by the El Reportero’s staff
REDWOOD CITY, February 10, 2009 – Last week the board of the Garfield Charter School voted unanimously not to renew its charter. Beginning in the 2009-10 school year, Garfi eld will return to the Redwood City School District, which has sponsored its charter for the past 15 years, a district’s announcement said.
“We welcome Garfield back and look forward to building on the collaborative working relationship we’ve had as the charter’s sponsor,” said Redwood City School District Superintendent Jan Christensen.
“We already work closely with Garfield on academic achievement strategies, and have provided many services to the school on a contract basis. Garfield will now have access to all the support services we provide to every school in the district.”
When Garfield, a K-8 school located on Middlefield Road in Menlo Park, was founded in 1994 it was the 49th charter school established in the state of California. Garfield receives funding from the state, but unlike many other charters, it does not have an outside benefactor that contributes additional funding.
Superintendent Jan Christensen and her staff will meet with Garfield staff and parents over the next few weeks to discuss the transition of the school back into the Redwood City School District.
AILF calls on Attorney General to Reverse decision, and affi rm support for immigrants’ legal rights
WASHINGTON, DC – Early this month, the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) was joined by more than 130 immigrants’ rights organizations, law fi rms, and lawyers from across the country in calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to reverse a last-minute legal decision issued by outgoing Attorney General Michael Mukasey, according to a release from the American Immigration Law Foundation.
Mukasey’s legal opinion unraveled decades of precedent guaranteeing due process to people facing life-changing consequences – namely, deportation. AILF is encouraged by Attorney General Holder’s testimony during his confi rmation process, where he said he would reexamine the Compean decision. “The Constitution guarantees due process of law to those who are the subjects of deportation proceedings. I understand Attorney General Mukasey’s desire to expedite immigration court proceedings, but the Constitution requires that those proceedings be fundamentally fair. For this reason, I intend to reexamine the decision should I become Attorney General.”
AILF is submitting a letter to Attorney General Holder today, asking him to vacate and reconsider Mukasey’s legal opinion in Matter of Compean, 24 I & N Dec. 710 (A.G. 2009). In that decision, Mukasey declared that there is no legal or constitutional right to a lawyer in removal proceedings, therefore, people have no right to complain or request a new hearing when their lawyer is incompetent. For decades, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and most federal courts have operated under the principle that people DO have such rights.
