naturalization ceremony: Lawyers for Hector Barajas said the government informed them Thursday their client should attend a naturalization ceremony on April 13 in San Diego, according to Metro News. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed the decision. Jerry Brown's pardon of a criminal offence last year. Barajas, 40, is founder and director of Deported Veterans Support House, which provides housing and other services in Tijuana, Mexico. He also plans to find a job and go to school in Los Angeles, while supporting his 11-year-old daughter and her mother. He said Thursday that he believes his advocacy contributed to his victory and that he planned to commute to Tijuana from the Los Angeles area for at least a year to continue his work. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

opposition fighters: Even as millions of South Sudanese flee their country in what the United Nations has called the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide, hundreds of thousands of people from Sudan's South Kordofan region have found a haven there, according to Metro News. Their presence brings concerns that their improvised camps are a hiding place for militants, and aid workers say they find it increasingly hard to do their jobs. After fighting broke out in neighbouring Sudan between the government and opposition fighters in the Nuba Mountains in 2011 and Osma's cousin and nephew were killed, the 24-year-old escaped with her daughters, 2 and 6 years old, to the world's youngest nation. The Associated Press visited one such camp of more than 50,000 people that South Sudan's government ordered closed almost two years ago. We believe Yida is proactively being used as a base or as a rest and relaxation location for fighters, said Veton Orana, head of the United Nations refugee agency's office in South Sudan's northern town of Jamjang. It continues to thrive, and officials worry that the rainy season that begins in May will bring more of the militants who have been fighting for more regional autonomy from Sudan's government. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

swat: Yousafzai is expected to return to London on Monday, according to Toronto Star. Activist Adnan Tabassum, also from Swat, met with Yousafzai on Thursday in Islamabad. Security was visibly beefed up in Mingora, the Nobel Peace Prize winner's hometown, but authorities wouldn't confirm whether she would be arriving there. She said Yousafzai told her that she wanted to travel to Swat to see her former school friends and relatives. Malala is not afraid of going to Swat, where the terrorists opened fire on her in 2012 and wounded her. Read more Back home in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai says she'll continue to fight for girls' education Article Continued Below According to Tabassum, 20-year-old Yousafzai asked authorities to allow her to go to Shangla village in Swat, where a school has been built by her Malala Fund. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

tax-related problem: The B.C. government has made its first major move in the battle for housing affordability in Metro Vancouver and beyond by promising to raise the foreign-buyers tax to 20 per cent and institute a range of taxes to quell property speculation, according to Rabble. Now it looks as if the B.C. NDP is preparing to take on a more thorny challenge to confront the housing crisis. However NDP Attorney General David Eby is starting to do something about this. It's a tax-related problem that Liberal MLA Mike DeJong promised to address three years ago when he was finance minister, but never did. The challenge is the so-called bare-trust loophole, which wealthy individuals, both offshore and domestic, have long used to disguise their identities when buying and selling residential property in B.C. That way, they could avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. The repercussions could be significant for increasing housing affordability. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

visa office: He was subsequently exonerated of the Mafia association charge by an Italian court, according to Toronto Star. In late 2016, after an assessment of the case, then immigration minister John McCallum issued instructions to the visa office in Rome to grant Figliomeni an authorization to return to Canada and a temporary resident permit to reunite with his Canadian wife and two children in Vaughan. At the centre of the fight is Carlo Figliomeni, 50, who was convicted of weapons possession in Italy in 1989 and of having ties to the Mafia a few years later. Read more I was starting to lose my mind,' former mobster tells cocaine trafficking trial Article Continued Below Court hears details of mob killings in secret recordings However, two months after Ahmed Hussen took over the Immigration Department in 2017 when McCallum was appointed the ambassador to China, the offer was rescinded. Sorbara, who represents Vaughan-Woodbridge, has been assisting the family and wrote to Hussen in support of Figliomeni's reunification with his family. react-empty 157 I fully believe that the family's and most predominantly, the children's well-being should be of paramount concern and as such reunification should be completed promptly, wrote Sorbara, who declined to be interviewed. The family's MP Francesco Sorbara, a Liberal, along with two former Liberal MPs, John Nunziata and Jim Karygiannis, are lobbying the Trudeau government to let Figliomeni back into the country. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asian people: On March 1, Steves tweeted about an open house on proposed modular housing for homeless people.article continues below Trending Stories Matthew Good collapses at concert but plans to continue tourU2 From 175 to 1,585 in 13 minutes Bill Clinton finds himself in Vancouver on June 29Whistler Blackcomb heli-guide dies in avalancherelated Richmond councillor's tweet accused of suggesting ethnicity-based divisions Man kicks librarian in stomach at homeless housing meeting Richmond council puts off decision on ALR home sizes It read, 500 Asian people go to a Public Information meeting, according to Vancouver Courier. The librarian gets Karate Kicked by an opponent to housing for homeless people. Harold Steves has apologized for a tweet that has created a bit of a backlash. South Asian landowners are campaigning for 10,764 sq ft houses in the ALR. Is this multiculturalism What on earth is happening to RichmondBC The tweet got more than 100 likes and nearly 100 retweets. I apologize for being hasty in doing that, Steves said at last Monday's council meeting. Steves apologized for retweeting information from an initial eyewitness account, associating the kicker with the people attending the meeting on housing an account later refuted by police. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

signature dish: The chain serves sweet and cheesy Filipino style spaghetti, and chicken so crispy and juicylicious' that even its name on the menu promises a feeling of happiness, according to NOW Magazine. Chickenjoy or Jolly Crispy Chicken Jollibee's signature dish, was apparently my favourite as a child. There is nothing more synonymous with Filipino fast food than Jollibee the happy looking little bee with a chef's hat. Now that they're finally opening a Toronto location on Sunday April 1 I'll be able to see if that still holds true. No, Jollibee stayed with me. When I moved to Toronto as a toddler, I unwittingly left behind the world of Jolly Spaghetti, Palabok Fiestas and Breakfast Joys traditional Filipino garlic rice, egg and meat-based breakfasts but I didn't forget about Jollibee. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

aura hernandez: Hernandez, a mother of two who used to clean homes, has lived illegally in the U.S. since 2005, according to Metro News. I am not going to keep quiet anymore. As she held her 15-month-old baby, Aura Hernandez spoke to reporters inside Fourth Universalist Society, a historic Upper West Side church, where she has been hiding from federal agents. I ask all of you to not keep quiet, to defend your rights, the rights of our children, she said in Spanish with tears in her eyes as her 10-year-old son, Daniel, stood by her side. She entered more than two weeks ago after spending two weeks inside another church, where she first sought refuge. Both of her children were born in the U.S. Hernandez, 37, vows to stay inside the church until her immigration status changes. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian woman: The invisible line along the Aegean Sea that separates Turkey from Greece, and lures Syrian refugees into smugglers' boats by night, is also what sets the plot of A Dangerous Crossing in motion Audrey Clare, a Canadian woman operating an NGO on Lesvos, has gone missing, leaving behind two bodies killed with her gun A French Interpol agent and a young Syrian man named Sami, according to Rabble. Khattak and his partner, Sergeant Rachel Getty, are dispatched by the prime minister unnamed in this book, but unmistakeably modelled after Justin Trudeau to solve the mystery and find Audrey before word of her disappearance gets out and compromises efforts to resettle Syrians in Canada. Inspector Esa Khattak, Khan's protagonist and detective, sees the suspect identified on slogans spray painted on a concrete barrier outside a refugee camp in Chios, Greece no borders, no borders, no borders, the prayer of the stateless. Thus begins the fifth book in Khan's Community Policing series, a novel with a compelling premise and several intriguing moments but which nevertheless falters in its execution. At bottom, mystery novels tend to combine the pleasures of plotting and suspense with social critique, in that through solving a crime, the hero-detective also often exposes corruption the killer is the scion of a wealthy family; the murder is part of an extensive cover-up; the helpful bystander is in on the crime. With A Dangerous Crossing, Khan follows a similar formula to her other Khattak-Getty novels by wedding the conventions of a mystery novel to a social justice-oriented critique of globalization and power. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration cases: They're told that they'll need to appear in immigration court, but they typically aren't personally told that they only have a year to apply for asylum, the lawsuit argued, according to Metro News. Due to a backlog in immigration cases, the asylum seekers are often not given a hearing within a year, and thus, by the time they show up in court and learn about the deadline, it's already passed, Martinez found. In many cases, those asylum seekers are released from custody after officials have interviewed them and determined their fears to be credible. This means many asylum seekers who were previously going to have a door slammed in their face are now able to say, 'No, a federal court has said that I am timely filing my application and you need to accept it,' said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and an attorney for the plaintiffs. The judge ordered the department to begin providing notice about the one-year deadline within 90 days any time an immigrant seeking asylum is released from custody pending deportation proceedings. Jonathan Withington, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of Homeland Security, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

citizenship data: She also didn't provide context in asserting that a greater level of citizenship data is needed to comply with the Voting Rights Act, according to The Chronicle Herald. The decision to include the question in the 2020 census has stirred worry among opponents that it will intimidate immigrants, leading to an undercount and decreased political representation in Democratic-leaning communities where they tend to live. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was flat-out wrong in claiming the citizenship question had been regularly included in the Census Bureau's decennial survey to all U.S. households in recent decades. Meantime, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who announced his department's move to change the 2020 census, appeared to skew the science behind his decision when he asserted that the impact of asking about citizenship had been well-tested. Press briefing Tuesday. Here's a look at some of the statements SANDERS, on the Trump administration's decision to ask people about their citizenship in the 2020 census This is a question that's been included in every census since 1965 with the exception of 2010, when it was removed. ... And again, this is something that has been part of the census for decades and something that the Department of Commerce felt strongly needed to be included again. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

deportation arrests: The move is the latest effort to scrap immigration policies created in the final two years of Barack Obama's administration, according to Metro News. Shortly after Trump took office, rules that generally limited deportations to convicted criminals, public safety threats and recent border crossers were lifted, making anyone in the country illegally vulnerable. The new policy, which took effect in December but wasn't announced until Thursday, gives no blanket special consideration to pregnancy, though the agency says each case will be reviewed individually and women in their third trimester will generally be released. Deportation arrests have spiked more than 40 per cent under Trump's watch. All across our enforcement portfolio, we're no longer exempting any individual from being subject to the law, said Philip Miller, deputy executive associate director of ICE's enforcement and removal operations. Administration officials said new rules on pregnant women aligned with the president's executive orders last year for heightened immigration enforcement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

i transition: The day after receiving that sentence in 2014, she released a statement that read in part As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me, according to Rabble. I am Chelsea Manning. Manning, the most famous Army whistleblower, served seven years of a 35-year sentence for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified records about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am a female. Appearing on the Democracy Now! news hour, she talked about her newfound freedom It's overwhelming. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence before he left office, and she has not wasted any time, announcing a run for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

text messages: The text messages are from 6,000 miles away in Santiago, Chile, where he's helping resettle a group of young Venezuelans trying to retrace his own immigrant's journey to a better future, according to The Chronicle Herald. Between deciphering data and writing code, he fields questions that come flying fast What's the fastest bus line downtown How do you apply for an immigrant ID card Any leads on a job Sometimes I'm rude and tell them to look on Google, or I have to just turn off my phone because I get five messages all at once, says the 34-year-old. At his stand-up desk in a Silicon Valley office complex, Guido Nunez-Mujica's phone buzzes nonstop as he tries in vain to concentrate on his work. The demands on Nunez-Mujica's time and energy are part of his solitary battle to give those trapped by his homeland's economic crisis a fresh start abroad. The acts of generosity range from a few months of free rent at an apartment he manages in Santiago to bus fare for a surgeon so he could move to Peru with his wife and daughter. Since the end of last year, he has shelled out around 40,000 of his own money helping some 40 Venezuelans most of them complete strangers migrate to other South America nations. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

jagmeet singh: Last week, we saw Canadian news media's inability to engage with Singh on complex political and human rights issues, go from bad to worse, according to NOW Magazine. In case you missed it, Singh has been pressured to justify his attendance at memorial events for the victims of the Indian government's attack on the holiest Sikh temple and the genocide that followed in the 1980s. It's been five short months since Jagmeet Singh was elected the first person of colour and visibly religious leader of a federal Canadian political party. He is not being asked about anything he said at these events, or even about the pain of the Sikh community with respect to this issue. This is a tricky issue, and members of the media who operate in a country founded on a history that includes genocide against Indigenous peoples and armed conflict against Mohawk resistance during the Oka crisis, should know that. Instead, what's being reported on is that Singh appeared at these events at the same time as extremists who have expressed support for armed struggle as a form of resistance. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asian kids: Kids of all ethnic backgrounds are hanging around together, according to Toronto Star. It's not the Chinese kids with the Chinese kids or the South Asian kids with the South Asian kids. In his answer, he suggested that the upcoming consultations on systemic racism would be a wedge issue, saying, Is there really systematic racism in Canada Go to high schools and universities. I'm not sure if that's the case but this government has a tendency to tell us how we should be thinking and there's a potential danger in this, We know what's best for you' type of attitude. Indeed, if one were to go to those high schools and look at their suspension records and into the classrooms of college-stream classes, one might begin to have a sense of what systemic racism is. First of all, the social behaviour of teenagers is not a basis for any definition of systemic racism. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

barrick sites: No matter how busy he was he would always make time to write personal notes to the people he had met, whether it was a head of state or someone who had attracted his attention at a Barrick mine, according to The Chronicle Herald. It is not uncommon to see framed notes from Peter hanging on the walls of Barrick sites around the world... He was a Canadian business icon, a true original and innovator who I was so very lucky to call a mentor, colleague and friend. Here are some of their stories about Munk. I will miss him dearly. - Barrick Gold president Kelvin Dushnisky An immigrant to Canada, Peter acquired a deep and abiding love for his adopted country, and always credited this nation for his success. From his start as an immigrant picking tobacco in southwestern Ontario to creating thousands of jobs for other Canadians, Peter Munk was a business legend. But Peter repaid his beloved Canada many times over with his remarkable success in business, his outstanding community leadership, and his brilliant philanthropic contributions to universities, institutes and hospitals, both in Toronto and across the country. - former prime minister Brian Mulroney Peter Munk was a remarkable Canadian and a global business success story. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

latter group: Four out of 10 is far from a majority of votes, according to Rabble. Many more Ontarians are inclined to vote against Ford than for him. But it would be foolhardy to ignore the fact that most recent polls put Ford's PC party at around 40 per cent in the popular vote. And a good many of that latter group deeply fear and distrust the new Ontario PC leader. We still use the first-past-the-post electoral system in Ontario. But the anti-Fords are split among three parties Kathleen Wynne's Liberals and Andrea Horvath's New Democrats, in more or less equal proportion, with a much smaller cohort supporting the Greens. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

county board: But at the local level, there's a backlash brewing, according to Metro News. On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to condemn the state's sanctuary law and join a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit that contends it's unconstitutional. California and its Democratic-controlled Legislature have built a reputation for leading resistance against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The law, Senate Bill 54, limits police co-operation with federal immigration authorities. Jerry Brown, legislators and mayors of the largest cities in the state to resist stepped-up efforts to deport people in the country illegally and to stop President Donald Trump from building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. It's a capstone of the effort by Gov. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

donald trump: This practice, the housing groups allege, amounts to discrimination, according to Toronto Star. Read more Opinion Rick Salutin Privacy was never the issue with Facebook's data Article Continued Below Analysis Can Facebook restore public trust after Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal What Facebook's privacy policy allows may surprise you The lawsuit comes amid an ongoing controversy over the data privacy practices of the world's largest social network, which is frequented by 2 billion people every month. react-empty 144 Facebook is currently facing allegations that British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica improperly used the details of tens of millions of Facebook users to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York City, several fair housing groups accuse Facebook of allowing landlords and real estate companies to illegally tailor their advertisement audiences on the basis of sex, family status, number of children and other factors. Regulators and attorneys general across the country are now probing Facebook's role in the data collection, and the Federal Trade Commission announced Monday it was investigating the company. It is already a challenge for women, families with children, people with disabilities and other underserved groups to find housing, Rice added. Amid growing public concern in the past weeks that Facebook has mishandled users' data, our investigation shows that Facebook also allows and even encourages its paid advertisers to discriminate using its vast trove of personal data, Lisa Rice, the National Fair Housing Alliances' President and CEO, said in a statement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

hq candidates: MaRS says the majority of companies surveyed cited immigration reform, including the federal government's new global skills strategy that can expedite visas, as a key factor influencing their competitiveness, according to Toronto Star. Read more Opinion Amazon's interest in Toronto region the start of big things to come Article Continued Below Toronto tech boom poised to bring good and bad Toronto the only Canadian city on Amazon short list of HQ2 candidates The survey says 35 per cent of respondents hired used the expedited visas, which were introduced in mid-2016. react-empty 138 Companies said they made hires predominantly from the United States as well as from India, China, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The survey by the MaRS Discovery District found that of the 55 companies that responded, 53 per cent saw more international applicants in 2017 over 2016 and 45 per cent of companies made international hires last year. MaRS questioned technology firms based primarily in the Toronto region that have over 1 million in annual revenue with U.S. and international market exposure. Technology companies in the U.S. have criticized the crackdown as international job seekers are a key source of talent for the sector, with immigrants making up about a quarter of the U.S. technology and science workforce. The boost in international applications come as the Trump administration has looked to curb immigration, including ordering a review of a specialty visa program that the tech sector relies on, and looking to dismantle a program that protects children of undocumented migrants from deportation. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

plan: The cash is in addition to the 2.2 billion over five years that had already been earmarked for these community groups, according to CTV. Canada's plan is a signal the federal government is serious about defending the country's two official languages, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said during the announcement. About two-thirds of the new money is dedicated to organizations that promote either French or English in cities and towns where the language is in the minority. The government's plan is three-fold reinforce minority-language communities; offer better access to French-language services outside Quebec; and promote bilingualism. He accused the prior Conservative government of underfinancing official languages programs and of not making the country's bilingual character a priority. It's not a secret that the French language outside Quebec has regressed over the past few years, Trudeau said to a friendly crowd of francophone community workers in Ottawa. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

undercounting segments: The decision to restore the question after decades prompted an immediate lawsuit from California already tangling with Washington over immigration and moves by other states with large immigrant populations to engage in a legal fight, according to The Chronicle Herald. The population count, a massive effort taken every 10 years, is far more than an academic exercise. Not since 1950 has the census collected citizenship data from the whole population, rather than just a population sample, says the Congressional Research Service. It's required by the Constitution and used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House as well as how federal money is distributed to local communities. The political stakes of undercounting segments of the population are high. Communities and businesses depend on it in deciding where to build schools, hospitals, grocery stores and more. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ontario college: There are too many rules that stop you from working as a hairstylist here, according to Metro News. They test you on all these names of bacterial infections and medical terms that I have never heard of, said the 43-year-old, who fled to Canada in 2008 and was granted asylum shortly after. But he can't even cut anyone's hair in a salon without a hairstylist licence in Ontario.A native of Mosul, Gbo has made five failed attempts at the hairstylist exam mandated by the Ontario College of Trades, the professional regulatory body of 23 compulsory skilled trades in the province. I'm not trying to be a chemist or a doctor. BENJAMIN GBOWith a diploma and more than 15 years of experience as a barber in Iraq, Benjamin Gbo's dream is to open his own shop in Toronto to support his family. I just want to cut men's hair and shave their beard to make them look nice, and make a living. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

skills strategy: MaRS says the majority of companies surveyed cited immigration reform, including the federal government's new global skills strategy that can expedite visas, as a key factor influencing their competitiveness, according to CTV. The survey says 35 per cent of respondents hired used the expedited visas, which were introduced in mid-2016. The survey by the MaRS Discovery District found that of the 55 companies that responded, 53 per cent saw more international applicants in 2017 over 2016 and 45 per cent of companies made international hires last year. Companies said they made hires predominantly from the United States as well as from India, China, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The boost in international applications come as the Trump administration has looked to curb immigration, including ordering a review of a specialty visa program that the tech sector relies on, and looking to dismantle a program that protects children of undocumented migrants from deportation. MaRS questioned technology firms based primarily in the Toronto region that have over 1 million in annual revenue with U.S. and international market exposure. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

tamil refugees: Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region, according to Rabble. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia Image Wikimedia Pro refugee protest in Australia Like this podcast rabble is reader/listener supported journalism. Successive Australian governments have been at the forefront internationally in devising and implementing increasingly repressive and harsher policies against ayslum seekers and refugees.APC talks to Umesh Perinpanayagam, from the Tamil Refugee Council, about the situation for Tamil refugees in Australia and the ongoing political fight for the rights of all asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.