THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2007
NEWS
3A
Anna Faltermeier/KANSAN
Construction on the football complex is causing major parking changes for some students and football fans. The University will spend about $2.5 million on parking and utility during the construction, which will not be complete until 2008
CONSTRUCTION (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"People right now are going to be stressed out, and I'm sure as students start coming back to school we will be receiving more calls," said Donna Hultine, director of parking and transit. "We will get a much better picture of it all as time goes by."
Hultine said there were still spaces available in the Mississippi Street garage and in Park and Ride.
As more students begin parking on the west side of the stadium, it is causing problems for the houses and buildings along West Campus Road.
"Normally the sorority girls use the parking lots that are high on the hill, but when those closed we had
to walk even farther home," said Allison Owens, Leawood junior and Gamma Phi Beta member. "We don't take up too many spots, so I think it will be OK for this year. However, if it is crowded, then we will have nowhere else to park."
Another change will be during football games, which begin Sept. 1. Hultine said the University has dedicated more parking lots to game day parking, even as far away as the Allen Fieldhouse parking garage, where they will provide a shuttle to bring fans to games.
Corman said things had to move to make improvements.
"When all of this is through, it's going to be a lot nicer than before,
and the practice much prettier than what was there," Corman said.
Although construction will not be completed until July 2008, it won't take place during games, and fences will block the dust, said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director.
"The con-
"When they are finished, there will be smaller lots with shade and grass, which will be nicer for tailgating than being out in the middle of a huge asphalt jungle."
WARREN CORMAN University architect
and be motivation for fans to see the progress and emphasis being made on the football team," Marchiony said.
Ticket holders who have been moved during football games are mainly the Williams Fund Donors who tailgated in the large parking lot
on the east side of the stadium. The new tailgating
lots being built will be 60 feet wide with only two rows of cars.
"When they are finished, there will be smaller lots with shade and grass, which will be nicer for tailgating than being out in the middle of a huge asphalt jungle," Corman said.
Hultine said the construction will make for an interesting year.
"It will be challenging, but hopefully people will get used to where they can park, and we are trying to educate people about the available spaces," Hultine said.
- Edited by Dianne Smith
IMMIGRATION
Tribes promise safety to illegals
BY OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. — A nonfederally recognized American Indian tribe on Friday defended its recruiting of Hispanic illegal immigrants to the tribe under the promise that joining would prevent deportation.
But advocates and federal officials condemned the practice as a scam, saying the group was defrauding people of money desperate to stay in the country.
The complaints have reached federal officials through community groups in several states.
In Nebraska, the Mexican-American Commission posted a warning on its Web site and alerted churches and Spanish-speaking media after illegal immigrants in four Nebraska cities were approached with offers of membership to the tribe as a way to gain legal status in the United States, commission spokesman Angel Freytez said.
Freytez said advocates have heard similar stories from people in Kansas, California, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
"Anyone who is in the country illegally is not protected from the consequences of being in a country illegally by any document from this tribe," said Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "It won't work."
It was still unclear Friday which federal agency would investigate — either as an immigration issue, a consumer fraud issue or an Indian affairs issue.
IMMIGRATION
Families use military to achieve citizenship
BY JULIANA BARBASSA Associated Press
Yaderlin Jimenez was an illegal immigrant facing deportation. Her husband, a U.S. citizen and soldier, couldn't help her because he was missing after an insurgent attack in Iraq.
The military had not been able to find Army Spc. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., after he was apparently snatched in May during a raid on his unit south of Baghdad. His capture drew national attention to his wife's deportation case, prompting Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to ask immigration officials to halt the proceedings.
Jimenez's wife then became a legal resident, but the couple's plight put a public face on the private anguish of
a growing number of military families in similar straits.
About 35,000 legal immigrants without citizenship are now serving in the military. That means when immigrant soldiers ship off to Iraq, they may carry with them a worry their American-born counterparts may not: that their family members might be deported while they are away.
"Every base has immigration problems," said Margaret Stock, an Army reservist and immigration attorney. "The government they're fighting for is the same government that's trying to deport their families."
Supporters of tighter immigration controls say giving the relatives of service members a free pass would only create an incentive for immigrants to enlist to legalize undocumented family members.
The Pentagon has long recognized that military life can be a strain on service members' families and that ensuring their well-being is a crucial part of maintaining troop morale. But troops' families do not enjoy any special treatment when it comes to immigration infractions, Stock said.
"We give relief to soldiers from everything else — from oppressive loans, from a landlord that's trying to evict them while they're deployed." Stock said. "Someone at the top needs to decide which is most important — to keep soldiers families together, because we know it's important for morale, or break them up in the interest of enforcing immigration law."
Haydee Rodriguez holds her two-year old son Angel on Aug. 3 at her home in Oakland, Calif. Her husband was abducted while serving for the military in Iraq, prompting officials to halt her deportation case. The family's story put them in the spotlight of immigration policy involving military families.
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