The American Civil Liberties Union is offering to help University of Pittsburgh students who were arrested during the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh—some of whom say they weren't even protesting. ACLU attorneys made the offer at a rally Oct. 1 attended by some 150. They say police conducted unlawful mass arrests and used excessive force.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. From AP, July 10:

Supermax prison: Obama's books objectionable
The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

In a joint press conference in Miami, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress July 2 to draft a new immigration policy that improves public safety by bringing the undocumented out of the shadows. Miami Police Chief John Timoney, Austin Chief Art Acevedo and former Sacramento Chief Art Venegas said local law enforcement has been undermined by the blurred line between crimes and civil violations of immigration law. Those who call undocumented immigrants "criminals" are misreading the law and hurting their own communities, they said. "When you remove the emotion from the debate," Chief Acevedo said, "no one can argue that it is in the best interest of public safety to keep these people living in the shadows." (NYT, July 1)

Last weekend, Shawna Forde, 41, leader of the Minuteman American Defense (MAD) group, and two of her associates were arrested in connection with the murder of a 9-year-old girl, Brisenia Flores, and her father, Raul, in Arivaca, Arizona. Local police are reporting that Forde and her posse broke into the Flores home dressed as law enforcement officers looking for money and drugs to finance her border-watch group—with the intention of leaving no witnesses behind.

A legal challenge in the US Supreme Court to the construction of the US-Mexico border wall was declared dead June 16. The justices declined to hear an appeal by the County of El Paso, Texas, to an earlier decision by a US federal court judge that allowed the Bush administration to proceed with construction of the controversial wall.

On a whirl-wind tour of the Southwest late last week, senior members of the Barack Obama administration laid out the White House strategy for border security, narcotics control and immigration reform. And contrary to the expectations of some border residents and advocates who were betting on a new approach last January, the new administration's strategic policy thrust mainly follows and even expands on the course long pursued by previous Democratic and Republican administrations. A solid alliance with the Calderón administration in Mexico City is a key component of the Obama border policy.

An AP story in Montana's Billings Gazette June 1 notes that Scott Roeder—the suspect in the slaying of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, gunned down while serving as an usher during Sunday services at his Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas—was a member of the radical right group the Montana Freemen, who gained fame for their long stand-off with law enforcement in the mid '90s. It also notes the two-faced stance of the "legitimate" anti-choice movement in their supposed disavowal of the slaying:

A US federal judge May 27 sentenced the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and five of its officials pursuant to their convictions of providing material support to Palestinian group Hamas. District Judge Jorge Solis sentenced Shurki Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh to prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years and reaffirmed the jury's $12.4 million judgment against the group.