In the News

In the News

Regional

Eighty-nine people in Prince William County have been questioned about their citizenship since the County stepped up immigration enforcement on March 3. The Washington Post reported that 41 people were arrested on various charges after being questioned. The questioning occurred mostly during traffic stops and calls for service. The County has detained nearly 700 people since July, and checks the residency status of crime suspects thought to be in the country illegally. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is supposed to pick up detainees who are in the country illegally within 72 hours, but the volume of detainees in Prince William County has caused delays of two to three weeks.

National

The urgency of building a fence along the Mexican border has trumped federal environmental laws, the Department of Homeland Security declared. The Department announced two waivers to help meet the goal of constructing 670 miles of fence before the end of 2008, The Los Angeles Times reported. Conservatives who supported the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which did not earn the support of President Bush, were satisfied with the news. Environmentalists were largely dismayed, claiming the construction will have pronounced impacts on the environment and culture of the border communities.

Farmers in the state of Pennsylvania are caught in the middle of a conflict between politics and commercial interests three weeks away from the state's democratic primary election, The New York Times reported. Many of the states 40,000 commercial farms require crops to be hand-picked, and operators have relied on immigrant laborers from Latin America to pick non-traditional crops since the turn of the last century. Yet in many of the state's legislative races, cracking down on illegal immigration has become a focus issue. Keith Eckel, one of the largest tomato planters in the Northeast, actually shut down his operation this year because of a labor shortage. "In the current political climate, I just can't take the risk of planting two million tomato plants and watching them rot in the field," he said.

International

Farmers in Argentina suspended a three-week old, nationwide strike this week. The farmers objected to new taxes on exports and threatened to resume the strike in 30 days if negotiations do not reach a desirable solution. The nation has already faced food shortages and has halted some exports. On Friday, tens of thousands marched in Buenas Aires in support of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who has urged the farmers to end the strike but has not given into demands to roll back the export tax, The New York Times reported.

Pedro Almodóvar, one of the most accomplished movie directors in the Spanish language, has launched a blog chronicling the making of his new film, "Broken Hugs," starring Penelope Cruz. Cruz also starred in Almodóvar's last film, "Volver." Daily updates at http://www.pedroalmodovar.es/ will include photos, videos and notes from behind the scenes, according to Latina Magazine.

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