Government

‘Man Without a Country’ Describes Conditions at Gadsden Detention Center

Awot Negash's troubles with U.S. immigration officials began in 2001 and spiraled two years ago when Immigration and Enforcement officials knocked on his suburban Washington, D.C., home. He eventually wound up in a controversial immigrant detention center in Gadsden. He has been arrested and sent to two centers where immigration officials hold immigrants. He describes the Etowah center in Gadsden as inefficient, unorganized, chaotic and dysfunctional. Read more.

by Virginia MacDonald

Lawyers: Major Changes Happening in How Law Is Applied to Immigrants

Immigration actions in Alabama and Mississippi recently underscore the point: The campaign against undocumented residents is nationwide, not just on the southern U.S. border. That’s no surprise to at least one group in Birmingham – the lawyers who specialize in immigration disputes and have been handling growing caseloads. Local immigration attorneys said that where once individuals would have been released on bond, now they are being sent to detainment centers until their court dates, and it could take months or sometimes years for court dates to be scheduled. Read more.

by Michelle Love

Woodfin Discusses Plan for Free College Tuition to City Graduates

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Wednesday discussed his plan to offer Birmingham City Schools graduates the chance to go to a public two-year or four-year school in Alabama tuition-free. He tweeted a reminder Tuesday of the program announced in May. Even Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders took notice. Read more.

by WBHM and BirminghamWatch

Alabama Site for Detained Immigrants Has History of Abuse Charges, Efforts to Close It

Alabama Site for Detained Immigrants Has History of Abuse Charges, Efforts to Close It

As 2020 rolls in, BirminghamWatch looks back at its biggest stories of 2019, highlighting a different one each day. After immigration officers detained Marcos Baltazar and his son, Juan, in Homewood one morning last week, the two men were in the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden by nightfall. Their destination spotlights the Etowah center, a controversial facility adjoining the county jail in Gadsden where federal authorities detain immigrants. The center has drawn critics’ protests and attempts to close it for years, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office itself tried to close the facility in 2010. That effort hit a maelstrom of resistance from local political officials and their supporters in Congress. Reports on the center cited deficiencies and violations of federal standards in a number of areas, including crowding, discrimination, retaliation, a lack of adequate mental health care and in many cases no effective medical care, poor food and hygiene at the center and practices that curtailed inmates’ ability to communicate with the outside world. Read more.

by Virginia MacDonald

Group Protests Detention of Two Immigrants

Nearly three dozen people attended a press conference Tuesday at the Adelante Alabama worker center to support two of their own who were detained by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They sat behind media cameras as a panel of their leaders and representatives talked about Adelante board member and immigrant workers’ rights leader Marcos Baltazar and his son Juan, who were detained by ICE agents last week in Homewood. Leaders of Aldelante Alabama said they consider the detentions to be intimidation of the immigrants. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Birmingham City Council Appoints Board Members for Art Museum, Civil Rights Institute

Stressing the importance of diverse leadership, the Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to appoint a slate of new board members to both the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Four BMA board members – Maye Head Frei, Mark Drew, Joel Piassick and current board chair James K. Outland – were appointed to second terms. Norman B. Davis Jr., BMA Director Graham Corray Boettcher described as “a supporter of the museum for years,” was appointed to replace James Hudson, who resigned from the board. Attorney C. Randall Minor will fill the seat vacated by Larry Thornton, who had served two consecutive six-year terms on the board. The council also appointed 18 new members to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s board of directors on Tuesday. Andrea L. Taylor, the president and CEO of the BCRI, told councilors that the new appointees were “chosen in a period of some disruption and brouhaha that found us in a very awkward position as an organization.” Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Jeffco Commissioner Joe Knight Explains the Commission’s “Messy” Budget Process

In this video, Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight, chairman of the County Commission's budget committee, discuses the "messy" process that led to passage of the budget recently.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr

Jefferson County Owes Medicare and Medicaid More Than $1 Million for Overpayments to Cooper Green Hospital

Jefferson County Commissioners learned during their committee meeting Monday that the county is on the hook for more than $1 million in back payments for Medicare and Medicaid that was overpaid when Cooper Green was a hospital. The situation was uncovered as the result of an audit ordered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. The problem dates back to 2008. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Battle Looms over Trump Administration Bid to Ease Safety Rules for Big Rig Trucks

In Washington, D.C., a new Trump administration plan to relax safety rules for truck drivers has rekindled old heartaches for families across the country. On a sunny Labor Day morning in Oklahoma, Linda Wilburn’s younger son, 19-year-old Orbie, hopped into his 1994 red Camaro and headed east from Weatherford on Interstate 40. The college freshman, excited about his new rental house, needed to collect more stuff from his parent’s place, 10 miles away. At mile marker 87, he encountered a stall blocking both eastbound lanes. The young man slowed and stopped the Camaro. And then, on Sept. 2, 2002, Orbie DeWayne Wilburn was dead, smashed from behind by a big rig bearing down on him at high speed. The 41-year-old truck driver from Kentucky, who also also died at the scene, had driven from Bakersfield, Calif. – nearly 1,300 miles away – to Oklahoma “without a rest break at all,” said Orbie’s mother. Now the Wilburn family is steeling themselves for a new fight as the anniversary of Orbie’s death approaches. This week, the Trump administration formally proposed easing the rules over rest breaks truck drivers must take and giving them more flexibility over their on- and off-duty time. Read more.

by Marjie Lundstrom, FairWarning

Report: Alabama Community Corrections Harms Low-Income Participants

WBHM A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says Alabama’s community corrections program unfairly burdens low-income people and threatens public safety. Community corrections, operating in 51 of Alabama’s 67 counties, is overseen by the state Department of Corrections but run locally. It’s designed to be an alternative to prison. The report’s main criticism is that community corrections relies on fees as a primary revenue source. These include fees for drug testing, supervision or electronic monitoring. Read more.

by Andrew Yeager, WBHM