America's Voice Blog

Posted 09/02/10 at 09:52am By Guest Blogger

DREAM Now Letters to Barack Obama: Saad Nabeel

The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act.

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Saad Nabeel and I am writing to you from Bangladesh. Prior to my arrival in this nation, I lived in the United States for 15 years. My parents brought me to America at age three. It is the only home I know. I used to attend the University of Texas at Arlington with a full scholarship in Electrical Engineering. Through no fault of my own I was forced to leave my home, friends, possessions, and most importantly, my education behind.

November 3rd 2009 is a day I will never forget. My mother called me and told me that my father had been detained by ICE and that we needed to leave immediately to Canada to seek refugee status. Being an only child, I had to take care of my mother and go with her.

Click here to read more.
Posted 09/01/10 at 11:49am By Jackie Mahendra

STUDY: Immigration Fattens Our Paychecks, Makes us Richer

A new study by the San Francisco Fed, highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg,  and Reuters, provides state-level proof that immigrants, well, make us richer.

According to the author of the report:

[T]otal immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 was associated with a 6.6% to 9.9% increase in real income per worker. That equals an increase of about $5,100 in the yearly income of the average U.S. worker in constant 2005 dollars. Such a gain equals 20% to 25% of the total real increase in average yearly income per worker registered in the United States between 1990 and 2007.

The study is making the rounds in the blogosphere.  Matt Yglesias writes, in “How Immigration Boosts Living Standards:”

When new workers come onto the scene and do jobs, they create more surplus. To get the kind of zero-sum effect that people think occurs when you get rid of immigrants, what you would actually need to do is send retirees to the Death Panels and turn them into Soylent Green.

Click here to read more.
Posted 09/01/10 at 10:43am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Save Selvin!; Deaths in the Desert

Religious leaders and activists in Maine ask their state's senators to protect DREAMers one and all; between the Arizona desert and the Tamaulipas massacre, crossing the border continues to be incredibly dangerous for immigrants; and even though more citizens are born to immigrants every day, and more naturalized citizens register to vote, some politicians still think demonizing immigrants is a good idea.

Save Selvin! News agencies EFE and Notimex report that advocates and religious leaders are asking Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (both Republican) to intervene to stop Selvin Arévalo from being deported, and to provide leadership in pushing for the advancement of the DREAM Act. According to Notimex, Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, said yesterday on a press teleconference that the bill “is a piece of common-sense bipartisan legislation that will benefit not only these students but our nation.”

Deaths in the desert. The AP reports that death rates continue to rise among immigrants crossing the Arizona desert. According to the agency, deaths:

“shot up in the first six months of 2010 to their highest levels since 2005, a fact which has shocked many who had assumed that the state’s new immigration law and temperatures of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit would cause them to seek out other parts of the vast border between Mexico and the United States.”

59 immigrants died in the Arizona sector in July, the highest monthly toll since July 2005, when there were 68 deaths.

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/31/10 at 04:56pm By Mahwish Khan

Dear Senator Snowe and Senator Collins: Let’s Keep Selvin in Maine!

As we reported last week, after spending three months in jail facing deportation, Ivan Nikolov was released.  He’s currently safe at home with his fiancée and stepdad – thanks to your help.  Together, we sent nearly 15,000 faxes to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, and another 2,800 faxes to Ivan's Congressional representatives in Michigan, sharing his story and urging his release. Our persistence paid off.

Now another young man – Selvin Arevalo – needs our help. Selvin came to the United States from Guatemala when he was just 14 years old. His dream was to work hard to support his mother, who needed open-heart surgery, his two brothers and his sister. Selvin paints houses during the day and takes classes at night to pass his GED. Though he's incredibly active in his church and local community in Maine, the 24-year-old could be deported any day now.

Earlier today, immigrant advocates convened a call, asking Maine Senators to intervene and stop Selvin's deportation.  Following is what Isai Galvez, youth leader of Iglesia Pentecostal El Sinai and Selvin’s best friend, had to say Selvin’s contributions to Portland and his battle with deportation: 

Selvin’s dream has always been to get his high school diploma and attend college but when he was detained, his hope of becoming an American citizen, graduating college and starting his own business was put in jeopardy...I’m asking Senators Collins and Snowe, on behalf of the greater Portland community, to come to his defense and intervene on his behalf.  Selvin is a living example of why we desperately need the DREAM Act in order to protect the future leaders of our nation.

We've seen how successful these campaigns can be. We helped save Ivan Nikolov in Michigan and Marlen Moreno in Arizona. Now Selvin Arevalo needs our help.

Please send a fax now to stop Selvin's deportation!

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/31/10 at 09:29am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: National Guard Arrives at Border; ICE Memo; Tamaulipas

Several outlets in the Spanish-language press report today on the dispatch of the first wave of National Guard troops to the Arizona-Mexico border. The press also continues to explain what last week's Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo does and doesn't mean for deportations (hint: it's still not amnesty), and looks at the aftereffects of the massacre of migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and of SB 1070 in Arizona.

National Guard arrives at border. The Obama Administration’s plan ultimately calls for 524 troops to be dispatched to Arizona (not all of whom have been sent yet) and 1,200 National Guardsmen in total along the southwestern border to support Customs and Border Protection efforts.

EFE reports that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said that the additional troops are welcome, but insufficient. Brewer has said:

“Despite the mantra by the Obama administration that the border is 'as secure as ever,' in Arizona both Republicans and Democrats recognize they have failed.”

AFP, Reuters, and EFE report that surveillance on the southwest border will be supplemented by an additional Predator drone (unmanned plane), according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. According to the AFP, Napolitano stated:

“With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.”

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/30/10 at 09:34am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: ICE Memo; Tamaulipas Massacre; 55+ Votes for DREAM

The Spanish-language press continues to follow up on two big stories from last week: the release of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo asking agents to cancel deportations for a narrow class of immigrants, and the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Meanwhile, as Congress prepares to go back in session, DREAM Act advocates are tallying up their support in the Senate.

ICE memo. The memo, released last week, instructs agents to cancel the deportation of certain undocumented immigrants who have filed active applications for legal status and are likely to be approved. The coverage quotes pro-immigrant groups reiterating that this does not constitute “amnesty,” as critics of the memo allege. EFE, Reuters, El Nuevo Herald (Miami) and El Financiero (Mexico) have more on the story. 

Tamaulipas massacre. Notimex (via SDPNoticias.com) quotes Enrique Morones Careaga, director of the group Border Angels, who says that the tragedy shows:

“how urgently immigration reform is needed for the sake of both the United States and Mexico.”

Other outlets covering the story today include El Universal (Mexico), the AP and EFE.

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/30/10 at 09:22am By Guest Blogger

DREAM Now Letters to Barack Obama: Lizbeth Mateo

The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act.

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Lizbeth Mateo and I am undocumented. On May 17th, on the 56th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, I, along with Mohammad Abdollahi, Yahaira Carrillo and two others, became the first undocumented students to risk deportation by staging a sit-in inside Senator McCain’s office in Tucson, Arizona, to demand the immediate passage of the DREAM Act. As a result of that sit-in we were arrested, turned over to ICE, and we now face deportation.

I came to this country when I was fourteen-years-old from Oaxaca, Mexico.  It was the late nineties and Mexico was, and is still, facing one of the worst socio-economic and political periods in recent history. For my parents - a taxi driver and a stay-at-home-mom that were struggling to make ends meet-  it was clear that they would have to choose between seeing their children starve and get sick, or risk it all, leave everything behind and relocate the family to Southern California with hopes of a better future. In 1998 we moved to Los Angeles and have lived here, since. 

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/30/10 at 09:00am By Frank Sharry

In Florida, Bill McCollum’s Primary Loss Shows Limits of Immigrant Bashing

While most analysis of immigration politics has focused on Arizona lately, both parties should take note of the results of last Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary in Florida.  In states with a significant Latino presence, there is a steep price to pay for ugly immigration politics.

Here’s what happened: Attorney General Bill McCollum was the favorite in the GOP gubernatorial primary, with a moderate record on immigration and strong support from Latino Republicans.  His opponent Rick Scott, a political newcomer and self-funded multi-millionaire, decided to make a name for himself by riding the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment so popular with a segment of the Republican base.  He emphasized his strong support for an Arizona-like immigration law in Florida and painted McCollum as soft on illegal immigration.  Still, once McCollum started attacking Scott as a shady businessman, he regained the lead and was expected to win.

In what proved to be the fatal move of his campaign, McCollum introduced his own version of an Arizona-type law less than two weeks before the primary.  McCollum called on the Florida state legislature to enact it in September and bragged that the bill was tougher than Arizona’s.

Turns out, McCollum’s strategy of trying to outflank Scott on immigrant bashing backfired.  McCollum rapidly lost support from Latino leaders, and faced a backlash in the press.  On Tuesday, many Latinos in Miami-Dade County stayed home.  Turnout in what was expected to be a McCollum stronghold was less than 17%, while statewide turnout was 21%.  Scott raced over the finish line and pulled off the come-from-behind upset.

Click here to read more.
Posted 08/27/10 at 03:44pm By Dara Lind

ICE Won’t Deport People Already About To Get Legal Status. “Free Pass,” Or Common Sense?

For a year and a half, Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief John Morton has been saying that he wants his agency to target “the worst of the worst” when it comes to immigration enforcement.  In recent weeks, we've finally begun to see this stance reflected in policy, though there’s still more to be done.

Last week, the agency issued new guidance directing field offices to halt the deportations of a narrow group of immigrants who have “active applications in the system” and are about to become legal residents, according to the New York Times:

“The memo encourages ICE officers and lawyers to use their authority to dismiss those cases, canceling the deportation proceedings, if they determine that the immigrants have no criminal records and stand a strong chance of having their residence applications approved.

“The policy is intended to address a 'major inefficiency' that has led to an unnecessary pileup of cases in the immigration courts, Mr. Morton said. The courts have reported at least 17,000 cases that could be eliminated from their docket if ICE dismissed deportations of immigrants, like those married to United States citizens, who were very likely to win legal status, the memo says.”

The rationale here is good law enforcement policy, but it also happens to jive with common sense.  Surely everyone in America would think it’s smarter to spend ICE resources going after dangerous criminals than immigrants who have applied for residency under the current system and are about to be granted a green card, right?

Well, apparently, not everyone.  Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is seeing red when it comes to the new memo.  Despite his reputation as a budget hawk, he’s bound and determined to oppose every change in immigration policy the Obama Administration makes, even one that would make efficient use of taxpayer resources.

Here's what Grassley told the Times:

“Actions like this demoralize ICE agents who are trying to do their job and enforce the law. Unfortunately, it appears this is more evidence that the Obama administration would rather circumvent Congress and give a free pass to illegal immigrants who have already broken our law.”

It's important to understand that this memo covers only a small fraction of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — the 17,000 who are in active deportation proceedings and have also applied for immigration status through existing laws, like the family-based immigration system.  It won’t give a benefit to anyone who doesn’t qualify for one already; it won’t prevent anyone whose application is denied from being deported in the future; and it won’t end deportation proceedings for the majority of people who are in them.

The policy change simply says that we’re not going to tie up deportation resources going after someone who’s about to become a legal, taxpaying resident —something that most Americans would agree makes good sense.

Most, that is, except Senator Grassley and his crew.  Grassley also doesn’t agree with the vast majority of Americans who support congressional passage of comprehensive immigration reform that requires undocumented immigrants to register with the government, undergo background checks, and get in line for legal status. Americans don’t call that “amnesty,” they call it “accountability.” And they like it.

What they don’t like are leaders who pretend we can deport our way to an immigration solution, or whose strategy on immigration is to block progress at every turn and label every change pursued by the Administration as “amnesty.”

Posted 08/27/10 at 08:37am By Guest Blogger

Weekly Diaspora: Immigrants Abused, Denied Social Services in Broken Immigration System

by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger:

After decades of misguided policies and patchwork practices, the high human costs of our disordered immigration system are only starting to emerge. Stricter immigration policies and overcrowded detention centers aren’t making our streets safer or our social services more accessible.

Instead, mounting evidence shows that our immigration policies are just creating a space for immigrants to be brutalized—socially, financially and physically. From reports of sexual abuse inside of detention centers to news of legal residents being denied social services, the ineffectiveness of the prevailing system has never been more apparent, nor the need for reform so great.

Women and children sexually assaulted in detention centers

As Michelle Chen writes at Colorlines, allegations of sexual abuse within a Texas detention center have sparked investigations by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. According to reports, a guard at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center sexually assaulted several women while transporting them prior to their release.

Human Rights Watch, which this week released a comprehensive report on sexual abuse in detention, regards the incident as representative of a larger problem that affects both women and children caught in the web of the detention system. From the report:

Children, too, have apparently been subject to alleged abuse in Texas immigration detention facilities, although their care is overseen by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), rather than ICE. Nine Central American children, one of whom was identified as 16 years old, reported sexual and physical abuse while in the custody of Texas Sheltered Care […] the children were fondled, groped, and forced to perform oral sex on one guard, and some were beaten by other guards.

Click here to read more.

 1 2 3 >  Last »