Chertoff vows to return illegal immigrants in Senate Judiciary testimony News
Chertoff vows to return illegal immigrants in Senate Judiciary testimony

[JURIST] US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promised Senators Tuesday that he would no longer allow non-Mexican immigrants who have entered the United States illegally to be released back into the US if they are apprehended. This so-called "catch and release" policy has allowed tens of thousands of non-Mexican illegal immigrants to remain within the United States. In prepared remarks [text] to the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], Chertoff also said that President Bush remains committed preventing to all forms of illegal immigration [DHS statistics]. Chertoff told the committee that the administration is committed to gaining control of the border and enforcing workplace laws in order to prevent immigrants from obtaining unlawful employment in border states like Texas. Chertoff also argued that the proposed temporary worker program [White House backgrounder] is critical to the Homeland Security Department's success at controlling the border. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.