From Sept. 12 to 15, agents from four ICE Fugitive Operations Teams arrested 144 people in Chicago and nearby areas in an operation targeting people who have failed to comply with deportation orders. (ICE calls such people "fugitives" or "absconders.") Of those arrested, 110 had final orders of deportation; 34 were people without legal immigration status who were encountered by ICE officers during the raids. Those arrested during the four-day operation are from 26 countries: Albania, Belize, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia and Yugoslavia.

On Sept. 18, ICE agents raided several homes and apartment buildings in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood in an operation targeting people who allegedly produce and sell fake identity documents. ICE agents executed search warrants simultaneously at five locations in the area: an office where fraudulent identification documents were allegedly produced; two residences; and two photo studios that allegedly produced photos for fake documents. Activists on the scene reported that ICE agents stormed buildings, hid in garages and interrogated people on the street. Word of the raid spread quickly; tensions in the heavily Mexican neighborhood have been high since ICE made dozens of arrests at a Little Village shopping mall in a similar April 2007 operation targeting a false document ring. (AP, Sept. 18; ICE news release, Sept. 19)

On Sept. 17, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents executed federal criminal search warrants at four sites in the northern California towns of Vacaville, Vallejo and Hercules—in the North Bay area northeast of San Francisco—as part of an investigation into the hiring and possible harboring of unauthorized workers at local Chinese restaurants. The raided sites included the King's Buffet restaurant in Vacaville, one Vacaville residence, the Empire Buffet in Vallejo and one Vallejo residence. Agents also conducted what ICE called "a consensual search"—without a warrant—at a home in Hercules. (ICE news release, Sept. 18)

The Department of Homeland Security said at Congressional hearings Sept. 10 that cost overruns, legal obstacles and other problems imperil its goal of completing the 670 miles of fencing and technological improvements on the Southwest border. Rising construction costs and delays in acquiring land from owners could thwart efforts to build the fence by the end of the year, said officials, who are seeking more money for the project.

Four protesters descended from a redwood at UC Berkeley Sept. 9, after 21 months—648 days—of occupying a contested campus grove. Protesters sought to stop construction of a $124-million athletic center, but a court injunction on the construction was recently lifted. All four tree-sitters were arrested, though campus officials said no felony charges would be filed. Five protesters were also arrested on the ground, charged with offenses including battery and resisting arrest. The tree-sitters' tree—one of a collection of 42 oaks, redwoods and others that protesters sought to save—is scheduled to be felled immediately.

About 1,500 people marched through the streets of Denver, Colo., on Aug. 28, the final day of the four-day Democratic National Convention there, to press for immigrant justice. The march was organized by American Friends Service Committee and sponsored by local and national religious, human rights and labor organizations. Federico Peña, the former Denver mayor who co-chairs the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Barack Obama, helped carry a banner stating: "Immigrant Rights Are Human Rights." (Notimex, Aug. 28; La Jornada, Mexico, Aug. 29 from AFP; Denver Post, Aug. 29)

On Aug. 31, more than 100 activists from a coalition of organizations concluded a four-day march along the route of a new border fence which the US federal government claims will help stop immigrants crossing from Mexico. The march opposing the fence construction began at Fort Hancock, Tex., some 55 miles southeast of El Paso, and ended with a rally in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just northwest of El Paso. Marchers took part in the action on both sides of the border fence. Border Patrol agents in vehicles and on horses kept watch over the border and scanned the march from a distance.

On Aug. 29, US District Judge Sam A. Lindsay issued a final judgment permanently preventing the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch from enforcing an ordinance that would have required landlords to verify the immigration status of tenants. Lindsay ruled that Ordinance 2903 violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment because it was too vague, and that it interfered with the federal government's exclusive jurisdiction over immigration. Farmers Branch voters had approved Ordinance 2903 by a ratio of more than 2-to-1 in May 2007, after an earlier attempt to restrict housing rentals by out-of-status immigrants was blocked by the courts.