Canada's tightening immigration policy may be felt in U.S.

The revelation that an L.A. arson suspect entered the U.S. after losing an asylum bid in Canada has focused attention on stringent policies that could force more immigrants to seek refuge in the U.S.

by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

January 14, 2012

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada

For years, Canada has had one of the most generous immigration policies in the world, welcoming tens of thousands of asylum applicants who claim to be fleeing persecution in their homelands.

But Canada's Conservative government has begun rolling up the welcome mat, stepping up efforts to track down and deport thousands of asylum-seekers whose applications have been denied.

The clampdown is likely to be felt not only across Canada, but in the United States.

Fresh from the revelation that Los Angeles arson suspect Harry Burkhart traveled to the U.S. from Vancouver after losing his nearly three-year bid for refugee status, immigration analysts here warn that the United States could become a new destination for thousands of asylum applicants soon to be pushed out of the pipeline in Canada.

"This is about to become a staging inventory for potential illicit entry into the United States," said Richard Kurland, an immigration policy analyst and attorney in Vancouver.

The most dramatic change is set to take effect at the end of June, with a $540-million "balanced refugee reform" program designed to speed up the asylum review process and start slicing through a backlog of more than 42,000 refugee cases, many of which have been awaiting a decision for years.

The tough new timelines call for asylum applicants to be given a hearing within 90 days, or even less for refugees from some countries, with most appeals heard within an additional 120 days, accompanied by stepped-up enforcement to eject those who fail to prove they would be persecuted if sent home.

U.S. officials say that asylum claimants who are denied refugee protection in Canada will not be automatically turned away at the U.S. border, despite a 2004 agreement between the countries that bars new arrivals in either from entering the other to claim asylum. That pact was put in place to halt the flow of asylum-seekers from the U.S., with its comparatively tough immigration policies, into Canada, where winning asylum had been easier.

The agreement was intended to target new arrivals, not those who had already gone through Canada's asylum process and faced potential deportation, said Mike Milne, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Seattle, which supervises the western U.S.-Canada border.

"Anybody seeking asylum or claiming a credible fear of persecution gets to articulate their case to an asylum officer. We would take them into detention and they would have the same right as anyone seeking asylum to a hearing," Milne said.

Canadian officials say that's far from clear, and suggest it's more likely that anyone showing up at the U.S. border after failing to win asylum would be quickly returned to Canada, and then deported, under the 2004 agreement.

"Canada and the U.S. have a strong record of cooperation with respect to migrant, refugee and asylum issues and the management of our shared border," said Nancy Caron, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the nation's chief border enforcement agency.

In any event, U.S. officials say they do not anticipate a massive increase — at least in the number of those seeking to cross the border through legal channels — because they expect that Canada will allow some failed applicants to stay under other exemptions and will deport as many as possible of those deemed not at risk of persecution in their home countries.

But with Canada typically granting about 40% of asylum petitions, the prospect of moving more rapidly through 42,000 pending cases and the more than 124,000 already targeted for deportation, analysts say, is bound to make migration patterns much more unpredictable.

"If you deprive a large number of people of asylum options, they're going to look for the next place to go, in large numbers," Kurland said. "So it is utterly incomprehensible to not figure out that come June-July 2012, when the new rules kick in, there will be a drive to seek sanctuary somewhere else, such as the largest neighbor in North America."

In at least one case, that may already have happened: Officials in both the United States and Canada, citing privacy laws, have refused to say when or how Burkhart and his mother, Dorothee, traveled to the U.S., though it is likely they arrived as tourists with the aid of their German passports.

Most failed asylum applicants in Canada hold passports from nations that would require them to have a visa to enter the U.S. But Kurland said even the Burkharts, though they wouldn't have needed a visa, should have triggered an alert for U.S. immigration authorities after having been rejected for asylum in Canada.

"If they can't catch two obvious refugee claimants who spent years in Canada in the refugee system, how can we trust them to deal with the potential of thousands of folks turned away from Canada because of the new changes?" he said.

Lack of funding until now has prevented the Canadian Border Services Agency from making much headway against the more than 124,000 immigrants targeted for deportation, most of them failed asylum claimants. At least 44,000 have ignored orders to leave and are facing arrest.

"Once all avenues of appeal have been exhausted, persons are expected to abide by our laws and leave Canada. It is extremely challenging, since most people facing removal have no desire to comply," said Renee Ribout, spokeswoman for the border services agency.

Refugee advocates, meanwhile, worry that the stepped-up timelines enshrined in the new law, while purportedly designed to help immigrants by giving them a speedier decision, could hurt more than they help.

The 90-day deadline for holding hearings gives applicants little time to find lawyers and prepare the complex paperwork required to build their case files, which often number hundreds of pages and must delve into the complex political and social situations that may have put the applicants at risk in their homelands.

"They're responding to a real problem, that the process is taking too long, but there's a balance in the middle; you need to give people enough time," said Janet Dench, executive director of the nonprofit group Canadian Council for Refugees.

"We're primarily concerned about women who've survived sexual violence, [as well as] gays and lesbians, victims of torture," she said. "A very fast process will actually compromise the possibilities of protection for some of these most vulnerable groups."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-canada-immigration-20120115,0,448505,print.story

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Lebanese rally against rape, sexual violence

Demonstrators gathered outside the Interior Ministry and marched through the rainy streets of Beirut to the nearby parliament.

"Marital rape is void, discrimination is void," women and men in the crowd shouted. Rally-goers carried banners saying, "We want laws that protect women from all sorts of sexual violence."

Under Lebanese law, spousal rape is not considered a crime, and neither is domestic violence. Moreover, the Lebanese criminal code stipulates that if a man rapes a woman, his sentence will be annulled if he agrees to marry her.

Maya Helou, rallying the crowd from her megaphone, said the time has come for the "patriarchal, backward laws" to go. Another demonstrator, a young man in his 20s, said he had "come today because rape is rape, whether marital rape or rape in the streets."

The Lebanese women's rights group KAFA has reportedly been working on draft legislation with parliament that criminalize all types of domestic abuse. The bill is reportedly in the hands of a parliamentary subcommittee that is reviewing and debating the text.

But the proposed law has come under fire from some religious groups, and clashes have erupted between women's rights advocates and lawmakers over wording in the bill. KAFA has been pushing for the law to specifically criminalize spousal rape, terminology that hasn't gone down well with some of the lawmakers, including Imad Hout, a member of the parliamentary subcommittee.

In an interview with Lebanon's English-language newspaper the Daily Star in December, he said the term had been scrapped from the original draft and argued that marital rape doesn't exist.

"There's nothing called rape between a husband and a wife," he said. "It's called forcing someone violently to have intercourse."

Ali Fakhri, a 25-year-old member of Nasawiya, said he hoped the march would attract the attention of lawmakers.

"Hundreds of us are out marching under the rain today, " he said. "They will take us seriously."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/01/lebanese-rally-against-rape-sexual-violence.html

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From Google News

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Police in Calif. say homeless killer is in custody

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Investigators are "extremely confident" a man in custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday, easing a month of worry and fear among the homeless and their advocates.

Investigators have tied the killings to Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, who was detained Friday night after a fourth homeless man was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, Welter said.

Witnesses and bystanders at the crime scene chased Ocampo on foot, and he was captured by a police officer who was part of a perimeter set up in response to dozens of 911 calls and other reports.

• STORY: Homeless may be target of serial killer

Three other homeless men have been found stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December, and a task force had been looking for the single suspect they believed was responsible for all three.

"We are extremely confident that we have the man that is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County," Welter said. "We plan to request from the district attorney that he be charged with four counts of murder."

Neither Welter nor any of the other police chiefs, FBI agents or political officials who spoke at the news conference would give any information on the evidence against Ocampo, or any suspected motive.

Ocampo is being held without bail at the Anaheim jail. A phone number listed in Ocampo's name rang without an answer, and no one answered the door at two addresses listed in his name.

Word of the arrest was greeted with cautious optimism among the Orange County homeless and their advocates.

Larry Haynes, executive director of the Mercy House in Santa Ana, said the people who sleep at his shelter arrived for the night buzzing about the arrest, which workers had announced in the streets.

"It was the topic of a lot of conversation tonight, and everybody was really excited, just really happy and relieved," Haynes said. "But until there is a conviction and we know for absolute certainty, we're hoping that people will try to stay safe and come into places like ours for the night."

The victim was found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of a Carl's Jr. near busy intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway in Anaheim, police said.

A candlelight vigil for the man and the other victims was planned for Saturday evening.

Marilyn Holland, an Anaheim resident who befriended the victim and regularly brought him oatmeal raisin cookies, said he was uncharacteristically nervous since police warned him to stay vigilant in the days after the killings began.

"He told me he thought he was being followed," Holland said. "I told him after pay day I was going to get him a cellphone, so he could call 911 if anything happened. Normally he would refuse help but he was willing to accept the phone because he was scared." Holland was paid Friday but didn't get the chance to get the phone to her friend.

Several witnesses reported an assault in progress, and officers arrived to find the homeless man dead near a trash bin in the restaurant parking lot. Witnesses followed a man and led police to him, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

"We were having dinner in the area and saw about 40 police cars scream into the parking lot. I ran over and hugged my friend, screaming, 'Please tell me it's not John!' But it was," Holland said, fighting back tears.

Police set up a large containment area at the crime scene in a search for the killer and scoured nearby neighborhoods, including a mobile home park, Dunn said.

A police bloodhound traced the scent from Ocampo's belongings back to the scene where the attack occurred, about 10 miles northeast of the Disneyland Resort, authorities said.

Virtually everyone who spoke at the Saturday news conference thanked what Placentia police Chief R.A. Hicks called the "brave citizens" who chased the suspect and made sure he was arrested.

A task force is investigating the killings of the three other homeless men.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was killed outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

It was Smit's killing and its similarities that led police to strongly believe they were seeking a serial killer of homeless men.

Haynes said he asked both workers and clients whether any of them had ever seen or heard of Ocampo, and no one that he talked to was familiar with him.

He said he couldn't begin to imagine why someone would target the people his organization seeks to help.

"It almost sounds like hunting," he said.

Also Saturday, mourners wept at the scene of death of the latest victim, who was described by friends as a Vietnam War veteran in his 60s named John. They left flowers and signs, one of which read "We love you, John."

The victim was found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of a Carl's Jr. near busy intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway in Anaheim, police said.

A candlelight vigil for the man and the other victims was planned for Saturday evening.

Marilyn Holland, an Anaheim resident who befriended the victim and regularly brought him oatmeal raisin cookies, said he was uncharacteristically nervous since police warned him to stay vigilant in the days after the killings began.

"He told me he thought he was being followed," Holland said. "I told him after pay day I was going to get him a cellphone, so he could call 911 if anything happened. Normally he would refuse help but he was willing to accept the phone because he was scared." Holland was paid Friday but didn't get the chance to get the phone to her friend.

Several witnesses reported an assault in progress, and officers arrived to find the homeless man dead near a trash bin in the restaurant parking lot. Witnesses followed a man and led police to him, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

"We were having dinner in the area and saw about 40 police cars scream into the parking lot. I ran over and hugged my friend, screaming, 'Please tell me it's not John!' But it was," Holland said, fighting back tears.

Police set up a large containment area at the crime scene in a search for the killer and scoured nearby neighborhoods, including a mobile home park, Dunn said.

A police bloodhound traced the scent from Ocampo's belongings back to the scene where the attack occurred, about 10 miles northeast of the Disneyland Resort, authorities said.

Virtually everyone who spoke at the Saturday news conference thanked what Placentia police Chief R.A. Hicks called the "brave citizens" who chased the suspect and made sure he was arrested.

A task force is investigating the killings of the three other homeless men.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was killed outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

It was Smit's killing and its similarities that led police to strongly believe they were seeking a serial killer of homeless men.

.