America's Voice Blog

Posted 12/31/09 at 11:58am By Web Team

Weekly Diaspora: Working Together for Reform

This post is a weekly feature by Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger.

As we usher the last decade into the realm of memory, it's time to stop viewing immigration reform as an Us vs. Them issue. The metaphors and language we use are key to framing a debate because they can communicate broader truths via association. For example, a scientist might mention the porous nature of all membranes and boundaries found in nature to describe the ineffectiveness of the militarized U.S.-Mexico border.

Reporting for New America Media, Marcelo Ballvé defines two emerging policy terms—“complementarity" and "circularity”—that are being used to describe the seasonal ebb and flow of migrant labor and argue for progressive reform. The terms effectively render concepts impenetrable borders and zero sum supply of resources, which are key fighting points for those who oppose progressive immigration reform, rigid and backward in contrast.

Former Mexican foreign minister and New York University professor Jorge Castañeda argues that clamping down on the border and the flow of migrant labor disrupts a healthy and needed circulation.

Justin Akers of the Progressive compares geographically targeted unemployment rates with immigration population numbers to demonstrate a similar concept. The data “shows that unemployment is more structural than the result of a direct competition for the same jobs.” Further, Akers writes, while it would cost an estimated $200 billion to remove the undocumented population from the U.S., it would, conversely, add approximately $180 billion to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to bring these people into the system. Yet, the unfortunately pervasive story line that the undocumented steal jobs from willing citizens, an idea championed by anti-immigrant groups, continues to “poison the well of American politics,” as Akers writes.

Click here to read more.
Posted 12/23/09 at 02:06pm By Adam Luna

Lawyers Protest Arpaio, Former Lawyer for Sheriff Calls Him “Totalitarian”

300 lawyers in suits protested Maricopa County Attorney, Andrew Thomas, charging him and Sheriff Joe Arpaio with making a complete mockery of the justice system.  Headlining the protest weren’t left-leaning activist attorneys like the ones you might expect . They were self-described conservative Republicans, one of whom actually worked as a prosecutor for Arpaio -- before she couldn’t take it anymore.

From the Arizona Republic:

Sheila Polk, a Republican and career prosecutor, spent six months working on two of the cases sought by Thomas and Arpaio in their ongoing battle against county officials and the courts. Her office handled the first criminal case against Supervisor Don Stapley and the investigation into the disputed Superior Court tower project. 

In her letter [an opinion piece published in the Arizona Republic], Polk wrote that although Maricopa County isn't her jurisdiction, she can't sit by and watch the abuses from a distance anymore:

I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes...the actions of Arpaio and Thomas are a disservice to the hundreds of dedicated men and women who work in their offices and a threat to the entire criminal-justice system.

Click here to read more.
Posted 12/23/09 at 12:07pm By Dara Lind

For Soldier Separated from Children, Coming “Home for the Holidays” Is Bittersweet

For most of us, "coming home for the holidays" and "spending the holidays with family" mean the same thing. But, for millions of victims of our broken immigration system, native-born Americans and immigrants alike, the holidays can be a painful reminder of just how far from that ideal they are.

CNN tells the story of US Army Captain Cheyne Parham, who has spent most of 2009 fighting the government to get visas for his wife, whom he met while stationed in Korea, and his two young daughters. "I've missed out on all but about one month of their lives," Capt. Parham told CNN -- ever since the Korean consulate refused to give the children passports or visas. The reason? Because his wife was working as a bar waitress at the time, the Korean consulate told Capt. Parham, they weren't sure he was the father of his daughters.

Watch Capt. Parham's story:

Posted 12/22/09 at 11:46am By Dara Lind

Disturbing Immigration Enforcement Tactics Underscore Need for Real Reform

A pair of stories published last week reveal disturbing new frontiers in immigration enforcement and underscore the urgent need for real reform.

An article by Jacqueline Stevens in the Nation uncovers several "ruse operations," in which federal immigration (ICE) agents posed as insurance agents, couriers, and even Mormon missionaries in order to collect information on undocumented immigrants or lure them somewhere to be arrested. Here's one representative example:

"A ruse operation about five years ago still rankles Kentucky attorney Julia Thorne. Thorne received a phone call from a man saying he was with a courier service, wanting to confirm her address. Shortly after that, one of her clients, a Polish horse teaser living in the area since 1993, received a call from a man who identified himself as 'Bill, the new guy in Julia's office' and asked the client to stop by Thorne's office and sign some papers--despite the fact that Thorne works alone. Two ICE agents were waiting and arrested him in the lobby. Thorne, eight floors above, had no idea until she received a call from her client in ICE custody.

"When Thorne complained to the Louisville ICE office, she was told, 'No, your client's making that up. We said we were a courier service." When she asked, "How did he happen to show up in my lobby when you were there?' they said it didn't happen."

While most of the operations Stevens recounts took place under the Bush administration, she warns that ICE's current focus on "targeted stealth operations" instead of the highly-criticized workplace raids could make these tactics more common. One researcher quoted in the piece observes that the effect of the ruses is to "send a shudder through the immigrant community, but without the dominant community finding out."

Click here to read more.
Posted 12/22/09 at 06:24am By Jackie Mahendra

Immigrant Students Struggle to Define Themselves, Win ‘Subtle’ Change at USA Today

Rigo et alLast week we brought you the story of immigrant students putting pressure on USA Today to change a provocative and misleading headline on a piece about young people who would benefit from the DREAM Act.

Well, today those same advocates have cause to celebrate what they are calling a "subtle" victory on the road toward self-definition.

Prerna Lal writes in "USA TODAY Changes Gears in Reference to Immigrant Youth:"

Today, after more than 500 letters from all of you at Change.org, USA TODAY responded subtly and changed the phrase to "illegal immigrant students," a reference that is getting pervasive in the mainstream media. New York Times also used this to reference immigrant youth quite recently. This forces the issue into a longer public education campaign and the need for mainstream media to re-evaluate their policies in referring to undocumented immigrants. They simply fail to grasp the issue that no person can be illegal.

At the same time, this subtle change tells us that a few hundred emails and calls have the power to drive change. There should be some solace in knowing that any media source that refers to immigrant students as "illegal students"  will have to bear the brunt of young immigrants who simply want the right to define themselves.

Every subtle victory is an important step forward (or, in this case, an important reminder that we cannot afford to step backward with blatantly inaccurate and misleading terminology) -- great work to the Change.org and DreamActivst.org advocates and dedicated bloggers who kept the pressure on USA Today to change their flawed headline.

Posted 12/21/09 at 02:53pm By Adam Luna

CAP Releases New Principles on Immigration Reform

workers taxpayers citizensThe Center For American Progress just released new guidelines today, which would present a strong foundation for a real immigration overhaul.

Before laying out their core principles for Immigration Reform (view pdf), however, authors Marshall Fitz and Angela Kelley outline why this kind of reform is so urgent:

Our broken immigration system undermines core national interests and must be reformed. The public demands it. Our security requires it. Global competitiveness and economic reality compel it. Our identity as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws depends on it.

[...] The failures of our immigration system stand in sharp contrast to the powerful contributions that immigrants have made to our country. Immigrants have become part of the American mainstream, and they are essential to our economic growth. They are the entrepreneurs on Main Street, U.S.A., and they have risen to the top of every segment of society along with their children, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. presidency.

They continue with a broad blueprint for reform that is both tough and practical:

We must develop a system that recognizes those contributions and treats immigration as a national resource to be managed and embraced. This requires that we develop strong enforcement mechanisms at the border and worksite that will expose future illegal border crossers and employers who seek to hire undocumented workers. It requires that we deal realistically with the fact that more than 5 percent of our national workforce is undocumented. It requires that we allow families that have been separated for years or decades to be united quickly. It requires that we create flexible immigration channels to enable foreign workers to enter the country without disadvantaging U.S. workers. And it requires that we provide immigrants with the tools they need to integrate into our communities.

Opponents of reform will continue to foment fear and cling to the status quo. But public opinion polling shows that voters expect their elected officials to solve tough problems with pragmatic policies while standing on principle. As the president and Congress begin work on this issue, the Center for American Progress offers the following framework of principles and solutions for comprehensive immigration reform.

Click here to read more.
Posted 12/18/09 at 03:20pm By Adam Luna

Prosecution of Civil Rights Cases and Hate Crimes Are Up

Tom Perez, the Obama administration’s new Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights announced yesterday that , “the Civil Rights division is again open for business.” This is  a welcome change for a department that had been widely criticized for politicizing the agency, lagging in effectiveness and suppressing legitimate cases over the last eight years.

On hate crimes, Perez announced that in the first year of the Obama administration, the department had dealt with more hate crime cases than in any year since 2001.

According to the Associated Press:

A total of 25 hate crime cases were filed for the budget year that ended in September, encompassing most of President Barack Obama's first year in office and the last few months of the Bush administration. In 2001, there were 31 such cases filed. The number fell to a low of 12 in 2006, before starting to rise again, reaching 23 in 2008.

The public announcement of hate crime charges by the Justice Department this week against three police officers and two young men in Pennsylvania for racially motivated murders is a welcome sign of things to come.

Posted 12/18/09 at 11:07am By Jackie Mahendra

CIR ASAP: Week in Review, First Reactions

On Wednesday, Rachel LaBruyere posted a great roundup of coverage of the introduction of CIR ASAP:

Yesterday, Representative Luis Gutierrez rang the opening bell on the fight for immigration reform in 2010. Below is a (non-exhaustive) round-up of both blog and media coverage.

To kick it off, we have Representative Luis Gutierrez’s own words about why the time is NOW:

“This is a crisis. It’s a crisis of human and civil rights, it’s a crisis of our economy and our workforce, and it’s a crisis of national security. This is why we cannot wait any longer.”

Here is the Reform Immigration For America slideshow from Tuesday's press coference, announcing the long-awaited legislation:

Well, since Wednesday, we've seen some furious blogging by Congressman Gutierrez over at the Huffington Post. In "Time to End the Immigrant Blame Game," he argues:

In the immigration debate, some things are constant. They never change. One is that opponents of immigration reform will use it as a wedge issue and will blame everything from unemployment to rising health care costs on immigrants.

Then, in "CIR ASAP Is the Bill America's Workforce Asked for and Deserves," he adds:

This is the bill puts an end to this kind of unchecked corruption. It is a bill that America's hardworking labor community wants. It's the bill that American employers need to operate effectively and ethically. And we owe it to them to reward the hard work they do to sustain us every day.

Also at the Huffington Post, America's Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry writes, in, "Yes We Can End this Crisis: Real Immigration Reform, A.S.A.P:"

We've seen it all before - and this time we're much better prepared, and much better organized. Nevertheless, anti-immigrant extremists like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Minutemen, and the designated hate group FAIR are going to do everything they can to maintain the awful status quo. Broken borders, broken families, broken system - all in hopes of driving 12 million undocumented immigrants out of their jobs, out of their communities, and out of the country.

There's a better way. And the legislation crafted by Rep. Gutierrez points the way forward.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro (Director of National Campaigns at NCLR) took on the challenge and opportunity of debating immigration during an election year.

Past election cycles have shown that voters reject candidates who simply demagogue this issue or adopt extreme enforcement-only approaches. For far too long, those who support the harmful status quo have been allowed to lead on this issue, even though they do not represent the can-do will of the American public. And it is clear that the immigration debate has rallied Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, who participated in record numbers in the 2008 election, in large part in response to the promise of change. Latinos are watching. The American people are watching. And we have the public support to arrive at a solution.

Last piece at Huffington Post, Eliseo Medina (Vice President of SEIU) and Joe Hansen (President of UFCW) make the case, in "Immigration Reform is Critical Part of the Road to Recovery for America's Workers:

Today, as comprehensive immigration reform legislation begins to move in Congress, we face an historic opportunity to pass smart, comprehensive reform that works. For the first time, the union movement is in broad agreement on the framework for reform, and we are committed to ensuring that all workers have an opportunity to work a job they can be proud of -- one with middle class wages, benefits they can raise their families on, safe working conditions, and secure employment they can count on.

This jives with a piercing analysis from progressive blogger Duke, at the Sanctuary, in "Whining starts about lack of guest worker program in Gutierrez bill:"

Rather than letting business interests, with their insatiable need for cheap, exploitable labor, dictate the flow of immigration through both legal and illegal channels, Gutierrez’s bill creates a new antonymous regulatory agency within the executive branch solely charged with setting both policy and specific levels for all future employment-based immigration.

Marisa Treviño at Latina Lista puts the fight in context:

Like healthcare, immigration reform will be challenged by conservatives and liberals alike who don't understand the day-to-day realities of over 12 million people -- some parents to American-born children -- who think our immigration problems can be fixed if people went back home and got in line and waited for their rightful turn.

Nezua, at The Unapologetic Mexican, had both a Weekly Diaspora feature on CIR ASAP and initial coverage of the bill's introduction (with a killer graphic of Gutierrez), saying, respectively:

The legislation is an encouraging first step forward on the path to immigration reform. But many hurdles must be overcome before an immigration bill from the House or Senate becomes law, especially in today’s tense political environment. Outright antagonism from the nativist lobby or the far Right will be no small part of the challenge, no matter how concessionary the legislation is to Republicans. [...]

Finally, there will be a link posted so you can add your voice to help support this bill. We need every voice, truly.

Maegan La Mamita Mala of Vivir Latino argued that the bill, while very progressive, should go further to protect all families:

CIR ASAP is without a doubt one of the most progressive pieces of legislation we have seen, especially when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform. But progressive reform is not radical and in negotiations around policy it is often those that need the most help, some of the most marginalized in our communities, who get left out in the cold in the name of the greater good.

Becca Sheff, at the of Peace and Politics blog, blogged about the launch:

I attended the press conference for the introduction of the bill and, let me tell you, the room was packed. Members of Congress, Congressional staff, members of the press, immigration advocates, faith leaders, and immigrants of all backgrounds crowded into the room, cheering “Yes we can!” The energy was fantastic. While a lot of work remains for us to achieve humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform, Rep. Gutierrez’s bill offers important elements of reform.

Angela Caputo at Progress Illinois uses a video we shot at the press conference:

"The opponents of immigration reform will use it as a wedge issue," Gutierrez said while unveiling the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) (PDF). "The immigrant blame game is one of the most predictable [and] most deplorable of public debate in our nation ... The only way we're going to win this is if it's greater than the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, if we show our leadership to bring people together." Watch:

As evidence of the need for swift reform, USA Today covered the story of Rigo Padilla, a University of Illinois at Chicago student who has become a national poster child for the broken immigration system.

Click here to read more.
Posted 12/18/09 at 06:20am By Jackie Mahendra

Fresh From Major Organizing Success, Dream Advocates Challenge USA Today on “Illegal Students”

Last week was a good week for advocates for undocumented youth, like those at DreamActivist.org, who are rallying support for a critical component of immigration reform called the Dream Act. Good news came out of Chicago, when the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights announced that honor student and community volunteer Rigo Padilla would be able to stay in the country he calls home. Then, "DREAM'er" Andrea Huerfano’s deportation was halted.

Tens of thousands of faxes, emails, and phone calls from advocates across the country helped pave the way to restoring justice in these young people's lives.

Now, DREAM'ers have set their sights on a slightly different target than DHS: USA Today. Why?

According to Prerna Lal, in "Ask USA Today: What Do You Mean By "Illegal Students?" at Change.org:

The USA Today article "Groups try to delay deportations of illegal students" gets it wrong once again by calling immigrant students in the United States "illegal." [...] 

But wait, I get the “illegal immigrant” because that slur is familiar. However, WHAT is an “illegal student?”

How do you recognize an "illegal student?" [...]

Sign the petition to tell Emily Bazar and USA Today that no student and no human being can be illegal.

The action has caught fire on twitter and continues to spark outrage a day later.

Erin Rosa at Campus Progress has a thorough (and snarky) response in "What's an 'Illegal Student,' Anyway?":

That’s a good question. First off, schooling for primary and secondary education is compulsorily in the United States, meaning that public schools are obligated to teach every child, undocumented or not. Even if Bazar is talking about higher education, universities and colleges are not legally bared from teaching to undocumented immigrants so long as they pay their own tuition bills. (Obtaining financial aid or in-state tuition is another story.) So, if “illegal” is being used by USA Today as an adjective to describe students in the United States, what is it about their status as scholars that would specifically make them illegal?

While it’s not uncommon for other established media outlets to use a term like “illegal immigrant,” a problematic title that assumes an individual is guilty of breaking immigration laws, it’s nearly impossible to be an “illegal student” in the United States.

What’s next? Will there be “illegal Church goers,” or “illegal Guitar Hero players?”

Imagine 2050, The Sanctuary, DreamActivist, and MAGraduate (Daily Kos) also carried the story.

http://www.dreamactivist.org/update-andrea-huerfanos-deportation-halted/
Posted 12/17/09 at 11:59am By Web Team

Weekly Diaspora: CIR ASAP the First Step to Reform

This post is a weekly feature by Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger.

On Tuesday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR-ASAP). Rep. Gutierrez said that the bill represents “the final push for comprehensive immigration reform," as Khalil Abdullah reports for New America Media. Seth Hoy at AlterNet breaks down some of the bill's key points, which include a border security provisions, family unification, a legalization component, and improved detention conditions.

The legislation is an encouraging first step forward on the path to immigration reform. But many hurdles must be overcome before an immigration bill from the House or Senate becomes law, especially in today's tense political environment. Outright antagonism from the nativist lobby or the far Right will be no small part of the challenge, no matter how concessionary the legislation is to Republicans.

In the absence of nationally legislated reform, many border states like Texas are attempting to fill in the gap. One of these cases is a town called Del Rio, as Melissa del Bosque reports for the Texas Observer. Del Rio's new school superintendent, Kelt Cooper, has "an overarching concern about Mexican nonresidents attending [U.S.] public schools." U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, acting under Cooper's request, recently took a headcount of children crossing the bridge that connects Ciudad Acuña in México to Del Rio, Texas. No other border to the county was inspected similarly.

At Cooper's order, Del Rio school district employees handed out fliers to drivers with students who crossed the bridge that morning, informing parents that their children were being withdrawn from school unless they could prove U.S. citizenship. If Cooper truly cared about his student body, he'd take a lesson from another school with a large immigrant population and harness the energy available to him, rather than sowing fear and division amongst the student body.

Click here to read more.

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