Diversity in Brief - June 8 Edition

Indians, Taiwanese Among Most Educated Californians

Asian Indians and Taiwanese residents of California are among the state's most educated, according to a Bay Citizen analysis of census data.

Among both groups, about 70 percent of those 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree. Only about 30 percent of Californians as a whole have that level of education.

Read more here.

Midwife Births Linked to Citizenship Confusion on Border
Revelations that a group of midwives sold U.S. birth certificates to people who didn't live in the U.S. has lead to distrust and confusion along the southern border, CNN reports.

Brenda Vazquez, a 29-year-old elementary-school teacher in Matamoros, Mexico, filed suit against the federal government after she said she was coerced into signing a document swearing that she is not a U.S. citizen.

Vazquez she did so after hours of questioning by a border patrol agent after entering the country in Brownsville, Texas, last year. Vazquez said she was born in South Texas and is a U.S. citizen.

Read more here.

Opponents Block Gay Marriage in Washington State

Opponents of Washington's gay marriage law filed more than 200,000 signatures blocking the law Wednesday, a day before the state was to begin allowing same-sex marriages, the Associated Press reports. 

Opponents want the issue put to a public vote in November. State officials will review the filings to determine whether the proposed referendum qualifies for a public vote. 

Read more here.

New Hampshire May Ban In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants
New Hampshire's Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill to prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at the state's colleges and universities, the Huffington Post reports.

The House voted overwhelmingly in support of the legislation, which would require all students to sign an affidavit attesting they are legal residents of the United States in order to get in-state tuition rates. The bill passed the Senate earlier on Wednesday.

Next the bill will be considered by Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Read more here.

Deportations Continue Despite Review of Backlog
Very few deportations have been halted in the first seven months of an ambitious review of the deportation cases in the nation's immigration courts, The New York Times reports.

Fewer than 2 percent of the 411,000 deportation cases under review have been closed so far, disappointing immigrants, including many Latinos President Obama hopes to court for his reelection bid.

Read more here.

Migrant Health Clinics Caught in Immigration Debate
Federally funded migrant health care clinics are the latest flash points in the immigration debate, Kaiser Health News reports.

Health-center officials across the country are reporting that local, state, and national law-enforcement authorities have "staked out migrant clinics, detained staff members transporting patients to medical appointments, and set up roadblocks near their facilities and health fairs as part of immigration crackdowns," according to KHN.

Read more here.