Immigration

A British court struck down immigration restrictions placed on Gurkha veterans who served in the country's armed forces, handing a significant victory to a group whose service dates back nearly 200 years. The High Court ordered the government to draw up a new immigration policy for the Nepalese soldiers, who demanded the repeal of regulations that bar some of them from settling in Britain. Gurkha soldiers outside the court broke into cheers, played bagpipes and waved green flags emblazoned with two crossed kukris, or bent Nepalese knives.

For the first time in a decade, the makeup of the U.S. immigrant population may be shifting, with the number of illegal immigrants entering the country falling behind the number of those entering legally, according to an independent report released Thursday.

Re "More than 300 arrested in immigration sweep," Oct. 8 If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will kindly conduct a few raids in Los Angeles, maybe my youthful relatives will find entry-level jobs. How did the leading domestic issue become a campaign non-issue? Do candidates think the problem will go away? Do they believe voters won't notice that American labor is drowning in debt, as legal and illegal foreign labor takes millions of jobs and drives down wages? How can Americans not be angry as political correctness is crammed down our throats; as grandma is strip-searched before boarding a plane to avoid profiling; as illegals are placed in front of Americans for university acceptance?

Eddie Mendiola thought his troubles were over when a federal judge dismissed the case against him for entering the country illegally. But weeks after the ruling, the Orange County resident remains in custody while the government presses ahead with efforts to deport him. In August, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles did not oppose his attorney's motion to dismiss the case, seemingly clearing the way for Mendiola's release from custody. David A.

A federal grand jury has indicted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney and his wife on more than 70 new counts stemming from a scheme to adjust the status of immigrants. ICE Assistant Chief Counsel Constantine Kallas, 38, and wife Maria Kallas, 39, both of Alta Loma, have pleaded not guilty to 75 counts. Maria Kallas has been released on $200,000 bond; her husband remains in custody. If convicted, they each face up to life in prison. Trial is slated to begin in March.

A brilliant and powerful message for Al Qaeda's supporters. But your message would have been so much more effective if, at the end of your third paragraph, where you list "waves of immigration," you had also included another significant immigrant group now fully integrated in American society: Arabs. Primo Vannicelli Cambridge, Mass. -- Al Qaeda's Ayman Zawahiri using an out-dated racial pejorative, "house slaves," in an effort to embarrass President-elect Barack Obama and the United States is ironic because it was the Arab sub-Saharan slave trade with the Portuguese that fueled the transatlantic slave trade.

A top Homeland Security official in Boston has been accused of hiring illegal immigrants to clean her home, even warning one not to leave the country "cause once you leave, you will never be back." Lorraine Henderson, the regional director of the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection division, was arrested Friday and charged with harboring an illegal alien. She is responsible for stopping illegal immigration through all air and sea international ports in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Re "What's L.A.'s problem?" Opinion, Dec. 27 Josh Kun assures us that "the big L.A. problem is not the fact of immigration -- undocumented or not -- but the city's conception of it, how we see ourselves. It's fixable." He advises us simply to look at millions of immigrants and reflect upon ourselves. I do this every day, commuting by bus and train. Kun's multicultural exercise in self-affirmation disguises what I see as another "fact of immigration." As the son of an immigrant and a native Angeleno, as one who teaches immigrants and working-class students, I remind Kun that the environmental, educational, medical, demographic and social costs of unchecked immigration are overwhelming our infrastructure.

His seventh-grade teacher was discussing family values last month when Jaime Castillo startled his classmates by bursting into tears. They knew that the 13-year-old hadn't seen his father since he left for the United States three years ago and that he was depressed about it, but he wasn't the kind of child to cry in public. The next day, his friends' surprise turned to shock when they learned he had gone home and swallowed a packet of rat poison.

U.S. immigration authorities Wednesday proposed hefty fee hikes for citizenship and permanent residency applications, pledging to use the revenue to help shorten processing time and improve service. But the proposal, which would hike citizenship application fees from $330 to $595, drew immediate criticism that it would put citizenship out of reach for many poor immigrants. The plan also would increase overall fees for green cards, work permits and other benefits an average of 66%.