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FREMONT, Jul. 31 - A proposed ordinance targeting illegal immigration in Fremont may be dead, but the discussion of the problems fueling the debate is just getting under way, say those involved in the issue.

Fremont Mayor Don “Skip’’ Edwards cast the deciding vote late Tuesday night against a proposal that would have banned renting to, harboring and hiring illegal immigrants.

Opponents and supporters found much to disagree on in the public debate in recent weeks. But those on both sides of the issue agreed Wednesday the issue needs attention.

“We know we have a problem,’’ Edwards said. “That has never been debated.’’

More than 20 years after being tortured into giving confessions by Chicago police officers, dozens of black men remain behind bars.

Michael Tillman was 20, with a 3-year-old daughter and an infant son, when he was brought into the Area 2 police station on Chicago's South Side for questioning. His mother, Jean Tillman, says that although he had gotten into some trouble with the law as a youngster, he had been on the straight-and-narrow, working as a janitor and paying his bills, since he and his girlfriend had their first child. That was July 22, 1986.

He hasn't been home since.

CHICAGO, July 18 -- On June 25, 2008, the Center for Victims of Torture, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Evangelicals for Human Rights launched the Campaign to Ban Torture: American Voices for American Values. Today, we are happy to announce that the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights has officially endorsed the campaign.

“No act of war, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture"

On June 25, the eve of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Center for Victims of Torture, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Evangelicals for Human Rights, launched the Campaign to Ban Torture: American Voices for American Values.

“No act of war, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture"

On June 25, the eve of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Center for Victims of Torture, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Evangelicals for Human Rights, launched the Campaign to Ban Torture: American Voices for American Values.

WASHINGTON, June 25 - A bipartisan group of 200 former government officials, retired generals and religious leaders plans to issue a statement on Wednesday calling for a presidential order to outlaw some interrogation and detention practices used by the Bush administration over the last six years.

The executive order they seek would commit the government to using only interrogation methods that the United States would find acceptable if used by another country against American soldiers or civilians.

Children who flee abuse can often be mired in legal limbo 

CHICAGO, Jun. 9 - In 1999 the 9-year-old boy fled the Dominican Republic, where his abusive mother had tried to strangle him, forced him to kneel on a cheese grater and had her name tattooed on his arm as a symbol of her ownership.

The boy boarded a plane by himself and illegally entered the U.S. to join his father, who died in 2003. Two years later, police arrested the boy for bringing a knife to school and sent him to a federally funded detention center for illegal immigrant children in Indiana.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Mr. Doudou Diene of Senegal, has been on a three week mission to the U.S. since May 19 to meet with government officials, non-governmental organizations, and victims of racial discrimination.

During his three-week tour, the Rapporteur will visit New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, Omaha, Honolulu, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mr. Diene will meet with federal and local officials, lawmakers, and judicial authorities, along with representatives from civil society organizations and victims.

One year ago, federal immigration agents began a four-day, house-to-house operation in Willmar, Minnesota. Federal officers detained 49 illegal immigrants. Nearly half had prior criminal records.

The after-effects of that operation are still playing out in the courts, and in the community.

ST. CLOUD, MN; Apr. 10 - Some people claim the problem with last year's immigration raid was the way it was conducted.

During the four-day Willmar operation, immigration attorneys took affidavits from dozens of people caught up in the raid.

She finally wins clearance to stay in U.S. 

CHICAGO, Apr. 1 - For four years, she has told her story over and over, reliving every dehumanizing detail.

Today, the petite woman who was forced onto the international sex slave pipeline and escaped to Chicago can't stop smiling. A U.S. Immigration judge has ruled she can stay in the country.

Attorney Dawn Connelly and law students Adisa Krupalija and Jonathan Huckabay have worked pro bono to win asylum for an Eastern European woman who was held as a sex slave in Italy.

"Wow,'' she said, pumping her arms in the air like Rocky as she describes the tearful phone call from her attorney, Dawn Connelly, and an even more emotional one home to her mother.