"Nearly 400 supporters and opponents of natural gas drilling debated its safety and economic feasibility at a U.S. Department of Energy hearing in western Pennsylvania.

"...On Monday the national group Food & Water Watch called for local and federal bans on fracking.

"'Municipalities across the country, including Pittsburgh, are moving to ban fracking or call for statewide and national bans, because they realize that this type of drilling can have dire consequences for drinking water, human health and the environment' said Karina Wilkinson, regional organizer for Food & Water Watch, based in Washington, D.C."

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP79e9297e6f674fa6bd1247d33c1e0206.html

Jenna Greene of the The National Law Journal reports on Karina Wilkinson's efforts to help immigrants in detention centers obtain legal assistance:

"Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, applauded December 2009 ICE guidelines that allow more asylum seekers to be released on parole but said "the crux of reform is how things will improve on the local level.

"One of the top concerns for her group and others is detainee access to counsel. According to last week's ABA report, 84 percent of detainees have no lawyer to guide them through the complex removal process. 'The need is so huge. They beg you, "Please help me get me a lawyer,"' said Karina Wilkinson, co-founder of the Middlesex County Coalition for Immigrant Rights, who is not a lawyer but works with immigrants in detention centers in New Jersey."

Full article at: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202442848655

A New York Times article by NINA BERNSTEIN mentions Karina Wilkinson's efforts to prevent mistreatment of immigrant detainees:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/nyregion/29visitors.html

"In one case that Ms. Wilkinson followed, an African man fighting to stay in the United States because of fear of persecution at home was abruptly transferred to the Essex jail on the same day that an immigration judge ruled in his case. Two weeks passed before he learned that the judge had ruled against him, leaving him only 15 days, instead of 30, to file an appeal.

“'He was so upset that his court papers hadn’t come, he wrote me a six-page letter,' Ms. Wilkinson said. 'He wrote, "It’s unjust justice.”'

"Two weeks ago, she was able to visit him at Essex, a huge jail topped by concertina wire. But that entailed standing in line for more than two hours, she said, for less than 20 minutes’ conversation through a plexiglass barrier.

“'You wait outside,' she said. “'Men, women, children in the rain.'”

Hudson County Freeholder Jose Munoz is concerned that immigration detainees at the Hudson County jail can't afford to call their attorneys.

"What would be the cost of providing free legal calls?" he asked Director of Corrections Oscar Aviles at Tuesday's board meeting. "I just want to make sure they have the proper legal access."

Citing better conditions in Hudson County, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials moved the detainees to the county jail after closing the Varick Street Detention Center in New York...

"Arbitrary rules that vary from facility to facility prevent detainees access to their families, lawyers and the community," said Karina Wilkinson, co-founder of Middlesex County Coalition for Immigration Rights.

"ICE is not showing by the transfer of 260 men to Hudson County jail any attempt to make good on its promise for a more 'civil' detention system."

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-4/126949840358200.xml&coll=3

Karina Wilkinson, who led the NJ Media Corps effort to end abuse of immigrant detainees, was quoted in a Daily Targum (Rutgers) article about the Middlesex County freeholders' unanimous decision to end an agreement to house federal immigrant detainees.

 “The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention system is so vast that it is not being effectively overseen,” said Wilkinson, founder of the Middlesex County Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

See the article here:

http://www.dailytargum.com/metro/county-votes-to-end-housing-detainees-1.2000696