas and Javaris Crittenton drawing guns on each other _ as the New York Post has reported _ although he said that doesn’t preclude that it might have happened.

At a news conference on arrival at San Juan’s international airport, the court’s first Hispanic judge said that she was delighted to return to her parents’ Caribbean homeland.

“My mother and I want to extend a warm embrace to our beloved island of Puerto Rico,” said Sotomayor in Spanish. Her mother was due to join her for visits with family members.

She took only one question. Asked about her plans, she quipped: “I am going to eat mofongo” _ a local delicacy made from mashed plantains.

Sotomayor, who was born in New York, became a celebrity in this U.S. territory following her nomination by President Barack Obama. She was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in August, culminating a rise from a poor and difficult childhood in public housing projects in the Bronx that many here see as symbolic of islanders’ achievements on the U.S. mainland.

The chief judges of local and U.S. federal courts invited Sotomayor to visit, and she is expected to address members of the judiciary and other groups on Thursday and Friday.

Sotomayor’s mother, Celina Sotomayor, hails from Lajas in the island’s southeast and her father, who died when she was 9, was from San Juan. They moved to New York during World War II.

Andre Birotte

Andre Birotte, Jr., is no ordinary man.

Birotte is a black man—the son of Haitian immigrants—who serves as the tip of the spear when it comes to civilian oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Birotte (pronounced BEE-ROH) has served as LAPD’s Inspector General since 2003, when he became the first minority to hold the post, a job that puts him front and center when it comes to taking a hard look at the conduct and policies of the agency.

“When there are controversial incidences, I am there at the meetings, spending hours and days with community members, getting their concerns, calling community members and saying this is what we are doing, this is the status of this investigation,” says Birotte. “So it’s a team effort here—we work with the police department to ensure that the investigations are the best that they can be, as well as with the community to hear their concerns and issues to make sure all of those things are taken into account in deciding these criminal cases.”

The Office of Inspector General also conducts extensive community outreach, informing residents of its own role and explaining the purposed of the Police Commission and the operating procedures of LAPD. Those efforts come on a periodic basis, with additional emphasis as needed in the wake of high-profile use of force incidents and other developments of particular interest to the community.

The efforts of Birotte, his colleagues, and concerned members of the community paid off recently, when a judge lifted a consent decree that had kept LAPD under intense federal scrutiny for eight years. The federal order came as part of the fall-out and follow-up of the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s, which revealed police corruption and other problems within the agency. The consent decree aimed, among other things, to ensure that LAPD’s operating procedures gave proper deference and respect to the civil rights of residents of the city. The order also aimed to ensure that the city’s civilian Police Commission and the Office of Inspector General had a grip on overseeing the agency.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess decided that LAPD had met the goals of the consent decree and that the police commission was providing effective oversight.

Count that as a win for Birotte.

“I think that was a memorable moment for our office,” he says. “In some ways that was a Good Housekeeping stamp of approval that we were doing what we needed to do to give the community some comfort that someone else is watching and providing a fair and objective analysis of the LAPD.”

It didn’t come easy. A recent report from the Police Commission noted that the Birotte’s office prepared more than 1,400 case reviews, took more than 1,600 complaints, produced 30 quarterly discipline reports, reviewed and provided analysis on 870 Categorical Use of Force cases, and prepared 130 audits and audit reviews over the course of the consent decree.

Birotte is in charge of a staff of 32, and he says the city’s elected officials have been supportive of his unit’s work—help that he expects to remain in place as LAPD enters a post-consent decree transitional period.

“We have been fortunate to have the support of the City Council and the Mayor’s office, and obviously the Police Commissioners, with respect to the needs of our office,” he says. “We have a responsibility under a transition agreement that is an extension of the consent decree to provide certain services, and they have been very sensitive to that, given the economic climate.”

Birotte’s success at Inspector General amid a major phase in LAPD’s history is the latest chapter in a life that began in New Jersey, where he was born to Haitian immigrants. He attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he majored in psychology.

“My father was a physician, and it looked like my path into medicine was carved out,” he says.

Then came a job working as a ‘gofer’ at a law firm in Essex County, New Jersey, a low-level position that he calls “the defining moment for my career path.”

“There were a couple of lawyers that saw my potential and took interest and showed me how to research a case,” he says.

The experience led him to fly west and pursue a law degree at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu. He began his legal career as a public defender in Los Angeles, representing indigent client, and soon went on to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he investigated and prosecuted numerous violent crime, fraud, and narcotics trafficking cases. Birotte then spent several years in private practice before taking the job as Inspector General for LAPD.

Birotte says that he believes the stepping-stones to a productive journey in life come from working hard, developing solid working relationships, and having very good mentors from early on.

“There are people who have the same interests as you and are able to shed light and help you through your path,” he says. “You do not have to re-create the wheel all the time.”

Birotte encourages youngsters to seek out mentors and get involved in alumni associations and other organizations that hold the potential to bring new perspectives and contacts. He also encourages all of the residents of Los Angeles to remember that the LAPD’s Office of Inspector General is in place to serve them.

“We are here as a resource,” he says. “We would like to think that we are a bridge between the community and the police.  Everyone working together to do what we all want—that is to have a police department that everyone can have confidence in.  We would like to think that we play a significant role in that.”

Contact the OIG at: www.oiglapd.org.

More than 400 agents and local law enforcement officers fanned out across the state in the three-day search led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“These are not people who we want walking our streets,” ICE director John Morton said. “We’re going to focus on those people who choose to pursue a life of crime in the United States rather than pursue the American dream of education, hard work and success.”

The operation came four months after Morton said the agency’s fugitive operations teams would increasingly focus on finding people with criminal records and would no longer use arrest quotas.

The teams arrested twice as many immigrants with criminal records in the 2009 fiscal year than during the year-earlier period, according to agency statistics.

On Wednesday, agents wearing hooded sweat shirts and jackets emblazoned with “ICE” clustered outside a row of apartment homes in Huntington Park in the morning cold to look for a gang member who was deported to Mexico in 2007 after serving time for vehicle theft.

Agents had learned his wife was here and collecting government aid, leading them to believe he had returned to this country illegally.

Slinging rifles across their backs, they approached the front gate. One rapped on a window and said “Police!”

Minutes later, they emerged with a 40-year old man known as “Rascal” in handcuffs and drove him to Los Angeles to be fingerprinted, photographed and detained.

“As we bring these people into custody, we’re also contributing to the reduction of crime in our local communities. That’s really the thrust of it all,” said Robert Naranjo, an assistant field office director for ICE’s detention and removal operations in Los Angeles.

The man declined to be interviewed. ICE would not release his name because he did not face new criminal charges as of Friday but expected he would be charged next week with illegally re-entering the country, said agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

More than 80 percent of the people arrested this week had prior convictions for serious or violent crimes, according to ICE. Seventeen people will face federal charges for re-entering the country illegally after being deported.

The arrests carried out from Tuesday to Thursday were similar to those made in prior years by fugitive operations teams, which were created in 2003 to help reduce the number of immigrants who failed to obey deportation orders.

The latest sweep also netted six people who had deportation orders but no criminal record. No arrests were made of people who did not have a criminal history or a court order to leave the country, Kice said.

That marked a shift from several years ago, when immigrant advocates complained that ICE’s teams were arresting illegal immigrants who happened to be home when authorities knocked on the door looking for someone else.

“It is tough to fully believe what is happening, but it certainly is a major step,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

n a memo dated Tuesday, Morton said the teams’ core mission is to arrest people with final deportation orders, including those with criminal records.

A copy of the guidelines obtained by The Associated Press directs teams to focus at least 70 percent of resources on these immigrants, followed by those who have re-entered the country illegally or who have committed crimes.

The memo also said agents will be trained twice a year on the a constitutional provision that protects people from unreasonable search and seizures, and should not arrest immigrants who are sick, disabled or the sole caretakers of children.

There are 104 fugitive operations teams across the country. In 2006, each team was assigned to make 1,000 arrests a year. In August, Morton _ who took over his post this year _ said he had done away with the quotas.

Juan Alanis, a spokesman for the Salvation Army’s Houston branch, says the charity changed its policy Wednesday following a protest by Hispanic immigrants in Los Angeles.

Alanis says the Christian organization never wanted to give the appearance of discrimination based on legal status and decided to not require a social security number to register for its Angel Tree program.

About two dozen parents and children protested outside a Los Angeles Salvation Army store with signs that read, “A gift from the heart, doesn’t ask for documents.”

Photo Provided by http://www.mediawiki.org

The Los Angeles City Council will consider provisions to a proposed medical marijuana ordinance they have struggled with for two years.

Various council members have made suggestions for the ordinance they plan to review at their meeting Tuesday. Among the possibilities are capping the number of dispensaries and creating a tax that could help boost the city’s depleted coffers.

City officials are trying to come up with an ordinance that addresses medicinal marijuana and figure out if the ordinance is permissible under state law.

Hundreds of pot dispensaries have opened their doors in Los Angeles over the past couple of years. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley has said recently he will target any pot clinics engaging in over-the-counter sales.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

LA Galaxy to wear Tommy Hilfiger USA designed match day suits for the 2009 MLS Cup in Qwest Field.

Your daughter, who is visiting you for the summer from Washington State where she lives with her mother and new stepfather, wants to have a quiet talk with you.  She had moved with them after the divorce two years ago.  At that time you had mounted a custody battle for your son because he was having trouble adjusting to his new stepfather and did not want to live with them in Washington State.  The court had appointed a counsel for your son who was eleven years at the time as well as an evaluator and a therapist.  All of these were appointed over your objection because in the past when you had first sought custody of both children the judge had appointed these three to your case and they had all recommended custody for your ex-wife.  He spoke highly of the qualifications of each of them and appointed them to the case even though your attorney had requested their resumes and full disclosure of all their relationships, financial and otherwise, with opposing counsel.  In the end, they had provided no information to your attorney and the judge had made it clear that he would not order them to provide this information even though you were entitled to it.  The judge knew them and had worked with them in the past and felt very comfortable with them.  Indeed, he had even delegated the authority to decide on your visitations with your children to the therapist despite the fact that this was illegal since only the judge could make those decisions.  After asking around your attorney told you that all three had worked with opposing counsel before and always found in favor of the mother.
At the custody hearing, all three had recommended that the children be given to your ex-wife and that she be allowed to take them to Washington State despite the fact that the distance alone made it very difficult to maintain your relationship with them.  However, your son and his new stepfather began having disagreements immediately after the move.  When he begged to return to Los Angeles to live with you, you filed an Order to Show Cause seeking a change in custody from your ex-wife to you.  When the Judge again appointed the same people as minor’s counsel, evaluator, and therapist over strenuous objection from you and your lawyer you knew you were going to lose again.  It simply did not matter that you argued that you had never abused your children in any way despite being a strict father who strongly believed in education.  The fact that you had spoken harshly against your son’s involvement with some friends you suspected of being either present or future gang members was used against you and caused you to be labeled a “mentally abusive person.”

At the second custody hearing they once again recommended against despite your son having come to blows with his stepfather.  After the first fight your son had climbed on the roof of the Washington home and threatened suicide.  These facts did not cause the slightest change in their recommendations.  Your son was ordered to Washington State with the recommendation that he see a therapist in Washington and if he still did not accept his new surroundings it may be necessary for him to go on medication.  Your son refused to accept his stepfather and was accused of vandalizing his car.  He was arrested and taken to juvenile detention less than six months after he was ordered to live with his mother.  Your ex-wife realized it would never workout with your son and his stepfather and wrote you asking to have your son returned to you in Los Angeles.  You agreed and he was released from Juvenile Detention and returned to you.  Since his return he had been very happy and was doing well in school.  When you had appeared before the judge to have the stipulated change of custody signed by him he had not even bothered to hide his annoyance at this change which had been agreed to by both parents.  You had always wanted both children with you and now you had one and praying for the return of your daughter also.  Your attorney had fought with the judge constantly over the sending of your son to live in an environment in which he was clearly miserable.  On the way out of the courthouse after the change of custody for your son your attorney had told you that eventually you would return to the court to change custody for your daughter also because she would not stay in Washington State.  Now she was here with you and the three of you had thoroughly enjoyed the summer together.  All three of you went to church every Sunday with your parents and the children were clearly happy to be in their original home and family circle again.
You take your daughter alone out for a ride and ask her what the problem was.  She was very quiet at first and then she told you that she was very happy to be home with you and her brother and loved going to church on Sundays with everyone like old times.  The bottom line was that she did not want to go back to Washington State after the summer.  She loved her mother but she wanted to be with you and her little brother again.  You tell her that you would love to have her back and could not be happier to hear her say she wanted to stay.

You tell her that you will call your attorney for his advice because your mother will be very unhappy to hear this.  She tells you that she has prayed to God for guidance because she was really so happy here, and that, no matter what, she did not want to return to Washington State.
You call your lawyer and he tells you that he is not surprised and genuinely happy to hear this development.  He advises you to have your daughter write to her mother in her own handwriting telling her that she wanted to stay with her brother because he needed her.  Above all, your lawyer wants you to stay out of it completely.  Let this just be between mother and daughter.  You tell your daughter what your attorney has advised and she writes the letter to her mother.  A few days later your daughter tells you that her mother received the letter and called her to tell her that she was very sad that she wanted to stay here and take care of her brother but she understood.  She asked your daughter to tell you to have your lawyer send her another Stipulation for change of custody and she would sign it and send it back.  Your attorney prepared the Stipulation and overnight it to your ex-wife who promptly signs and returns it to the lawyer.  Your attorney tells you that even though the Judge cannot stop your wife from giving you custody of your daughter as she had previously done with your son, he was a very vindictive old man and would at least want to hold up the process.  Rather than appearing ex parte to have the Stipulation signed he believed it was best to file a regular OSC and give notice and wait for the hearing day to come.  He files and gets a hearing date.  The day of the hearing arrives and you and your attorney are in the courtroom as soon as it opens.  Although your case is third on the list the Judge ignores it until every other matter is heard and the courtroom is almost empty.  When he calls your case he has a scowl upon his face and makes no attempt to hide his annoyance.  He tells you that you are to give the clerk your ex-wife’s phone number because he wants to hear from her before he made any decision.  Since it was already almost 12 noon when the court would be closed for lunch this meant you would have to return for the afternoon session beginning at one thirty.
You and your attorney return to court and Judge has his clerk call your ex-wife and put her on the speaker.  When she answers he began asking her if it was really her decision to allow a change of custody for your daughter.  She answers with a firm “yes” and tells the Judge that this was what your daughter wanted and she believed it was in the children’s’ best interest that they stay together.  The Judge accepts this but still continues with the scowl on his face.  He looks at you and says, “I am going to sign this although I do not believe you deserve having these children with you.”  He signs and hands the Stipulation to his clerk and looks at you and say “I see that smirk on your face.  Good day gentlemen.”  You look at him, grin broadly, and reply, “It really is a good day, your Honor.”

SOUNDS FAMILIAR?
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

WRITE ME AT:
RLOWE542@AOL.COM

WEBSITE:
WWW.RICHARDLOWELAWOFFICE.COM

Groups of Mexican men trying to outrun border patrol agents and make it to the U.S. are common images offered by the media when news coverage turns to immigration.

The reality is different — and getting more so all the time.

Mexicans are not the only people who migrate to America. People from almost every country in the world migrate either legally or illegally on a daily basis. They come from North America, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.

And here’s a factor that the media often neglect to mention: The changing world economy, wars, famines, and other societal problems have created a new immigrant majority — women.

Word of the change came during a recent roundtable discussion hosted by San Francisco-based New America Media, the parent organization of Labeez.org, at the Feminist Majority Foundation/Ms. Magazine headquarters in Beverly Hills.

Participating in the discussions were Kathy Spillar, Executive Vice President of Ms. Magazine and FMF, who served as moderator; Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA); Eun Sook Lee, Executive Director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium; Sara Sadhwani, Immigrant Rights Project Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center; Adriana Tome, also of CHIRLA; and Sheila Salinas, student and CHIRLA member.

The group discussed newly released data from the U.S. Census showing that the number of women immigrating to the U.S. has doubled since 1990. The trend led to a sea-change in 2007, when the majority of these immigrants to the U.S. were women for the first time.

Sergio Bendixen, President of Bendixen & Associates was contracted by New America Media to conduct a poll of 1,100 immigrant women in 10 different languages, as well as several different ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic levels.

Bendixen concluded that “The study clearly indicates that women immigrants in the United States have not only become important contributors to the economic and social condition of their families in the United States, but that they also have become catalysts in their assimilation to the American culture and in the decision-making process about U.S. Citizenship.”

The poll showed that people from different countries migrate for different reasons, including repressive governments, poor living conditions, unemployment, and a desire for education. These immigrants often become productive members of American society.

Bendixen said the poll indicated that women new to America initially earned approximately $500 per month, on average. Earnings rise to approximately $1,500 per month after five years in the U.S., he said.

Those women who had been in the U.S. for 20 years or more supported the belief that many women who migrate to the U.S., along with their families, do become an integral part of American society.

Adriana Tome offers an example. An immigrant from Honduras, she migrated to the U.S. after her husband died. Leaving her children behind, she worked in agriculture and a variety of low-paying jobs to send money to her children. Being apart from her children was too much so she went back Honduras only to have to eventually return to the U.S. in order to be able to provide for her children.

Tome says that since returning to the U.S. she has taken English-language classes and has made a point of integrating into American society. She stressed the importance of learning English and finding organizations to assist new immigrants.

Another common myth is that new immigrants are uneducated, have no desire to learn English, and are only in the U.S. to make money so that they can send home to their families. While this may be true in some cases, the reality is that many immigrants who come to the United States are educated. Many hold advanced degrees and have held professional jobs in their countries.

Upon arriving in the U.S., these educated immigrants must often take low paying jobs in factories, agriculture, or working at childcare or housekeeping. They often must re-enroll in school to obtain a U.S. recognized degree in respective professions. This has helped push a trend of immigrant women taking on new responsibilities such as breadwinner for extended periods of time.

Unfortunately, these new responsibilities come with new problems. One being seen too often is domestic violence, with incidents sometimes occurring in households where women must assume the roles husbands played in their home countries,

Along with challenges such as economic concerns, overcoming language barriers, and obtaining healthcare, immigrant women must often overcome the communication hurdles at their children’s schools. The Nation Korean American Service & Education Consortium’s Lee told the recent roundtable that schools often send information home to parents in English or Spanish, but not in any other languages such as Korean.

Lee said that she is often asked to translate for teachers at parent conferences.

“I feel it’s an intrusion,” Lee says. “It’s not fair to the parents. I get to know more about their child’s grades and behavior than I have any business knowing. Some things I shouldn’t have to know and parents don’t want everybody knowing it. Often because I am translating, the teachers feel they can say anything to me about someone else’s child.”

Lee’s said that the situation is common because many schools do not provide sufficient translators during parent conferences. That leaves school officials to count on children or other parents, to translate.

Despite the many obstacles, there are resources for new immigrants, and panel members urged women to join community organizations and share knowledge of navigating the system.

Aba Ngissah is a writer for Carib Press

Debtors Prisons

You receive notice in the mail that a warrant for your arrest has been issued by the court where you should have gone for some kind of hearing in connection with monies you owed on one of your credit cards. You know that they had sued you some time ago after you had ignored their calls and letters regarding your outstanding balance that was then already several months overdue. Your reaction is that something must be wrong because from the time you arrived in this country from Jamaica you had been told that in America no one went to prison for owing money. However, since it appears to be an official notice you know you have to do something about it.

You call your friend who seems to always have the answer to everything and he tells you its all foolishness because “They don’t send people to prison in America just because they owe money.” Your friend advises you to ignore it because it could not be correct. You are still bothered about this warrant and decide to call a criminal lawyer who had represented you in a misdemeanor case a few years ago. He tells you that he has no idea how you could be locked up just because you owe some money. However, he also warns you that the notice should not be ignored because even if the police are unlikely to come to your home and take you away in handcuffs, the fact is that you may be stopped for a minor traffic violation and when the officers checked your record this outstanding warrant could come up and you could be arrested. He urges you not to ignore the warrant and refers you to a lawyer who handles civil cases. You call the civil lawyer and make an appointment to see him. His secretary explains his rate per hour and you agree to pay for an hour of his time in advance. She also tells you that the attorney will want to see all the court papers you have received in connection with this matter.

You put together all the court papers you received and go to the lawyer’s office at the appointed time. You meet the lawyer and before you can ask any questions he tells you he wants to see the papers. He looks them over and tells you that the papers clearly show that you are subject to arrest at anytime because a warrant has been issued by a judge at the Beverly Hills courthouse and wants to know what your questions are. You tell him that ever since you have been in this country you had been told that you can’t go to jail just because you owe money. He looks at you and starts to smile.

“We are from the same country and I also heard the same thing when I came here, but my friend it is not that simple,” the lawyer says. “Lenders and their lawyers have figured how to deal with that problem.”

Then he goes through your documents and points the fact that when you were sued by the company you simply ignored the lawsuit because you could not afford a lawyer to prepare and file an answer. Since you did not believe it would mean anything other than another red mark on your already damaged credit rating you weren’t worried about not answering within the 30 day time period allowed. This allowed the company lawyers to file a request to enter a default against you on the morning of the 31st day.

The lawyer explains that some of these law firms who collect debts for these companies have their people at the courthouse on the 31st day after service of the compliant just waiting for the filing window to open so that they can file the request to enter default. They know the people going through a financial meltdown tend to put their heads in the sand and ignore these complaints. Once the default was entered cutting off your right to respond to the complaint, the lawyers then sent you a notice to be present at what is called a debtor’s hearing or interview at which every aspect of your finances is made public in every embarrassing detail. Lawyers for lenders also know that the people who allow a default to be entered against them are not likely to want to go to the courthouse for these interviews and will not show up. However, the notice telling you to appear for the debtor’s interview is a Court Order.

This means that your failure to show up for the hearing is essentially disobeying a Court Order and this disobedience is what caused the warrant for your arrest to be issued. “You are right,” he tells you, “you cannot be locked just because you owe money in this country, but there are more than one ways to skin a cat.”

Finally, he points out that the lawyers who do this work for lenders are operating on a contingency basis. The lenders are not paying them and they only get paid a percentage of what they collect. Because of this, he tells you, they are always open to reaching an agreement that would end up with you paying a smaller amount over an extended period of time. Because of this he urges you to call the collections lawyer and try to make a deal.

You thank him for the information and as you are leaving his office he tells you that the American saying you should be keeping in mind is that “There are no free lunches.” He puts it another way, too: They will get you one way or another.

Sounds familiar? What’s your story?

Write me at: Richard.Lowe@caribpress.com 

Website: WWW.RICHARDLOWELAWOFFICE.COM

Richard Lowe, Esq. is a contributer to Carib press

Photo by LA Beez