Ganging Up on Immigration Law: Asylum Law and the Particular Social Group Standard - Former Gang Members and Their Need for Asylum Protections

The Refugee Act of 1980 was a significant piece of legislation for the development of asylum law, and the United States’ commitment to human rights and humanitarian concern for the struggles of refugees worldwide. The Act recognized the urgent needs of persons fleeing persecution in their homelands, asylees, and their need for protection and resettlement. The protections afforded in the Act extended to asylum seekers that were persecuted on the basis of (1) race, (2) religion, (3) nationality, (4) membership in a particular social group, or (5) political opinion. However, Congress did not define “membership in a particular social group” in the Refugee Act of 1980 or otherwise, and have left it to the Board of Immigration Appeals to interpret the term “membership in particular social group.” As such, the Board of Immigration Appeals has developed, through case law, an arbitrary and loose definition for “membership in a particular social group.” With such arbitrariness, as discussed in this Article, any group, including former gang members fleeing their country and seeking asylum could make a cognizable claim that they are a “member of a particular social group,” and therefore ought to be afforded protections under the Refugee Act of 1980. This Article examines the history of asylum law that developed after the passing of the Refugee Act of 1980, specifically the “particular social group” standard as it was developed through Board of Immigration Appeals decisions, and a brief history of the development of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Ultimately, this Article examines a circuit court split on whether former gang members constitute a “particular social group.” This Article takes the position that former gang members do constitute a “particular social group,” and thus should be afforded asylum protections

Spatial deconvolution of spectropolarimetric data: an application to quiet Sun magnetic elements

Observations of the Sun from the Earth are always limited by the presence of the atmosphere, which strongly disturbs the images. A solution to this problem is to place the telescopes in space satellites, which produce observations without any (or limited) atmospheric aberrations. However, even though the images from space are not affected by atmospheric seeing, the optical properties of the instruments still limit the observations. In the case of diffraction limited observations, the PSF establishes the maximum allowed spatial resolution, defined as the distance between two nearby structures that can be properly distinguished. In addition, the shape of the PSF induce a dispersion of the light from different parts of the image, leading to what is commonly termed as stray light or dispersed light. This effect produces that light observed in a spatial location at the focal plane is a combination of the light emitted in the object at relatively distant spatial locations. We aim to correct the effect produced by the telescope's PSF using a deconvolution method, and we decided to apply the code on Hinode/SP quiet Sun observations. We analyze the validity of the deconvolution process with noisy data and we infer the physical properties of quiet Sun magnetic elements after the deconvolution process.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Collective Coordinates Theory for Discrete Soliton Ratchets in the sine-Gordon Model

A collective coordinate theory is develop for soliton ratchets in the damped discrete sine-Gordon model driven by a biharmonic force. An ansatz with two collective coordinates, namely the center and the width of the soliton, is assumed as an approximated solution of the discrete non-linear equation. The evolution of these two collective coordinates, obtained by means of the Generalized Travelling Wave Method, explains the mechanism underlying the soliton ratchet and captures qualitatively all the main features of this phenomenon. The theory accounts for the existence of a non-zero depinning threshold, the non-sinusoidal behaviour of the average velocity as a function of the difference phase between the harmonics of the driver, the non-monotonic dependence of the average velocity on the damping and the existence of non-transporting regimes beyond the depinning threshold. In particular it provides a good description of the intriguing and complex pattern of subspaces corresponding to different dynamical regimes in parameter space

Detection of emission in the Si i 1082.7 nm line core in sunspot umbrae

We analyze spectropolarimetric sunspot umbra observations taken in the near-infrared Si i 1082.7 nm line taking NLTE effects into account. The data were obtained with the GRIS instrument installed at the German GREGOR telescope. A point spread function (PSF) was constructed using prior Mercury observations with GRIS and the information provided by the adaptive optics system of the GREGOR telescope. The data were then deconvolved from the PSF using a principal component analysis deconvolution method and were analyzed via the NICOLE inversion code. The Si i 1082.7 nm line seems to be in emission in the umbra of the observed sunspot after the effects of scattered light are removed. We show how the spectral line shape of umbral profiles changes dramatically with the amount of scattered light. Indeed, the continuum levels range, on average, from 44% of the quiet Sun continuum intensity to about 20%. The inferred levels are in line with current model predictions and empirical umbral models. Current umbral empirical models are not able to reproduce the emission in the deconvolved umbral Stokes profiles. The results of the NLTE inversions suggests that to obtain the emission in the Si i 1082.7 nm line, the temperature stratification should first have a hump located at about log tau -2 and start rising at lower heights when moving into the transition region. This is, to our knowledge, the first time the Si i 1082.7 nm line is seen in emission in sunspot umbrae. The results show that the temperature stratification of current umbral models may be more complex than expected with the transition region located at lower heights above sunspot umbrae. Our finding might provide insights into understanding why the sunspot umbra emission in the millimeter spectral range is less than that predicted by current empirical umbral models

Lepton number violating four-body tau lepton decays

We study the four-body tau^+- -> nu_tau l^+- l^+- X^-+ decays where l=e or mu and X=pi, K, rho and K^* mesons. These decay processes violate the total lepton number (|Delta L|=2) and can be induced by the exchange of Majorana neutrinos. We consider an scenario where these decays are dominated by the exchange of only one heavy neutrino which produces an enhancement of the decay amplitude via the resonant mechanism. Searches for these novel decay channels with branching fractions sensitivities of (10^-7) can provide constraints on the parameter space of the Majorana neutrinos which are stronger than the ones obtained from Delta L=2 decays of charged pseudoscalar mesons.Comment: REVTeX, 14 pages, 6 figures, four references added. Version accepted for publication in PR

Ghost-gluon coupling, power corrections and ΛMSˉ\Lambda_{\bar{MS}} from twisted-mass lattice QCD at Nf=2N_f=2

A non-perturbative calculation of the ghost-gluon running QCD coupling constant is performed using $N_f=2$ twisted-mass dynamical fermions. The extraction of $\Lambda_{\bar{MS}}$ in the chiral limit reveals the presence of a non-perturbative OPE contribution that is assumed to be dominated by a dimension-two \VEV{A^2} condensate. In this contest a novel method for calibrating the lattice spacing in lattice simulations is presented.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory 201

A turn-key Concept for active cancellation of Global Positioning System L3 Signal

We present a concept, developed at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, for active suppression of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals in the 305 m dish radio receiver path prior to backend processing. The subsystem does not require an auxiliary antenna and is intended for easy integration with radio telescope systems with a goal of being a turnkey addition to virtually any facility. Working with actual sampled signal data, we have focused on the detection and cancellation of the GPS L3 signal at 1381.05 MHz which, during periodic test modes and particularly during system-wide tests, interfere with observations of objects in a range of redshifts that includes the Coma supercluster, for example. This signal can dynamically change modulation modes and our scheme is capable of detecting these changes and applying cancellation or sending a blanking signal, as appropriate. The subsystem can also be adapted to GPS L1 (1575.42 MHz), L2C (1227.6 MHz), and others. A follow-up is underway to develop a prototype to deploy and evaluate at NAIC.Comment: Presented at the RFI mitigation workshop, 29-31 March 2010, Groningen, the Netherlands. Accepted for publication by the Proceedings of Scienc

Subduction-zone structure and magmatic processes beneath Costa Rica constrained by local earthquake tomography and petrological modelling

A high-quality data set of 3790 earthquakes were simultaneously inverted for hypocentre locations and 3-D P-wave velocities in Costa Rica. Tests with synthetic data and resolution estimates derived from the resolution matrix indicate that the velocity model is well constrained in central Costa Rica to a depth of 70 km; northwestern and southeastern Costa Rica are less well resolved owing to a lack of seismic stations and seismicity. Maximum H2O content and seismic wave speeds of mid-ocean ridge basalt and harzburgite were calculated for metamorphic phase transformations relevant to subduction. Both the 3-D P-wave velocity structure and petrological modelling indicate the existence of low-velocity hydrous oceanic crust in the subducting Cocos Plate beneath central Costa Rica. Intermediate-depth seismicity correlates well with the predicted locations of hydrous metamorphic rocks, suggesting that dehydration plays a key role in generating intermediate-depth earthquakes beneath Costa Rica. Wadati-Benioff zone seismicity beneath central Costa Rica shows a remarkable decrease in maximum depth toward southeastern Costa Rica. The presence of asthenosphere beneath southeastern Costa Rica, which entered through a proposed slab window, may explain the shallowing of seismicity due to increased temperatures and associated shallowing of dehydration of the slab. Tomographic images further constrain the existence of deeply subducted seamounts beneath central Costa Rica. Large, low P-wave velocity areas within the lower crust are imaged beneath the southeasternmost volcanoes in central Costa Rica. These low velocities may represent anomalously hot material or even melt associated with active volcanism in central Costa Rica. Tomographic images and petrological modelling indicate the existence of a shallow, possibly hydrated mantle wedge beneath central Costa Ric