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csmonitor.com — Federal judges on both coasts this month awarded major settlements to Hispanic guest workers in rulings that could alter the U.S. immigration debate and potentially offer new jobs to Americans. In San Francisco, a federal judge ordered back pay to the original guest workers from Mexico who laid track for American rail companies in the World War II era. In Atlanta, another federal judge ruled that 3,000 pineros, the men who plant the massive pine plantations of the deep South, have been grossly underpaid and subjected to capricious industry rules. The court also ordered compensation. The rulings offer troubling insights into how U.S. industries, especially in the South, exploit foreign guest workers under the loosely regulated H-2B visa program.

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ipsnews.net — With the presidential polls just over a month away, tens of thousands of U.S. war veterans are still wondering whether or not they will be able to vote for the candidate of their choice. About 100,000 former soldiers who are currently residing in government-run facilities can no longer vote because they cannot register without assistance from volunteers due to disabilities and serious illnesses. Rights groups say they want to help war veterans with the registration process but officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs are creating hurdles for them.

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nytimes.com — Immigrants seeking asylum in the United States have been disproportionately rejected by judges whom the Bush administration chose using a conservative political litmus test, according to an analysis of Justice Department data. The analysis suggests that the effects of a patronage-style selection process for immigration judges — used for three years before it was abandoned as illegal — are still being felt by scores of immigrants whose fates are determined by the judges installed in that period. Critics of the politicization of the immigration bench say it is not enough that in 2007 the department stopped using illegal hiring procedures. The fact that many of the politically selected judges remain in power, they say, continues to undermine the perceived fairness of hearings for immigrants fighting deportation.

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