America's Voice Blog

Posted 08/18/10 at 10:39am By Jackie Mahendra

NYT: As it Stands, “Secure Communities Won’t Make The Country More Secure”

For all the talk that the Obama Administration is changing immigration enforcement priorities to focus on the “worst of the worst,” a new report editorialized in the New York Times today shows that for one flagship program called "Secure Communities," there’s a very long road ahead:

Secure Communities won’t make the country more secure, not the way it is working. Police departments that don’t want to participate should be able to opt out. The Obama administration needs to fix it or jettison it.

The Times paints a pretty damning picture of how the program’s been run:

Secure Communities, an immigration enforcement program created under President George W. Bush and now being greatly expanded by President Obama, is billed as an effort to catch and deport “the worst of the worst,” the violent criminals, drug and gun smugglers, gang members and other dangerous aliens. That would be excellent, if true. It doesn’t seem to be.

According to the data, the Secure Communities program has been in the business of rounding up a majority of non-criminal immigrants; a whopping 79 percent of those deported under Secure Communities have no criminal records “or had been picked up for low-level offenses, like traffic violations and juvenile mischief.”

Click here to read more.
Posted 07/30/10 at 02:46pm By Web Team

Thirty-eight Arrested Protesting Arpaio and Arizona Immigration Law

Protests in Arizona and through-out America continued today after Arizonan's governor, Jan Brewer asked an appeals court to reconsider the most heinous parts of the state's new immigration law and as the lightning-rod Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, prepared a highly publicized "crime sweep."

Yesterday, at least 38 people were arrested during a protest against planned raids on immigrant communities by Arpaio.

Hundreds of protesters banged on the metal door of the Maricopa County Jail and chanted "Sheriff Joe, we are here. We will not live in fear." and "Arrest Arpaio not the people."

Watch:

Arpaio responded saying, "Nothing is going to deter this operation, not even the ruling of a federal judge."

In Tucson, opponents of SB 1070 spent all night Wednesday downtown taking a stand against the remaining provisions of the misguided immigration law.

According to the Tucson Sentinel, drivers passing by honked their horns and raised their fists in support of the demonstrators long into the night.

Members of the America's Voice team were in Arizona yesterday and they documented their experience on the ground.

You can see their photos by going to our Facebook page.

Posted 06/11/10 at 09:54am By Maribel Hastings

Even Before Going Into Effect, Arizona’s SB 1070 Immigration Law Is Wreaking Havoc

Translated from America's Voice en Español.

"It's ironic that the most prestigious university in the world has accepted me, but the state I call home criminalizes me." That's how Silvia Rodríguez, a 23-year-old student who was brought from Mexico to Phoenix by her parents at the age of two, describes the effects of Arizona law SB 1070 and other enforcement measures against families, women and children in her state.

Rodríguez testified at a special Congressional hearing convened by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ).

While SB 1070 won't go into effect in Arizona until July 29th, Dr. Sylvia Herrera, a researcher with human-rights organization Puente, explained at the hearing that its effects are already being felt at all levels: families separated, women who don't dare report the domestic violence they suffer to the authorities or social services, or who go to California to seek help; blood banks that won't accept donations from Hispanics; children who are afraid to go to school because they fear they won't see their parents when they return. "It's an emotional roller coaster," Herrera concluded.

10-year-old Catherine Figueroa confessed that, after her parents were detained for three months after a raid in Phoenix, she still has nightmares "and I'm still afraid of the deputies."

"Please help us. Children don't know what to do without their parents," the girl said, tearing up as she beseeched President Obama to intervene to keep SB 1070 from going into effect. "Please, tell President Obama to stop putting parents in jail. All they want is a better life for their kids."

Rodríguez described how, despite the obstacles she faced by not having legal status, she completed a dual degree from Arizona State University (ASU) in Political Science and Chicano Studies. She has been accepted to Harvard University to complete a master's degee, but as she explained, SB 1070 could sabotage those plans.

Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) thanked the panelists for their testimony and called them "true Americans." Rodríguez thanked him, saying that no one had ever called her an "American" before. "The only time that I felt to be the slightest happy, or accepted or proud by this country was when President Obama won his presidency," she said. "For him to not step up and fulfill his promises, really, really breaks a lot of hearts."

Celia Alejandra Álvarez Herrera spoke about the three months she spent in detention "with a dislocated jaw," separated from her children -- the youngest of whom had been born a mere three months before she was detained in February 2009.

"I asked myself why I suffered so much just for working," she said.

"The biggest harm (caused by SB 1070 and other enforcement measures) is still ahead of us," she added. And she told the members of Congress: "My blood is red and I imagine yours is too. There's no difference...please, help us. Don't cover your ears, don't close your eyes, don't shut your mouths. What's happening in Arizona is real. We're being discriminated against."

Grijalva and Representative Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) demanded that the White House mount a legal challenge to SB 1070.

Gutiérrez repeated his criticisms of the Obama administration, saying that the President doesn't need Congressional approval to halt deportations and pointing out that despite the President's campaign promises his administration has only escalated enforcement. He accused the President of sending National Guard troops to the border "as if it were a question of crime in Arizona. It's not just about crime in Arizona, it's about justice."

Here are videos of some of the witnesses who testified on behalf of the Arizona women's delegation at the Congressional special hearing:

Testimony from Catherine Figueroa:

A message from Catherine Figueroa to the President, Congress and Sheriff Arpaio (Credit: Telemundo)  

Testimony from Silvia Rodríguez:

Testimony from Sylvia Herrera:


 

Posted 05/19/10 at 12:57pm By Frank Sharry

First Lady Michelle Obama Questioned by Second-Grader Worried About Her Mom’s Immigration Status

A second-grader stole the show today, even as U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon held a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. 

While the two Presidents spoke about the need for immigration reform and about concerns over Arizona's harsh new law – without saying anything new or different – down the road in Silver Spring, Maryland, First Lady Michele Obama and Mexico’s First Lady Margarita Zavala visited an elementary school to speak with a class of second graders. 

ABC News’ Karen Travers reports what happened when a young girl spoke up:

The student shyly raised her hand and said, "My mom ... she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn't have papers."

Mrs. Obama replied: "Yeah, well that's something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That's exactly right."

The girl then said quietly, "But my mom doesn't have any ..." and trailed off.

Mrs. Obama replied: "Well, we have to work on that. We have to fix that, and everybody's got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That's right."

Watch the video of the exchange (UPDATED):

Sadly, this brief exchange says more about the current state of the immigration debate than the remarks of the two Presidents in the Rose Garden today. 

Click here to read more.
Posted 04/06/10 at 12:42pm By Jackie Mahendra

Immigration: More Rogue than Right?

Check out our new video, "Immigration: More Rogue than Right?," and then raise your voice about our nation's unjust immigration policies:


Last week, the Washington Post reported that federal immigration agents are using quotas to round up "easy targets" -- moms and dads working to feed their families -- instead of going after serious criminals.

The President himself has said:

When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn't working, and we need to change it.

Watch the new video and then tell President Obama that the system just isn't working -- we need real immigration reform that protects families, not rogue tactics that destroy them!

Posted 03/12/10 at 07:06pm By Jackie Mahendra

One Day After Obama’s White House Meeting, Immigration Raids Spark Latino Backlash

Jorge TweetYesterday Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA de Maryland, was among the dozen grassroots and national immigration reform advocates to meet with President Obama for over an hour at the White House. Today, he was out in front of the White House-- protesting.

Here's the context. Yesterday's meeting was called in the wake of growing anger and frustration amongst immigration reform advocates at figures that show the Obama Administration has been deporting more immigrants a year than Bush, while making little progress on the kind of comprehensive immigration reform that he pledged to champion. After yesterday's meeting, Torres and many leaders expressed confidence in the President's commitment to moving reform forward, as well as a desire to see more concrete, public action on immigration by the White House.

By action on immigration, however, Torres probably didn't mean more immigration raids, which have sparked outrage in Latino and immigrant communities in Maryland and beyond. In fact, the nation's most prominent Spanish news anchor, Jorge Ramos, just tweeted (translation -- original pictured at right, in Spanish):

Obama’s dilemma: there’s no immigration reform but now there are new raids and his administration has deported more people than Bush.

Today, CASA de Maryland hosted a press conference in front of the White House, denouncing the raids and allowing family members of detained immigrants to speak. One reporter questioned what response there might have been from the Administration, given the timing of the raids one day after the White House meeting. Here is a response from CASA's lawyer, who says that he has been unable to get in touch with ICE (the federal agency in charge of immigration enforcement), as well as Gustavo Torres (first in English, and then in Spanish). Torres cites an upcoming meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in which they'll discuss how to "reduce these attacks on the community" (loose translation).

Watch it:

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/02/10 at 04:13pm By Mahwish Khan

New York Times: ICE Agent Advises Signal International to “Privately” Deport Workers

The New York Times today uncovers how U.S. immigration authorities under President Bush colluded with a Mississippi marine oil-rig company to punish workers exercising their basic labor rights.  The article details shocking correspondence between the employer, Signal International, and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which advised the company how to privately deport workers who were complaining about mistreatment on the job. 

Apparently, ICE’s advice to the company was this:

Don’t give them any advance notice. Take them all out of the line on the way to work; get their personal belongings; get them in a van, and get their tickets, and get them to the airport, and send them back to India.

Outrageous.

The Signal case is a clear and compelling example of how the Bush Administration prioritized enforcement policies over labor rights to the detriment of all workers, as a recent report from American Rights at Work described and as we, at America’s Voice, have consistently highlighted.

Putting the needs of dishonest employers before the rights of workers is un-American. It's time for a full investigation into the allegations of misconduct that occurred during the Bush years. 

We need to ensure that the enforcement of immigration laws no longer trumps the protection of workers’ rights. 

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 12/17/09 at 11:05am By Marjorie Clifton

Happy Holidays From American Apparel: Justice For Immigrants Factory Sale in L.A.

As the holidays rapidly approach, our focus shifts to shopping, cooking and decking the halls for the invasion of relatives. But, as we hit the shops, we often forget to take a moment to think about the origins of our chic outfits and abounding feasts (those of us lucky enough to still have these).

Those trendy peacoats and ripe, delicious pears didn’t fall off of a sleigh after all. 

In Los Angeles, California, a building full of laborers--many foreign-born-- work tirelessly to fill the shelves of American Apparel with their not-so-basic t-shirts and colorful sweaters, enough to fulfill the Christmas wishes of millions of American teens in various stages of blossoming hipster-dom.  But, like so many companies, American Apparel has been stuck in the middle of our immigration crisis this year. 

In September and October, 1,600 of the company's workers were forced out of jobs, leaving their families divided by an immigration system that continues to plague mixed-status families across the United States.  As a result, some of these families will not spend the holidays together and will be struggling just to put food on the table, much less buying presents for the tots.

Click here to read more.
Posted 11/10/09 at 02:36pm By Dara Lind

ICE Firing of 1200 Janitors Likened by SEIU to “Redecorating When the House is on Fire”

badgeThis morning, the Associated Press and Minnesota Public Radio reported that 1,200 undocumented janitors had been fired from Twin Cities company ABM under pressure from the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE worked with ABM, giving employees a few months to produce documentation and then firing those who couldn’t in four waves throughout October. None of the janitors were arrested, and ICE hasn’t yet fined the company.

This "silent firing" is the same process we saw earlier this fall, when L.A.-based American Apparel was forced to fire a quarter of its employees in September. It’s clear that the Obama administration favors these immigration enforcement tactics to the showy, headline-grabbing workplace raids ICE conducted in the Bush era, most notoriously in Postville, Iowa, in 2008.

But just because the ABM janitors weren’t arrested by ICE, unlike workers in Postville and other raid victims, doesn’t mean mass firings cause less trauma to communities. In fact, in some regards they’re even more disruptive. Three times as many people lost their jobs in the ABM firings as in Postville, after all.

Click here to read more.

 1 2 3 >