News & Public Affairs

Haitians in US can seek Temporary Protected Status beginning tomorrow listen

01/20/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Haiti Earthquake, Haiti, immigration, TPS

Beginning tomorrow Haitian nationals in the U.S. will be able to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Any Haitian who was in the U.S. before the earthquake devastated their home country is eligible for 18 months amnesty from deportation.

Stuart Dresser, director of the Tampa Field Office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced in a press conference this afternoon that the application window opens tomorrow. “During the de...

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Citizenship Day reflection on immigration debate and Florida voter trends listen

09/16/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: immigration

Tomorrow is Citizenship Day, which recognizes the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and those who have become citizens. The Reform Immigration for America Campaign is stressing the importance of the day for the immigration debate and for voter trends in Florida. Doug Rivlin is their communications director.

In a conference call on Wednesday, Rivlin said that more than 8,000 people will take the oath of citizenship on Thursday and 360,000 have done so in the last four years. One of tho...

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Immigration advocates psyched for action this year listen

06/24/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: politics, immigration, immigration reform, illegal immigrants

In anticipation of a meeting on immigration between members of Congress and President Barack Obama tomorrow, advocates for getting immigration reform spoke today on a conference call.

Tamar Jacoby is president & CEO of Immigration Works, a business oriented organization.

Mark Lauritsen is vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers. He spoke angrily of some high profile immigration raids made last year by the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Frank Sharry, ...

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Latino advocates say GOP still doesn't get it listen

01/28/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Immigration, politics, Republicans

The Latino vote went overwhelmingly for Barack Obama in the 2008 election, a big difference than what happened between John Kerry and George W. Bush in 2004.

Tomorrow, a group of conservatives are expected to present a report in Washington that will show in detail that every single House Republican who lost last year was because they either supported amnesty, or the Democrat supported tough border security.

The event is called “Immigration and the Future of the Republican Party”, and w...

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Sami Al-Arian to go on trial on contempt charges listen

01/16/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Sami Al-Arian, civil liberties, Race, racism, immigration, ICE, Muslims, USF, human rights, terrorism

A federal judge in Virginia ruled today that Sami Al-Arian should stand trial in March for criminal contempt.

The ruling was a blow to the former USF professor, who was released on bail by Judge Leonie Brinkema back in September after being incarcerated in numerous prisons and jails since his arrest in February 2003 on federal terrorism charges.

Mel Underbakke is with the group Friends of Human Rights. She says she was one of nearly two dozen supporters of Al-Arian from Tampa in the ...

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Latinos vote in record numbers in 2008 listen

11/13/08 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, immigration, Latino voters

Latinos in the U.S. took into consideration harsh rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, and that played a part in their strong support of Barack Obama in last week’s election.

That was the message issued by a group of officials in Washington today.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a relatively new organization advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, said that has been a lack of political will by Washington-based elected officials. He blamed it on faulty ...

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An interview with Bill Richardson listen

10/22/08 Seán Kinane
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Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, Iraq War, Bill Richardson, immigration

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ran for the Democratic nomination for president earlier this year, but dropped out before Barack Obama won the party’s nomination.

Richardson was in West Tampa today to rally support for Obama during early voting. Before the rally, WMNF’s Seán Kinane spoke with Richardson at La Casa Sierra restaurant on North Howard Avenue and began by asking the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations how the United States will end the war in Iraq.

Photo by: Seán K...

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Al-Arian released from prison listen

09/03/08 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Sami Al-Arian, civil liberties, Race, racism, immigration, ICE, Muslims, USF, human rights, terrorism

Yesterday Dr. Sami Al-Arian was released from custody for the first time in more than five years. Even though his criminal sentence ended 16 months ago, Al-Arian had been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since a federal judge ordered him released on bail in July.

WMNF spoke with Al-Arian’s daughter, freelance journalist Laila Al-Arian Tuesday night.

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Judge postpones Al-Arian trial

08/08/08 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Sami Al-Arian, civil liberties, Race, racism, immigration, ICE, Muslims, USF, human rights, terrorism

The next trial of former USF professor Sami Al-Arian has been postponed after a judge raised new doubts about the validity of the prosecution.

Al-Arian had been scheduled to go on trial next week in Virginia on contempt charges after refusing to testify to a federal grand jury about a case unrelated to his original terrorist related charges. But today, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema overruled prosecutors' objections and postponed the trial indefinitely. In doing so, she questioned w...

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Al-Arian finally closer to freedom? listen

07/11/08 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Sami Al-Arian, civil liberties, Race, racism, immigration, ICE, Muslims, USF, human rights

Yesterday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, order Sami Al-Arian released on his criminal contempt charges, but refused to block immigration authorities from detaining him before he is to be deported.

The U.S. government agreed to "expeditiously" deport Al-Arian in 2006, once he finished serving his criminal sentence in a terrorism support case. He was arrested in 2003.

But over the past couple of years, as he served his time for pleading guilty to one charge of materially suppor...

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