Former IRA fugitive Pól Brennan will remain in the Homeland Security Department's Port Isabel Processing Center near Los Fresnos, TX, until at least March 11, after he was forced to ask a US immigration judge to postpone a hastily scheduled hearing so that his San Francisco-based lawyer could fly down to represent him. Brennan said he was only notified about the hearing scheduled for 9 AM Feb. 6 the previous night. Upon requesting the postponement, he was told he would have to wait over a month for another opportunity to request release on bail. (Irish Echo, Feb. 13)

An estimated 3,500 people attended a rally on Feb. 6 in Danbury, Connecticut, to protest a partnership between Danbury police and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the demonstrators voiced their opposition outside City Hall, inside the Common Council voted 19-2 to invite ICE to train and deputize Danbury police as immigration agents. Mayor Mark Boughton, who backs the plan, said it will start with the training of two detectives to carry out investigations of immigrants suspected of human trafficking, drug smuggling or document fraud. (News-Times, Danbury, Feb. 7; Hartford Courant, Feb. 7)

At a press conference on Jan. 28 at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, activist Flor Crisóstomo announced she would not comply with her deportation set for that date, and would instead go into sanctuary at the church. "I'm not going. I've asked my pastor and my church for sanctuary and they have granted it." US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that Crisóstomo had been granted "voluntary departure" by an immigration judge, requiring her to leave the US no later than Jan. 28. Crisóstomo said she is not "defying the laws of this country and I'm not hiding. I am taking the position of civil disobedience to press this government to act, to fix the broken laws and end this inhumane system of cheap undocumented labor and exploitation." Church pastor Walter Coleman noted that "the forces that bring people here are still there. The Free Trade Treaty has destroyed agriculture in Mexico and other countries and until it is renegotiated people will keep coming." (Diario Hoy, Jan. 29)

On the afternoon of Feb. 7, more than 100 ICE agents raided the headquarters of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), a manufacturer of computer toner and inkjet cartridges in Van Nuys, California. ICE executed a federal search warrant at the site and arrested 130 MSE employees on administrative immigration violations. ICE also arrested eight current and former MSE employees on federal criminal charges for providing fraudulent information to gain employment. The search warrant remains under seal because the investigation is ongoing. (ICE news release, Feb. 8; AP, Feb. 7)

On Jan. 14, US Attorney Johnny Sutton filed a lawsuit on behalf of the US Department of Justice against the city of Eagle Pass, Texas, to seek access to land for a planned border fence. It was the first of 102 lawsuits expected to be filed in an escalating battle with local landowners and municipalities as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to build 370 miles of new border fencing by the end of the year.

The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating a reported assault on two officers at the disputed Culbertson Land Tract quarry near Deseronto, which is under occupation by Mohawk protesters. Sgt. Kristine Rae, spokesperson for Eastern Region OPP headquarters, said the assault occurred during a visit to the occupied site by members of the OPP's Major Event Liaison Team.

Freedom's on the march. From the Winston-Salem Journal, NC, Jan. 26:

An inmate claiming widespread harassment of Muslims in U.S. prisons cannot sue prison guards who he says took his Qurans and prayer rug, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

200 counter-protesters from around the country outnumbered some 30 members of the "pro-majority" Nationalist Movement who marched in Jena, LA, Jan. 21 to protest the holiday honoring Martin Luther King and the national campaign for the "Jena Six," black teenagers charged with beating a white classmate after black students were threatened with nooses left hanging from a tree at the school. The two groups met at the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, where one member of the New Black Panthers was arrested. (USA Today, Jan. 22) Barred by Jena police from marching with two shotguns they said they needed for protection, the Nationalist Movement now says it will hold a second march in the town to protest abridgment of its "second amendment rights." The group's leader Richard Barrett said he has filed suit in federal court to have the town and Mayor Murphy McMillin held in contempt of court for violating an order by US District Judge Dee Drell to not interfere with the march. "We do intend to defend the Second Amendment in the best and strongest way possible," Barrett said. (AP, Jan. 23)