ustxtxb_obs_1992_04_24_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

PEOPLE Make a world of difference ! We’re proud of our employees and their contributions to your success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. FUTUM P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 389-1500 COMMUNICATIONS, INC. is guaranteed by law in deportation cases, and bonds, though they vary, in the Valley average $3,000. But “airport detainees” are in “exclusion” rather than deportation proceedings, so they are not guaranteed bond. Austin immigration lawyer Barbara Hines characterizes exclusion as “a total judicial administrative fiction. … There’s this idea that if you get your foot on this side of the river you have many more procedural rights, even more rights than someone who surrenders voluntarily at an airport.” According to Ms. Hines, who accepts few exclusion cases, detaining asylum applicants in exclusion cases in a place as remote as Harlingen \(where the detention center is 40 miles from the den on the applicant. “I think it’s against the spirit of the Refugee Act,” Ms. Hines . said. “If you’re fleeing for your life, what difference does it make whether you come across the river or through an airport with a fake passport?” Access to documents, translators and legal counsel are particularly important in exclusion proceedings, said Lynn Alvarez, a Los Angeles immigration attorney. In deportation cases, she explained, it is incumbent upon the government to prove that the subject is deportable. In exclusion cases, since the immigrant is held to be legally outside the country, the burden of proof is shifted to the applicant. Without access to evidence, translation services and legal counsel applicants face insurmountable odds. Ms. Alvarez also used the word “fiction” in describing the difference between deportation and exclusion and said that the bonding process as applied to exclusion cases is considered parole. The applicant, after paying the bond set by the judge is “paroled into the Untied States.” “All we wanted was [the INS] to send us back to Los Angeles or at least put a bond on us,” Mr. Sharma said of the December hunger strike. “Out of that place we can be near a phone, we can find some help, we can prepare our cases well.” Mr. Sharma said he knew that in Los Angeles, where he was apprehended, bonds were available in exclusion proceedings. Mr. Moreno, of the INS, said that at the time the “partial hunger strike” there was confusion among the detainees about the availability of bonds in Los Angeles. In a telephone interview Ms. Alvarez said her Los Angeles law office has obtained boYids in exclusion cases, although she was not certain of the criteria the district INS office used in granting them. Bonds are rare in exclusion proceedings in the Valley. Political asylum documents in hand, Rajesh Sharma is returning to Los Angeles; he was arranging a flight when we interviewed him. Attorneys and paralegals who have worked with him, including his own attorney who called him “an inspiration to all of us,” said work will be more difficult after Mr. Sharma is gone and lawyers like Ms. Garcia will have to devote more of their time penetrating a wall of language in order to prepare their cases. “I don’t know what we would do without Ms. Garcia,” immigration judge Glenn McPhaul said in conversation, while he waited for the electricity to come on. He might soon find out. “I’m getting out of this, I just don’t think I can do it anymore.”. said Ms. Garcia, who says she plans to move to a personal injury law practice. “It’s been a very bad year.” Runoff Results T, HE 29TH CONGRESSIONAL District was drawn with an Hispanic majority, but the advantage went for nought on April 14 as Gene Green, an Anglo state senator, edged Ben Reyes, a Houston City. Council member, by 180 votes in the Democratic runoff. Barring a recount, Green, who had the support of organized labor, will face Clark Kent Ervin, a Republican former White House aide, in the general election. In Senate runoffs, Houston-area District 15, redrawn with an Hispanic majority, paralleled the 29th Congressional race as incumbent John Whitmire defeated state Rep. Roman Martinez. Green, Whitmire and Dan McClung, the consultant they shared, mobilized elderly voters whose support in the early voting period provided the margins of victory. In a GOP congressional runoff in El Paso, former sportscaster Chip Taberski beat former County Judge Pat O’Rourke for the right to take on U.S. Rep. Ron Coleman, a Democrat wounded by the check scandal. In the 24th District, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Steve Masterson won the GOP runoff to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Martin Frost. In other Senate races, Florence Shapiro, Plano mayor, narrowly beat Don Kent, a Tyler lawyer, in a GOP runoff for District 2 in which Kent made an issue of Shapiro’s Jewish faith; Shapiro will take on Sen. Ted Lyon of Rockwall in November. Jeff Wentworth beat Alan Schoolcraft in a GOP runoff of state representatives for Hill Country Senate District 26. Wentworth will face Carlos Higgins of Austin in the general election unless a challenge knocks Wentworth off the ballot. The Texas Constitution prohibits anyone who holds a government appointment from serving in the Legislature during that term, and although Wentworth quit the Texas State University board of regents in 1988, his term continues until February 1993. In House Democratic runoffs, Rep. Tom Cate of Lytle was unseated by Richard Raymond of Benavides in South Texas House District 44′. Four-term Rep. Nick Perez lost to Antonio “Tony” Parra in El Paso House District 75. Incumbents who survived runoffs included Democrats Al Price of Beaumont and Garfield. Thompson of Fort Worth and Republicans Talmadge Heflin and Dalton Smith, both of Houston. Jesse Jones, former president of the Progressive Voters League, beat former Rep. Paul Ragsdale in Dallas District 110. Diana Davila defeatedBen Beard in Houston District 145. Yvonne Davis defeated Jan Gore in a District 111 Democratic runoff to take on Rep. Glen Repp, R-Dallas, who was redistricted into a black majority district. Pedro Nieto of Uvalde defeated Tracy King of Uvalde in the District 43 Democratic runoff; there is no Republican opponent. Larry Wright of Malone, defeated Lynda Bruner of Hillsboro in the District 10 Democratic runoff. In Republican runoffs, Rep. Gwyn Shea of Irving lost to Rep. Will Hartnett of Dallas in District 114. Bill Welch’s apparent 22-vote win over Susan Combs in west Travis County District 47 was placed in doubt when GOP officials discovered they apparently had not counted all the ballots in one voting box. The recount winner will face Democrat Jimmy Day. J.C. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11 1,R,9 ,,i4k ! 4,011,10?” -4.ass.$1 ,0