Immigration Crackdown: Gingrich "joke" about tracking immigrants using mail services gets played out in reality

CNN.com: "In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, two Guatemalans allege that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were guilty of unreasonable search and seizure, and racial profiling when they arrested Guatemalan nationals picking up a package at a FedEx facility in Florida. The package contained a passport mailed to one of them by the Guatemalan government in the type of sting Gingrich was jokingly suggesting.

... John De Leon, an attorney representing the two Guatemalans, said the lawsuit "challenges the interaction of private industry and the government in their attack on Latino immigrants in this country. ... There's nothing amusing about the idea of government using corporate efficiency in order to violate people's rights." De Leon,  has filed a suit against ICE and FedEx in U.S. District Court in Florida. "This is a rank operation against a Latino group of people. These passports were lawful passports. There was nothing illegal about them." He accused ICE of conducting warrantless searches of the packages." read more

Immigration Politics: Immigrant military bill ‘a cruel joke'

San Antonio Express-News: "...the day after Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney introduced the idea of a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants only if they serve in the military, Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., submitted the Adjusted Residency for Military Service (ARMS) Act to the House.

Immigrant advocates across the country have rejected as unfair the premise that illegal immigrant youth should have no alternative other than to put their life on the line to gain citizenship. What's really unfair is that such a program would not provide a legitimate pathway for a large proportion of the young immigrants who want the opportunity — and it could have a negative impact on our armed forces." read more

Immigration Politics: 'Inexcusable' language on immigration alienating Latino voters, Republicans told

guardian.co.uk: "Senior Republicans including the brother of the former president George Bush have warned the party to avoid using "harsh, intolerable and inexcusable" language about illegal immigration or risk alienating Latino voters. The Florida senator, Marco Rubio, and the state's former governor Jeb Bush made their appeal before Tuesday's primary, being contested by Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

The Republican frontrunners clashed over illegal immigration in a debate earlier this week. The issue is emotive in Florida, which has the third largest Latino population in America." read more