USLegal Reporter

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal by a Chinese man who sought asylum due to a forced abortion on his wife. Yi Qiang Yang was 20 when he married his 17 year-old wife. Because they were too young to be legally married, they had a traditional marriage. Authorities forced his wife to have an abortion when she was eight months pregnant, due to a controversial family planning policy that generally limits couples to having only one child.

In 1996, an asylum law was enacted for victims of China’s policy on children. The Bush administration has supported asylum for women, but has resisted the male partners’ efforts to get asylum. U.S. immigration authorities and some courts have used the distinction between traditional and legal marriage to deny asylum. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to deny the appeal was made without comment from the justices.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1154//05-12-2008/20080512085004_15.html

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday refused to issue an injunction against the enforcement of the Legal Arizona Workers Act pending a case appealing a lower court’s decision upholding the law.

The new law, effective January 1, 2008, punishes employers who hire illegal immigrants. Prosecutors who had previously agreed not to bring charges against violaters of the new law prior to March 1 may now do so.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/federal-appeals-court-denies-injunction.php

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake Tuesday refused to issue an injunction against the enforcement of the Legal Arizona Workers Act while civil rights groups appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, describing any hardships of the new law as minimal. The newly effective law requires employers to verify the legal status of new hires and penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/federal-judge-denies-injunction-against.php

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake Thursday upheld the Legal Arizona’s Workers Act, a law that forbids an employer from hiring an employee whom the employer knows to be an illegal immigrant. The new law, which was first enacted last year and became effective January 1, 2008, requires employers to use the E-verify system, a federal database, to verify the legal status of individuals before hiring. The legislation allows for the suspension or revocation of an employer’s license if he or she violates the law.

The court rejected a lawsuit by business groups that claimed the law is unconsitutional as only the federal government, not the state, can regulate immigration. According to the court, federal pre-emption applies to civil or criminal penalties other than licensing laws. The court previously dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by civil rights groups on the basis that the law had not yet gone into effect. Representatives of the 15 county attorneys earlier agreed not to prosecute employers who violate the law prior to March 1, 2008 until the case could be heard.

Source: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/224165; http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/federal-judge-upholds-arizona.php