Blog of Rights
Sandhya
Bathija
Sandhya Bathija joined the ACLU communications department in September 2011 and serves the Washington Legislative Office. Previously, she worked in the communications department of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and as a reporter for The National Law Journal. She also practiced law for a small civil rights firm in Detroit, Michigan. She holds a law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and is proud alum of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page
11/17/2011
Immigration Deportation

ACLU Lens: NY Times Highlights DHS Latest Plan to Deport Criminals

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 1:36pm

The New York Times reports today that the Department of Homeland Security will begin a new system to review deportation cases in a way that officials claim will speed up the deportations of convicted criminals while stopping many deportations of immigrants with no criminal record.

DHS has claimed its priority is to deport dangerous, violent criminals who have come into the country illegally. Five months after its original announcement on this, the department will at last begin a nationwide training program for enforcement agents and prosecuting lawyers to achieve these goals and to close deportation cases that fall outside DHS priorities. Currently, about half of immigration detainees have no criminal convictions.

Read More»
11/04/2011
H.B. 56

Help Wanted: Farmers' Plight Proves Alabama's H.B. 56 Was Never About Creating Jobs

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 3:17pm

Since Alabama’s draconian racial profiling law went into effect, farmers have been crying out for help.

Read More»
10/27/2011
Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Latest Report on Obama Immigration Program Highlights Racial Profiling

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 11:39am

Soon after the Obama administration's centerpiece immigration program, Secure Communities, went into effect in West Virginia in 2009, patrons of a popular Latin dance club called Lobos drove into a trap.

One Sunday morning, police stopped three vehicles leaving the club, claiming failure to stop at a stop sign, among other minor traffic infractions. While none of the drivers — all Hispanic — received traffic citations, the eight people traveling in the cars were arrested, the first step toward deportation proceedings that are now pending in six of the cases.

Read More»
09/20/2011
Immigration Detention

A Step in the Right Direction: Death In Custody Reporting Act to be Voted on in the House

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 4:28pm

Sandra M. Kenley died in an immigration detention facility after spending seven weeks asking for blood pressure medicine she never received.

Young Sook Kim, a Korean woman being held in an immigration detention facility, pleaded for medical care for weeks before she was finally taken to the hospital — after her eyes turned yellow. She died of pancreatic cancer the next day.

Read More»
09/16/2011
Secure Communities

ACLU Lens: Leaked Secure Communities Task Force Report Shows Program's Many Flaws

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 2:07pm

A task force report released today on the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Communities reveals the program's many problems — namely that it has led to the deportation of thousands of immigrants with no criminal records and undermines community policing efforts.

Secure Communities (S-Comm) is a federal program created by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under S-Comm, anytime an individual is arrested and booked into a local jail for any reason, his or her fingerprints are electronically run through ICE's immigration database, allowing ICE to identify noncitizens in local custody and to initiate deportation proceedings against them.

Read More»
  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page
Statistics image