"After warning federal prosecutors for two years, Judge Sam Sparks was fed up with the parade of nonviolent illegal aliens in the overburdened courtrooms in his Texas division. What he did next, said lawyers across the country, was astounding and unprecedented."

MARCIA COYLE in the National Law Journal.

"When Duthoy congratulated Alameda and eyed his certificate, she noticed something.

"They wouldn't let you change your clothes when they took your picture?" she asked Alameda.

"No," he replied.

Alameda's permanent document of citizenship shows him in his orange jail uniform -- a reminder of the price he paid to prove it"

SASHA ASLANIAN for Minnesota Public Radio.

"[A]lmost 15 years after his crimes, by applying for citizenship, Mr. Wu, 29, came to the attention of immigration authorities in a parallel law enforcement system that makes no allowances for rehabilitation. He was abruptly locked up in November as a “criminal alien,” subject to mandatory deportation to China — the nation he left at 5, when his family immigrated legally to the United States."

NINA BERNSTEIN in the New York Times.

"Five years later, the Mayas say they have only questions and a burning sense of betrayal. They insist they held up their end of the bargain, risking their lives in hours of undercover work, wearing wires and using fake names. But for reasons they do not understand, ICE and the agents who were their handlers abruptly turned against them-and they now face imminent deportation."

HELEN O'NEILL for the Associated Press.

Superior Forestry Service Inc., based in Tilly in southeast Arkansas, and the workers filed the class-action settlement proposal Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn."

CHUCK BARTELS for the Associated Press.

"An Arizona sheriff said he planned to defy Washington's attempts to roll back his staunch enforcement of federal immigration law, a move that could put him on a collision course with the U.S. government."

MIRIAM JORDAN in the Wall Street Journal.

"A review of more than 800 pages of inspection reports obtained by the Houston Chronicle through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that inspectors have, in some instances, given positive reviews to facilities with serious problems — ranging from inadequate medical care to poor grievance procedures. In many cases, ICE has required facilities with deficiencies to make improvements, though inspectors often failed to note in subsequent reports whether changes were made."

SUSAN CARROLL in the Houston Chronicle.

"In an order filed Friday, a federal judge in Austin questioned U.S. prosecutors for seeking criminal convictions in court against some illegal immigrants, writing that the practice "presents a cost to the American taxpayer ... that is neither meritorious nor reasonable."

The order by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks comes as his docket, like others in Texas, is swollen with defendants charged with immigration crimes."

STEVEN KREYTAK in the Austin American-Statesman.

Army veteran Rennison Castillo claims officials failed to act on his pleas in 2005 to check his military record and Social Security number.

It wasn't until immigration attorneys stepped in that his citizenship was confirmed and he was freed."

MANUEL VALDES for the Associated Press.

"Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, an undocumented immigrant charged with using someone else’s identity to work, gave birth to a boy on Dec. 21 at Maricopa Medical Center. After her C-section, she was shackled for two days to her hospital bed. She was not allowed to nurse her baby. And when guards walked her out of the hospital in shackles, she had no idea what officials had done with her child."

VALERIA FERNÁNDEZ for New America Media.

"Though Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies and community organizations have made advances in responding to domestic violence in immigrant communities, attorneys and advocates say many victims still face obstacles in reporting abuse and seeking help.

Language barriers, financial dependence and lack of information keep victims from coming forward. And those here illegally worry about being sent back to their native countries.

Many victims do not know that they may be eligible for special visas for victims of crime and domestic violence."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

"The woman lowered her head and looked away, her shoulder-length dark hair covering her round face.  More than a year had passed since her uncle, a former Mexican state police commander, was kidnapped along with eight soldiers and beheaded by hit men working for a drug cartel.  But she still could not bear to look at the gruesome newspaper photos of the killings her lawyer had just spread on a table."

DANIEL GONZÁLEZ in the Arizona Republic.

"The rust-colored, steel-and-cement wall has become a surreal fixture on Brownsville’s skyline. It cleaves downtown Hope Park, built as a symbol of unity between the United States and Mexico. It stops and starts, without rhyme or reason, along the Rio Grande River’s levees, leaving miles of gaps. It highlights the city’s economic divide: It’s the first thing folks in the poorer barrios see when they look out their windows, while richer folks enjoy unaltered views of palm trees and manicured fairways when they tee off on private golf courses. It zigs and zags through residents’ backyards, through citrus orchards—an ugly red scar on a green, subtropical landscape."

MELISSA DEL BOSQUE in the Texas Observer.

"Six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke the visa of a prominent Muslim academic, the United States State Department reversed itself and said Wednesday that it would no longer bar the scholar from entering the United States. ... The State Department’s order also applies to Adam Habib, deputy vice chancellor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa."

SARAH LYALL in the New York Times.