Immigration: August 2009 Archives

About 520 immigrant, racial justice and civil rights advocacy groups are have rallied to demand that the Obama administration scrap the 287(g) program. A disturbing hallmark of the Bush administration's law-and-order approach, the program enables federal authorities and local law enforcement to crack down on immigrants.

The local-federal collusion has generated a groundswell of opposition over the years for its role in encouraging racial profiling, mass detention and general terrorization of immigrant communities like the warzone sometimes known as Maricopa County, Arizona. Opposition now extends even to police officials, who argue that 287(g) both distracts from real public safety concerns and alienates the communities they're supposed to protect.

The coalition of organizations includes some household names like the ACLU and Drum Major Institute, as well as some less common ones, like the American Postal Workers Union and New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women According to the ACLU's August 27 announcement, local groups "will host vigils, marches and other activities across the country today and tomorrow condemning the administration's decision to expand the 287(g) program and asking that the administration terminate the program."

By Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

Sen. Ted Kennedy's death yesterday was a blow to the immigrant community, as New America Media reports. For over 40 years, Kennedy was a tireless fighter for immigrant rights and is remembered for many valuable accomplishments, not the least in making possible the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which did away with the national-origin quotas that had been in effect in the US since 1924. Additionally, Kennedy help bring a close to the exploitive Bracero program, which supplied the U.S. cheap and temporary labor during World War II in the form of Mexican farm laborers who did not have proper protections or rights. Senator Kennedy also helped author the AgJobs bill of 2003, which gave undocumented farmers residency so they could continue working in the U.S. His legacy in the progress of immigration legislation is not in doubt.

The Massachusetts Senator was a vigorous proponent of both Healthcare and Immigration Reform, which isn't surprising when you consider how much these two issues overlap. In last week's Wire, we touched on this confluence. Despite the White House's attempt to compartmentalize the two issues, Immigration continues sit front and center in the Healthcare discussion, often through dishonest argument by reform opponents.

The problem is, if the White House withdraws as an authoritative and reasonable voice on immigration and immigrants, the conversation will be taken over by anti-immigrant fringe groups. Arturo Sandoval of the New Mexico Independent describes the town hall debate during which a protester suggested that a "bullet in the head" was a solution to the idea that the U.S. has millions of undocumented within her borders. The "facts don't support this xenophobic response," Sandoval writes. Furthermore, the needs of the U.S. economy "pull" workers into the country. The immigrant workforce is then scapegoated for responding to that need.

While at least one New York politician is wriggling away from accusations of playing the race card, New York City Councilmember John Liu—a rare Asian American elected official and candidate for city controller—is scrambling to clear the record on his immigrant roots.

Liu's war of words with the New York Daily News began with a campaign ad highlighting Liu's working-class immigrant background. According to the ad's narration, Taiwan-born Liu toiled with his mother in a sweatshop—part of a then-thriving garment industry known for Dickensian working conditions. Flashing an image of female garment workers slaving away, the ad touted Liu's rags-to-riches ascent from Queens to corporate America and then public office: "Working in finance taught Liu how to account for every penny, but working in that sweatshop as a kid taught him why we need to."

The Daily News was quick to test Liu's street cred. The paper discovered, through interviews with Liu's family, that young John hadn't really worked at a factory, per se, but merely helped out at home spinning yarn. Liu's father described his son's earnings (25 cents per ball of yarn) simply as “allowance."

Crossposted at Huffington Post.

Last week, the world's central bankers got together for a little strategy session in Colorado, and declared that the recovery is on its way. This is the way it works with recessions. They ravage the world, leave millions hungry and homeless, and are eventually said to be 'over.'

For communities of color, 'recovery' can be a vapid term. People of color consistently face rates of unemployment higher than what whites experience in the worst recessions. Meanwhile, people of color in the labor market are pulling in wages of 60 cents for every dollar that white people earn. If this is what recovery is going to look like, we've got a problem.

In this video, community organizer Shaw San Liu of San Francisco's Chinese Progressive Association explains what the inequitable economy means for her community — before, during, and after the officially recognized recovery.

It's time we take seriously that some people are locked out from the onset and build a truly fair economy for everyone.

By Sonny Singh

This post originally appeared on the Sikh Coalition blog.

Yesterday afternoon I joined several faith leaders from diverse communities for a meeting with Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in his district office in Kew Gardens, Queens to discuss immigration reform. The Sikh Coalition is a part of growing group of organizations around the country bringing a faith-based voice to the immigration debate, and in particular has been active in the New York Interfaith Network on Immigration Reform.

In the meeting with Congressman Weiner, we discussed what it’s going to take to realistically fix this broken immigration system that has deemed the lives of 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country worthless. Twelve million people living in the shadows, at risk of being torn apart from their families and loved ones at any moment. This is a statistic we hear a lot, but as Sikhs, what does it really mean to us? How does it hit home? What is our responsibility as Guru-oriented people?

Yesterday it hit home for me.

Walking out of a productive meeting towards the bus stop, I felt somewhat hopeful about the progress we might be able to make on this issue in the next year. As I was figuring out which bus to take to get to Richmond Hill, an older desi man with a scruffy beard and short pony tail smiled warmly at me and struck up a conversation in Punjabi. He helped me figure out which bus to get on, and then got on the same bus.

I invited him to sit by me. We made small talk for awhile and transitioned to English once my tutti futti (broken) Punjabi wasn’t cutting it any more. Soon enough, he told me that he had just gotten out of jail.

Patients are expected to follow the doctor's orders, but for many immigrants who can't read or speak English easily, taking your daily medicine means finding a friend or family member to translate a prescription, or just making an educated guess. In New York City, a landmark law seeks to dismantle the language barrier at the pharmacy counter.

The new measure, just approved by the City Council, requires that pharmacies provide full language services to meet the needs of the city's myriad ethnic neighborhoods. That means counseling and translations of prescription labels in Spanish, Chinese, Creole, Polish... you get the picture. The law builds on existing civil rights laws, as well as recent legal settlements that advocacy groups have brokered with large chain pharmacies like CVS.

Courtesy of Sum of Change, here's our own Rinku Sen (executive director of the Applied Research Center, publisher of ColorLines, author of The Accidental American) at Netroots Nation 2009.

Speaking on the "Stepping it up: Creating Powerful Multiracial Alliances with Progressive Bloggers" panel, Rinku takes on the questions — why are race-related social justice issues so often forfeited by the predominantly white liberal blogosphere? And how is policy affected when the discourse is dominated by uncontested racism? Rinku outlines how we fall into the trap of staying within the established racist frames, and how this has led to policies that punish people of color disproportionately and leave them vulnerable to injustice and exploitation.

Yesterday, we posted Rinku's appearance on "Myth of Post-Racial America." Be sure to check out all of Sum of Change's video from Netroots Nation at their site.

By Patrick Young

(This post originally appeared on Long Island Wins.)

I went to visit a Congresswoman's office last week in the Hudson Valley. Outside her offices were nine or ten protesters with signs warning that health care reform is the opening wedge for a "socialist" takeover of the United States.

With a comprehensive immigration bill likely to be introduced in the next 30-60 days, we should look at the health care donnybrook for lessons about the course immigration reform is likely to take.

1. The argument will not be about the issues. There were many legitimate areas of disagreement about health care reform. The impact on the deficit, whether a public option would kill the private health insurance option, and what the effect on care would be for those already covered were all important topics for discussion. But the issues that grabbed the nation's attention were "death panels", and whether or not Obama is a modern incarnation of Hitler.

The well-informed dismissed these nonsensical rantings, but the general public, while not believing them, did change its attitude towards reform because of them. The sight of thousands of Americans so upset about the proposed changes made many wonder if it was worth dividing the country over health care.

The same calculus will be in play over immigration reform. The "debate" will not be a debate at all. It will be an agonized screaming of primal fears tapping into the identity politics of the right. Most Americans will disagree with prognostications of racial suicide following comprehensive immigration reform, but they will wonder whether it is worth alienating so many Americans over an issue as peripheral to most voters lives as the fate of the undocumented.

Courtesy of Sum of Change, here's our own Rinku Sen (executive director of the Applied Research Center, publisher of ColorLines, author of The Accidental American, list goes on).

Speaking on the "Myth of Post-Racial America" panel, Rinku takes post-racialism head-on, saying that we in the movement need to realize that those outside of the movement just don't know about racism. That is, the average person thinks that racism is always 'individual, intentional, and explicit' — a definition that neatly precludes the acknowledgement of, and action against, systemic and structural racism in all their forms.

Check in tomorrow for Rinku's appearance on "Stepping it up: Creating Powerful Multiracial Alliances with Progressive Bloggers," and be sure to check out all of Sum of Change's video from Netroots Nation at their site.

By Nina Jacinto This post originally appeared on Wiretap.

San Francisco Chronicle writers Marisa Lagos and John Coté have reported on new proposed legislation that may help protect undocumented youth in the city. The law would require that minors suspected of felonies must be convicted before being handed over to federal immigration authorities. Unless the suspect is charged as an adult, immigration authorities would no longer be contacted at the time of the suspected felon's arrest.

Historically, San Francisco has been considered one of the more liberal cities in the country with regards to providing refuge for undocumented immigrants. In 1989, the City of Refuge ordinance was created in response to individuals who were seeking asylum from Central American civil wars: it stated that San Francisco officials and police were not obligated to refer undocumented residents to federal immigration authorities. Then, in 2008, the city's policy made national headlines when Edwin Ramos, 22, was arrested and charged with murdering three people. Those opposed to the sanctuary ordinance, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, believe that had Ramos' information been passed onto federal immigration authorities when he was first charged with attempted robbery and assault as a minor in 2003, the murders would have been avoided. And so Newsom revised the policy, forcing police officials to hand over information about suspected criminals, including youth, to immigration authorities.

By Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

President Obama is citing the Healthcare debate as a reason for postponing immigration reform until 2010. But in the interim, the White House is laying the groundwork for an enforcement agenda by expanding programs such as 287(g), Secure Communities and e-Verify, amidst a growing matrix of detention centers. Anti-immigration factions are taking advantage of the lull in legislative action to push their own agenda.

The Progressive takes the unequivocal stand that "President Obama is wrong to postpone immigration reform." Author Ed Morales makes it clear that while healthcare and economic issues are "understandably urgent," the choice to delay reform "de-prioritizes" people who have paid their taxes but have not been given a path to citizenship.

The problem is, immigration reform and healthcare reform are inextricably connected. WireTap cites a central tenant of healthcare reform's "artificially amplified 'public' opposition" to immigration, as reported by the Los Angeles Times: It's "the notion that 'Congress would give illegal immigrants health insurance at taxpayer expense.'"

If you need more reasons to distrust lawyers, ask an immigrant. They might be able to tell you a thing or two about the vast cottage industry that has cropped up around immigration law.

A case reported in the New York Times illustrates the perils that immigrants face as they navigate a shady bureaucracy, relying on private lawyers who promise to help them work the system:

Court papers in the [attorney James Hector Alcala's] case say that the smooth-talking lawyer assured client companies that he could secure the prized H-2B visas for their workers, whom he then instructed to return to Mexico and lie to United States consul officials. ...

The authorities say Mr. Alcala obtained at least 5,000 H-2B visas for American companies, most through fraud and forgery.Some companies that hired him — including landscaping and construction — did not know the documents they paid for were gotten illegally...

Alcala also had partners who represented official instruments of immigration control. A former border patrol agent and a former consul worker have also been slapped with visa fraud and smuggling charges.

When 14 year-old Alfredo Lopez Sanchez arrived in Florida from Guatemala in 2001, he put an end to years of brutal abuse at home. But America was no safe harbor. Traumatized and hindered by a language barrier (he spoke only a Mayan dialect), Sanchez descended into an 18-month odyssey in detention, shuttling alone through several facilities, including one for adult criminal offenders. Despite clear evidence that he had suffered abuse, his asylum claim was initially denied. It was only after bringing the case to a Florida juvenile court that he was granted permission to remain in the country.

Sanchez's story, documented by the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, has a relatively happy ending. An unauthorized crossing into the United States is a dangerous feat for anyone, but the experience is all the more terrifying for the thousands of “unaccompanied minors” who have languished in federal custody.

President Obama's announcement this week that immigration reform would be put on the back burner was met with disappointment tempered by cynicism. The hope that Obama's election kindled has flickered over the past few months as the White House has generally adhered to the status quo set by the Bush administration. While Obama has made some overtures toward reforming detention policies, activists are fighting a war of attrition against stagnation and distraction in Congress.

But faced with the news that immigration reform may have to wait until 2010, some organizations say their patience has run out.

The Mexican American Political Association has called for direct action to fight crackdowns on undocumented workers, and pushed for a moratorium on hardline enforcement measures until real reform is enacted:

By Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

This week's Wire will be brief. The MediaWire Bloggers are in Pittsburgh, Pa. for Netroots Nation. We will return to our regular format next week.

On Monday, President Obama met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderón. Following the meeting, Obama made it clear that he doesn't expect immigration reform to pass until 2010, as the Washington Independent reports: Even if legislation is drafted this year, healthcare reform demands attention first. Some say the two issues are too connected to be separated, although there is no denying that the healthcare debate has reached a fever pitch.

Right-Wing pundits are polluting constructive dialogue about healtcare reform, many times citing immigration as mark against it. Protestors are violently disrupting town hall meetings in an attempt to scuttle the approaching legislation and cripple the president's agenda. Their aggression and confusion indicate that the healthcare and immigration debates are intertwined, as the Colorado Independent reports. Unfortunately, immigrants continue to be scapegoated for nearly every social ill that arises.

Even Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., misses the larger point by arguing that the undocumented should not be insured: A healthier nation is cheaper for everyone in the long run, and simply more humane.

The Obama administration wants to ramp up early childhood education, as part of its effort to narrow achievement gaps later in life. But universal preschool may not mean universal access for immigrant families.

In an exploratory study, the Urban Institute examined the experiences immigrant families in Chicago under Illinois's “preschool for all" initiative (PFA), which aims to provide Pre-K to all 3- and 4-year olds. Researchers found intriguing patterns, and differences, in the challenges faced by Pakistani and Nigerian families dealing with a mix of cultural. social and economic factors.

Though both Nigerian and Pakistani families placed similarly high value on early education, the Pakistani families were more likely enroll in school-based programs, while the Nigerian families were more often introduced to preschool through community-based child care. (This could be due in part to the fact Nigerian parents were more likely than Pakistani parents to be working full or part time, so they sought programs that ran on a workday, rather than school schedule.)

As the Obama administration pledges to reform the federal government's vast immigration detention system, advocates might see some hope in ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton's acknowledgment that "We need a system that is open, transparent and accountable.”

But one of the first major symbolic moves toward reform, revamping the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Texas, may be more an effort to paper over controversy rather than to fix it.

Though the government will stop sending families to the center, Hutto, which is run by the private prison firm Corrections Corporation of America, will continue to house immigrant women. And for now, it appears ICE's policy of detaining families will remain essentially unchanged. (Families will be shuttled to Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Pennsylvania.)

Without a sea change in the way the ICE bureaucracy responds to the unique needs of women in detention, setting up a new women's facility will likely create new opportunities for human rights violations.