News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• In one month, approvals under the Obama administration’s deferred action program increased from 4,591 to 53,273.
• In Texas, the Hidalgo County prosecutor is seeking a grand jury investigation of the Texas Department of Public Safety for its permissive shooting-at-vehicles policy. On October 25, a state trooper shot at a truck he allegedly thought was involved in drug trafficking, killing two young immigrant men who were lying in the truck’s bed.
• A new report by the Detention Watch Network highlights ten detention centers it believes are the worst in the U.S. for treatment of detainees. A vigil was held outside one of the centers, Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, on Friday, November 17.  

News Round Up In-Brief

US News:

• An officer in Texas shot a vehicle carrying nine Guatemalan passengers from a helicopter, resulting in the death of two passengers.
• In California, a Border Patrol agent killed Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin, a U.S. citizen and mother of five children. As result of Tachiquin’s killing, and 17 others since 2010, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has agreed to investigate the use of force by Border Patrol agents.
• In Oregon, immigrant rights activists walked to the Capitol in protest over an executive order Governor Kitzhaber signed in 2007 requiring proof of legal status to obtain a driver’s license.
• In a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, the Union for Reform Judaism expressed disappointment with the administration for effectively denying Deferred Action-eligible immigrants benefits extended under the Affordable Care Act.