On Jan. 14, US Attorney Johnny Sutton filed a lawsuit on behalf of the US Department of Justice against the city of Eagle Pass, Texas, to seek access to land for a planned border fence. It was the first of 102 lawsuits expected to be filed in an escalating battle with local landowners and municipalities as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to build 370 miles of new border fencing by the end of the year.

The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating a reported assault on two officers at the disputed Culbertson Land Tract quarry near Deseronto, which is under occupation by Mohawk protesters. Sgt. Kristine Rae, spokesperson for Eastern Region OPP headquarters, said the assault occurred during a visit to the occupied site by members of the OPP's Major Event Liaison Team.

Freedom's on the march. From the Winston-Salem Journal, NC, Jan. 26:

An inmate claiming widespread harassment of Muslims in U.S. prisons cannot sue prison guards who he says took his Qurans and prayer rug, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

200 counter-protesters from around the country outnumbered some 30 members of the "pro-majority" Nationalist Movement who marched in Jena, LA, Jan. 21 to protest the holiday honoring Martin Luther King and the national campaign for the "Jena Six," black teenagers charged with beating a white classmate after black students were threatened with nooses left hanging from a tree at the school. The two groups met at the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, where one member of the New Black Panthers was arrested. (USA Today, Jan. 22) Barred by Jena police from marching with two shotguns they said they needed for protection, the Nationalist Movement now says it will hold a second march in the town to protest abridgment of its "second amendment rights." The group's leader Richard Barrett said he has filed suit in federal court to have the town and Mayor Murphy McMillin held in contempt of court for violating an order by US District Judge Dee Drell to not interfere with the march. "We do intend to defend the Second Amendment in the best and strongest way possible," Barrett said. (AP, Jan. 23)

On Jan. 11 lawyers for three Puerto Ricans with subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury in New York that morning announced that the date had been postponed until sometime in February. Social worker Christopher Torres and filmmakers Tania Frontera and Julio Antonio Pabon are apparently being questioned as part of a US probe into the Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros, a rebel pro-independence group whose leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed by agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Puerto Rico in September 2005.

From Witness Against Torture, Jan. 11:

Over 80 Arrested in Guantánamo Protests at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, DC – Early this afternoon, over 80 activists organized by Witness Against Torture delivered a message to the U.S. Supreme Court demanding the shut-down of the U.S. prison at Guantánamo and justice for those detained there. 35 activists were arrested inside the Court building and another 35 on the steps. The arrests followed a solemn march from the National Mall of 400 persons that included a procession of activists dressed like the Guantánamo prisoners in orange jumpsuits and black hoods – part of an International Day of Action that was endorsed by over 100 groups and that included 83 events around the world.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an internal memo on Jan. 9 setting a new policy, effective immediately, on the sedation of detainees. The agency "may only involuntarily sedate an alien to facilitate removal where the Government has obtained a court order..." reads the memo from ICE detention and removal director John Torres. "There are no exceptions to this policy. Emergency or exigent circumstances are not grounds for departures from this policy." To get a sedation order from court, officials must show deportees have a history of physical resistance to being removed or are a danger to themselves.

On Dec. 31, Latino groups in Oregon turned in over 5,000 petition signatures to the state's Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division in Salem, asking for a one-year delay in implementation of new rules that will require driver's license applicants to show proof of legal residence starting on Feb. 4.