Senator seeks Chelsea inquiry An influential US Senator is demanding a full explanation for why the Chelsea Housing Authority permits three managers to live in public housing projects almost rent-free when there aren’t enough subsidized apartments for the city’s low income residents. (Page B1, 931 words)By: Sean P. Murphy and Maria Sacchetti|Date: Feb 8, 2012

Justice is variable as US hears immigrants’ appeals The starkly different outcomes for two immigrants here illegally underscores the uncertainty surrounding a massive federal training program launched last year to focus immigration officials on deporting violent criminals and consider halting the expulsion of those with strong community ties. Sometimes, lawyers say, it comes down to timing - good and bad. (Page A1, 1014 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Jan 16, 2012

4 Mass. residents held in fake ID ring Fifty people have been charged in an alleged identity fraud ring that sold personal information and identity documents to illegal immigrants. Among the places the ring operated: Lynn, Dorchester, Lawrence, Salem, and Worcester, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said today. The charges against the alleged ring members were laid out in an indictment unsealed today in federal Puerto Rico. The arrests reflect the agency’s “unrelenting determination to identify and dismantle national smuggling rings engaged in document and identity fraud,’’ ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. (Page B2, 488 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Martin Finucane|Date: Jan 12, 2012

Political friends and foes alike say Santorum’s success over the years in elections he had no business winning owes much to his turbo-charged style of campaigning. (Page A1, 1502 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Sarah Schweitzer|Date: Jan 8, 2012

A tenant ousted, a manager housed Francine Dorrance was already broke, unemployed and struggling to recover from a nervous breakdown in the summer of 2006 when the Chelsea Housing Authority moved to evict her over $276 in unpaid rent. The eviction left Dorrance homeless for almost five years, but her misfortune was a boon to the Chelsea Housing Authority official who oversaw the eviction. Jacqueline Matos, the Authority’s housing manager, immediately moved in to the vacant apartment, paying $25 a month rent. Matos’ takeover of the apartment reflects what some residents say is a troubling pattern of unequal treatment. (Page A1, 2325 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Dec 30, 2011

Officials have discarded arson as a possible cause of the three-alarm fire that claimed the life of a veteran firefighter yesterday. (Page B1, 732 words)By: Peter Schworm, Maria Sacchetti and Kathy McCabe|Date: Dec 25, 2011

Suspect in killings may go free in Ecuador Ecuadoran officials have warned the US government that a man accused of killing a young mother and her son in Brockton could go free in six months unless Plymouth County prosecutors send evidence to try him in Ecuador for the alleged crimes. The South American nation’s Oct. 31 letter to the US Department of Justice follows months of emotional debate between the two countries over where to prosecute Luis A. Guaman, a 41-year-old roofer indicted in the February beating deaths of Maria Avelina Palaguachi and her 2-year-old son, Brian. (Page B1, 745 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Nov 16, 2011

Housing receiver requested for Chelsea Several Chelsea City Council members and community leaders yesterday urged Governor Deval Patrick to place the Chelsea Housing Authority into receivership amid intensifying outrage over the ousted director’s $360,000 a year pay package. (Page A1, 922 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Nov 8, 2011

Some fear Chelsea slipping back Former Chelsea city manager Guy Santagate remembers thinking in 2000 that Michael E. McLaughlin was the last person his city needed as it struggled to extricate itself from decades of devastating corruption that left the city nearly bankrupt and in state receivership. Yesterday, Santagate said, he wished the housing authority had listened. (Page B1, 749 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Nov 5, 2011

No-cost diplomats The Garber twins are among an increasingly prominent corps of Americans here and nationwide that are serving as “honorary consuls’’ for countries that want a diplomatic presence in a city such as Boston, a hub of medicine, education and technology, without having to pay for it. Called honorary consuls, the Americans are largely unpaid, but they get a glimpse of the mysterious and glamorous life of diplomacy. (Page A1, 980 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Nov 4, 2011

Green cards for job creators The tens of millions of dollars that are transforming this mostly white, conservative, blue collar town is coming from 450 investors from China, India, Russia, South Africa and 52 other countries as part of a controversial federal immigration program that Obama administration is increasingly promoting in hopes of creating thousands of jobs across the United States. (Page A1, 1190 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Oct 25, 2011

In Mass., celebration and regret Word of Moammar Khadafy’s death sent waves of jubilation through several households in New England, but many also expressed regret that the dictator would never face trial. (Page A1, 671 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Oct 21, 2011

Opponents of Mayor William Lantigua of Lawrence have launched a second recall effort two months after the initial attempt to place an item on the ballot fell short. (Page B1, 714 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Oct 11, 2011

R.I. slashes restrictions on illegal immigrants As Alabama and Arizona embrace harsh new immigration laws, the state of Rhode Island is quietly going the other way. Governor Lincoln D. Chafee, who took office in January, has dismantled Rhode Island’s vigorous campaign against illegal immigration in recent months, ditching E-verify, revoking the State Police’s authority to enforce federal immigration laws, and most recently, leading the charge to grant in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrants. He is even considering driver’s licenses for immigrants here illegally. (Page A1, 1044 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Oct 8, 2011

Economic protest gains steam in Hub Tents have sprouted in the heart of Boston’s financial district, one of several social-media fueled demonstrations erupting across the United States to decry corporate greed, ineffective government, and the continued struggle of ordinary Americans to pay for basic needs. In Boston, the protests swelled to about 1,000 people on Friday in Dewey Square, in front of the Federal Reserve Bank and bustling South Station, and police arrested 24 people for trespassing when they refused to leave the Bank of America building nearby. (Page A1, 860 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Oct 3, 2011

Scituate police arrested an illegal immigrant from Brazil for motor-vehicle violations three months before he allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend to death in a brutal attack this week. (Page B14, 479 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 28, 2011

Drunken driving suspect had been deported 3 times An illegal immigrant from Mexico arrested this weekend on his sixth drunk driving charge had reentered the United States after having been deported on three separate occasions, federal officials said yesterday. (Page B4, 296 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 27, 2011

Discretion at issue in deportation decisions Reyna Quintanilla came to the United States legally. But she lost her job and missed a deadline to pay her green card fee by six days. Now, she is facing deportation. But in recent weeks US Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied Quintanilla’s request and a string of others here and nationwide, generating protests that ICE is betraying its pledge to set lesser cases aside and focus on criminals, national security threats and other serious violators. (Page A1, 1183 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 23, 2011

Mass. balks at Arizona licenses Refugees facing a language barrier in Massachusetts thought they found a solution by going to Arizona to get a driver’s license - until the state of Massachusetts accused them of fraud. The state has suspending their driving rights and called them to hearings. Meanwhile, the pipeline from Massachusetts to Arizona has triggered a debate over how to serve hundreds of struggling refugees - legal immigrants who often have large families and need to work - while ensuring safety on the road. (Page A1, 1048 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 19, 2011

Federal officials quietly released President Obama’s uncle from Plymouth County jail yesterday after holding him for more than two weeks on an immigration detainer for violating an order to return to his native Kenya in 1992. US officials refused to disclose any other information about Onyango Obama, who remained here undetected until Framingham police arrested him on Aug. 24 for allegedly drunken driving and other charges. (Page B1, 687 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 9, 2011

3 sheriffs push for federal program The sheriffs of Bristol, Worcester and Plymouth counties say they want to join Boston police in the long-delayed program, which cross-checks the fingerprints of everyone arrested against federal immigration databases, with the goal of finding and deporting serious criminals. Federal officials confirmed they are in discussions with the sheriffs, and said other police departments have expressed interest as well. (Page B1, 1090 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 4, 2011

Three sheriffs push for federal Secure Communities program Three Massachusetts sheriffs are in talks with federal immigration officials to bring the Secure Communities program to their cities and towns, three months after Governor Deval Patrick said he opposed taking the controversial crime-fighting strategy statewide. (Page B1, 759 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 4, 2011

No special treatment for uncle, Obama says President Obama expects his uncle’s deportation case to be treated like any other immigration matter, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday. Carney said the president was unaware of his uncle Onyango Obama’s arrest last week in Framingham until his press secretary told him about it this week. When he was arrested, Framingham police said Obama told them that he would like to call the White House to arrange bail. (Page B3, 446 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Sep 2, 2011

The controversy surrounding Mayor William Lantigua intensified yesterday when an opposition group filed a recall petition with thousands of signatures aimed at ousting the state’s first Latino mayor less than two years into his term. (Page A1, 912 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Aug 9, 2011

US set to expand deportation program US immigration officials eliminated a major hurdle yesterday to expanding Secure Communities in Massachusetts and nationwide, putting states on notice that the controversial law enforcement program will be fully deployed nationwide by 2013. (Page B1, 788 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Aug 6, 2011

Patrick backs illegal immigrants on tuition Governor Deval Patrick, just weeks after defying federal immigration officials over their controversial Secure Communities program, unexpectedly appeared at a packed State House hearing yesterday to urge lawmakers to let illegal immigrants pay the reduced resident rate at state colleges and universities. (Page A1, 1150 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Jul 21, 2011

Traffic cases settled, but deportations loom One early evening in May, a Boston police officer arrested Lizandra DeMoura for traffic violations and driving without a license. In another city, she might have been booked and released for a court hearing. But in Boston, the 18-year-old was jailed overnight, taken to court, and handed over to federal immigration agents, who hauled her away in chains. (Page A1, 1476 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Jul 3, 2011

Distant city enjoyed Lantigua largesse The night that William Lantigua was elected the first Latino mayor in Massachusetts history, people in this remote city surrounded by cocoa farms and coffee plantations felt as if they had won, too. For months in 2009, Tenares residents had called and e-mailed friends and relatives in the city of Lawrence, almost 2,000 miles away, urging ... (Page A1, 2204 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Jun 26, 2011

Father gets kidnap charge tossed Prosecutors trying to build a case against a man suspected in the mysterious disappearance of his 5-year-old son three years ago were dealt a blow yesterday when a Superior Court judge dismissed a charge of parental kidnapping against him. (Page B1, 700 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Jun 14, 2011

The US government will force the state of Massachusetts to join a controversial federal program to detect and deport illegal immigrants, despite Governor Deval Patrick’s refusal to endorse it, a senior Homeland Security official said yesterday. (Page A1, 1073 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Noah Bierman|Date: Jun 7, 2011

Luis Guaman, a 41-year-old roofer indicted in the brutal slayings of a Brockton mother and her 2-year-old son, was convicted of passport fraud in Ecuador yesterday, according to prosecutors in the city of Cuenca. (Page B1, 412 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 21, 2011

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, frustrated by Ecuador’s refusal to return the man accused in the killings of a mother and son in Brockton, is urging federal officials to pressure the South American nation to hand him over for prosecution. (Page B1, 892 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 19, 2011

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano granted thousands of victims of last year’s earthquake in Haiti a reprieve, allowing them to apply for a special immigration status that will allow them to live and work in the United States through January 2013. (Page A1, 945 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 18, 2011

US gives Haitians deportation reprieve Until yesterday, Ricardo Joseph and his family were running out of time. They fled to Massachusetts after the violent earthquake last year in Haiti destroyed their house, their schools, and the car dealership where he worked. They had hoped to start over, but instead their visas expired and they spiraled into poverty, ending up homeless and living in a Brockton ... (Page B1, 944 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 18, 2011

Luis Guaman, an Ecuadoran national charged with the bludgeoning deaths of a Brockton woman and her 2-year-old son in February, will face trial in his homeland Friday on charges of using a fraudulent passport to flee the United States, a law enforcement official in Ecuador said last night. (Page B12, 311 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 17, 2011

Lawsuit filed in death of detainee The daughter of a 49-year-old immigrant detainee who died in 2009 after an infection overwhelmed his body filed a federal lawsuit yesterday, accusing officials at the Suffolk County House of Correction and its privately run infirmary of gross negligence leading to his death. (Page B1, 892 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 16, 2011

Lantigua, girlfriend in fuel aid inquiry State officials launched an investigation yesterday into a report that Mayor William Lantigua of Lawrence and his live-in girlfriend improperly accepted federal fuel aid to cover the heating bills at their condominium in one of the state’s poorest cities. (Page B1, 871 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 12, 2011

To the edge of hope, and then into night She fled poverty and troubles in Ecuador, chasing opportunity here. But Maria Avelina Palaguachi found mostly pain instead. She was talking of leaving, then murder sent Maria and her little son home. (Page A1, 2525 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: May 1, 2011

One night last summer, police said, Marco Tejeda and his friends rang the doorbell at a Salisbury home allegedly looking for money and drugs. (Page A1, 1101 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Sean P. Murphy|Date: Apr 26, 2011

Lantigua is focus of federal, state probe Federal and state authorities are investigating Mayor William Lantigua of Lawrence on possible corruption and other wrongdoing, intensifying controversy surrounding the leader of one of the state’s most financially troubled cities, according to law enforcement officials and one person who was interviewed by the FBI. (Page A1, 1090 words)By: Sean P. Murphy and Maria Sacchetti|Date: Apr 23, 2011

Lawrence mayor’s report of threat rejected Lawrence police say they have found no evidence to support the assertion by Mayor William Lantigua that he was nearly run down in front of City Hall last month by a mystery car with unregistered plates, the latest chapter in an increasingly bitter dispute between the controversial mayor and the city’s police. (Page A1, 964 words)By: Andrea Estes and Maria Sacchetti|Date: Apr 21, 2011

Lobsang Sangay grew up in a Tibetan refugee settlement in Darjeeling, India. His parents sold one of the family’s three cows to pay for his school fees. He went on to university and then law school in Delhi, before winning a Fulbright scholarship that brought him to Harvard. (Page A1, 1181 words)By: Lisa Wangsness and Maria Sacchetti|Date: Mar 22, 2011

Greg Hachenburg was checking his e-mail Friday at his office in Hachinohe, Japan, a seaside city of more than 200,000 people, when a co-worker’s unattended cellphone suddenly went off. A ring tone like a car alarm pierced the quiet afternoon. (Page A8, 762 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Sean Teehan|Date: Mar 13, 2011

Senator John F. Kerry blasted House Republicans yesterday for taking a “meat ax’’ to crucial items in the proposed federal budget, including education, research, infrastructure, and public safety, and he vowed to continue to fight for unions in the United States. (Page B2, 698 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Mar 13, 2011

The face of a system failure The age listed in the passport was 26. The man who presented the document to security officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport was 40. His face bore only a passing resemblance to the photograph. (Page A1, 1201 words)By: Shelley Murphy and Maria Sacchetti|Date: Mar 5, 2011

The man wanted in two Massachusetts slayings may face murder charges in Ecuador if authorities present evidence that he killed a Brockton mother and her 2-year-old son. (Page A1, 591 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Feb 26, 2011

After 3 deaths, ‘question is why’ Three white coffins, one smaller than the rest, lay in St. Patrick Catholic Church yesterday, as more than 100 mourners gathered to say goodbye. (Page B1, 647 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Feb 24, 2011

Problems remain in flight school security Several months after federal officials arrested the immigrant owner of a Stow flight school and 33 of his students for being in the United States illegally, officials have not instituted new safeguards to prevent something similar from happening again. (Page A1, 997 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Feb 21, 2011

Ecuador is holding roommate for trial A judge in Ecuador yesterday ordered the man wanted for questioning in the slayings of a Brockton mother and her toddler son be held for 30 days while he awaits trial in that country for allegedly using a fake passport. (Page B1, 806 words)By: Maria Sacchetti and Peter Schworm|Date: Feb 20, 2011

Man who fled after Brockton killings arrested in Ecuador Ecuadoran authorities arrested yesterday a roofer wanted for questioning in the brutal slayings of a woman and her 2-year-old son in Brockton, acting on a tip from the man’s estranged wife in the United States who had allegedly been beaten by him in the past. (Page A1, 693 words)By: Maria Sacchetti|Date: Feb 19, 2011