Roger Toussaint on the Public Good

A healthy immigration system is a public good. No one in the open market will provide it for us. Rather, the government must provide for it as a third party. It is Congress’ job to make immigration workable again. I recently read Roger Toussaint’s remarks, reproduced below, and I feel that they capture an important spirit within our struggle.

From remarks by Transportation Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint at the 2nd Annual Sumner Rosen Memorial Lecture, May 8, 2007:
 
“We have had 25 years of denigration of the very idea that there is something called the public good. Government has to push it forward. Society has to pay for it.

The Republican presidential debate last week was at the Ronald Reagan library. It belonged there. Reagan unleashed the open assault on the public good. The candidates fell all over themselves trying to show who was the most Reagan-like — who would keep starving the public sphere and push all wealth into the marketplace.

Letters from the Border (3) Life in Limbo

For our final piece on the border, Malia Politzer is taking us back to a view of the border in 2005- do you have a letter from the border? 

Life in Limbo
Crossing the U.S.-Mexican Border
by Malia Politzer :: 11/30/2005

April 2005: Monday, Day 1 
The entrance to the Colonia of Buenas Aires is the last right off the main drag of Nogales, Mexico after crossing the train tracks. If you miss this turn, you’ll hit the traffic caused by lines of cars waiting to go through the Customs checkpoint. This line can be as short as 20 minutes or as long as four or five hours. Stationary cameras focus on the cars so that locals who cross back and forth regularly can check the line from their home televisions, and determine the best time to cross. It’s easy, for those who have visas. For those without immigration papers, passage to el otro lado (the other side) is long, dangerous and difficult.

I can see the wall dividing the United States from Mexico from my car. It’s made out of old landing mats from the Vietnam and Gulf wars: rusted bits of steel lined with barbed wire. Peeking over the top of the barbed wire are a Burger King sign and the swaying tips of palm trees.

Some long-term residents remember when the Nogales border was marked by no more than a chain link fence, perforated by holes through which they could slip to do their weekly shopping. Eggs, milk, meat. These products are cheaper in the United States, even though minimum wage is much lower in Mexico. The average worker in the maquiladoras—the foreign-owned assembly plants crowding the Mexican side of the border—makes anywhere between three and 10 dollars per day; the same worker could make up to $10 an hour in the United States. In 1999, the Clinton administration greatly expanded and fortified the U.S.-Mexico border fence as part of a border protection program with an annual budget of a few billion dollars. Along with this, the administration installed cameras. More border patrol. High technology movement sensors. Drones. Helicopters.

Lower the barriers , welcome the progess that citizenship can bring

I just saw this piece in the nytimes today and thought it was really worth sharing:

America the Generous: A Lost Story of Citizenship

By LAWRENCE DOWNES

When people bicker over immigration, it’s often not long before the topic turns to My Family Came Here Legally. People whose roots go to Ellis Island or deeper like to say that. It fills their family trees with hard-working people who were poor but played by the rules, who got with the American program. It draws a bright line between upstanding Americans and those shadowy illegal workers hiding one big secret and who knows how many others.

Round-up of Senate Debate During Recess

Hi Folks,

While we are all lobbying our Senators and Representatives at home we wanted to give you some points on the state of debate in the Senate:

- TRACK all the changes to s. 1348 (the Kennedy/Bush deal) HERE

- On Thursday, 66 Senators rejected an amendment that would have struck the legalization program from the bill.  See how your Senator voted

- Public ed materials on changes to the bill coming soon….

- The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration reform has put together  messaging on the Kennedy/Bush deal

- The Immigrant Legal Resource Center has put together a useful document detailing some of the provisions of the Senate Deal - THANKS ILRC!
 

Awakening the moral imagination

Last week I had the opporunity to attend the opening of the Liberty Hill Foundation’s exhibit, Strangers No More, a collection of photos from the 2006 marches in LA. Among the panelists were Son Ah Yun, Co-Director of FIRM, Angelica Salas, Executive Director of CHIRLA and Alexia Salvatierra, one fo the leaders of the New Sanctuary Movement.

All the panelists shared great insights into the stakes of the fight for immigration rights, but it was Alexia Salvatierra’s words that struck a particular chord for me. She put forth an important idea: awakening the moral imagination of America.

From the churches that offered refuge to immigrants at the turn of the century, to organizing efforts for rights and fair work conditions for immigrant worker in the early 1900’s to the first sanctuary movement of the 1980’s and today’s new sancutary movement, churches have played an influential role in awakaening the moral imagination of America.

Rights are not universal truths set down in stone from the dawn of time. They are values that we agree to and share communally. It takes time and work to establish new rights. The first step towards establishing rights is always IMAGINING the very existence of those rights. The critical turning point in a fight for rights comes when the larger public grows that imagination into reality by codifying those rights in governing laws.

Before change can happen, someone has to plant that seed of imagination - the new sanctuary movement is continuing to plant those seeds, and I am interested in learning more about others who are planting that seed. Do you have any stories to share?

Alexia’s words helped me remember that we may or may not get the immigration reform bill that millions of Americans and immigrants desperately need this year, but all of our fighting and lobbying and actions will not be wasted because we will have furthered the imagination of the Americans. We will have laid an even stronger foundation from which we can continue to grow the belief in immigrant rights.

15 % 37%

Kentucky Woman will go “Miles for a Change”

Kentucky’s Dianet Plucinski will walk/run from Louisville to Lexington on June 9 and 10 (Sat and Sun). Dianet’s journey is dedicated to all the women who have died attempting to cross the U.S./Mexican border and in solidarity with the struggle for legalization for the millions of undocumented immigrants who work and live in the United States. Dianet’s efforts will resemble the sacrifices made by all the immigrants who are forced to leave their homeland to build a better future for their families, and it’s done at a time when the Congress start to discuss proposals for real comprehensive immigration reform.

The Miles for a Change will start the morning of June 9 in Louisville; it will follow the US60 Route all the way to Lexington. It will pass Shelbyville and arrive into Frankfort at the end of the day. We will stay overnight in Frankfort and will depart to Lexington on Sunday morning, passing thru Versailles. Thru the weekend we will have rallies in Louisville, Shelbyville, Frankfort, Versailles and Lexington. The walk will be combined with four 5K Runs: leaving Louisville, entering Frankfort, leaving Frankfort, and arriving into Lexington.

Dianet will walk/run the whole route and along the way hundreds of supporters will join her to walk/run portions of the trip. She will rest at the rallies points along the route.

We are looking for Miles for a Change sponsors, supporters, and participants. There are opportunities for corporate sponsors and for individual who could support by sponsoring 1, 5, 10 miles or the whole trip.

For additional information please call us at 859-685-0387, email us at miles@KCIRR.org, or visit us at www.KCIRR.org.

Letters from the Border (2) Arizona Hosts Groups on Both Sides of the Immigration Debate

The second piece in our three-part series on the Border. This piece focuses on Arizona border policy. It was originally released by the Migration Policy Institute.

Arizona Hosts Groups on Both Sides of the Immigration Debate 
 
By Malia Politzer 
 
March 8, 2007 
 
In his 2007 State of the Union address, President Bush listed immigration reform as one of the nation’s top priorities for the current legislative agenda. His prioritizing of immigration reflects public opinion polls, but while Americans agree that immigration is an issue of concern, they do not agree on the proper solution. 
 
Not surprisingly, debate over immigration issues peaks in the Southwest border regions where both border crossings and migrant deaths directly impact communities. 
 
In no state, perhaps, is the debate more polarized than in Arizona, the entry point for approximately 40 percent of undocumented migrants entering the United States along the Southwest border, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 
 
In the November 2006 elections, immigration hardliner Randy Graf, a Republican who sought to represent the state’s 8th congressional district, lost to Democrat Gabrielle Giffords in large part because many voters believed he wanted to go too far to fight illegal immigration. 

New Resource on State and Local Access to Services

Thanks to the National Immigration Law Center for this great new resource.

STATE & LOCAL IMMIGRANT-RELATED MEASURES, 2006-07 

State and Local Policies on Immigrant Access to Services: Promoting Integration or Isolation? Summarizes the proposals affecting access to health care and other critical services for immigrants in 2006 and the first half of 2007, including policies that deter eligible families from seeking services, as well as affirmative efforts to promote immigrant integration into our country’s communities.  (PDF, 23 pp.) 

Sen. Kerry says Bianco raid was handled haphazardly

By Brian Boyd
Standard-Times staff writer

U.S. Sen. John Kerry said he wants to add new standards to immigration enforcements because the Michael Bianco Inc. raid was handled in a “haphazard” way.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Sen. Kerry said he is proposing to add stronger guidelines on treatment of detainees to a pending immigration bill because he wants “what we saw in New Bedford to never be repeated again.”

Sen. Kerry, D-Mass, said his amendment to the bipartisan bill would force Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to follow certain standards, such as granting access to state social service agencies.

“Their discretion was abused the last time,” he said.

It may be recess, but we aren’t playing

It’s our time to act. Anti-immigrant groups are gearing up to show a strong presence to their senators and representatives over this congressional memorial day recess- and we need to come out in force- we’ll have a full line up of this week’s events for you soon, but for now we know that groups across thr country are planning meetings, marches and vigils in order to send a clear message to congress- we want fair and humane immigration reform, and that is the only acceptable immigraiton reform.

If you are planning events in your area- let us know about them HERE!