The sun still shines

Lately we’ve had a lot of bad news… the failure of DREAM, police checkpoints after fires in California… well there is still is news to strengthen us and let us know we can continue to fight!

New efforts to open arms to immigrants

…”"I don’t think we as a community embraced what was happening at the time,” Green said. He said he wants to do better this time and has reached out to his new constituents by forging a sister-city relationship with the town of Yuriria in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, where many hail from.

With similarly modest efforts under way elsewhere in Illinois, Singer and others point to the state’s New Americans initiative as an ambitious — if not fully realized — example of the kind of programming needed for large-scale integration.”

Anti-Immigrant, Anti-worker

Business owners might worry the paperwork is fake, and wouldn’t know how to verify it.

“What kind of position is that putting the small business owner in Missouri (into)? We would say a very difficult one,” he said.

Governor Blunt’s (MO) plan to hunt immigrants in MO has yielded few results, and much anxiety for communities, businesses and workers in the state.

It makes us pose the question- what do we get when we pass anti-immigrant legislation? We racially profile latinos as criminals. We make it difficult for small businesses to function. AND we rarely improve the public safety or function of our local areas.

So why do conservatives push anti-immigrant legislation? Political grandstanding? A desire for power? Fear? Scapegoating of immigrants? None of these reasons seem to make a hard sell for anti-immigrant legislation in our states and our towns. Anything I’m missing?

No Hate in the Debate

Last week we posted about the harsh and unworkable immigration plan that Fred Thompson unveiled last week. His pollster had a thing or two to say about the public reaction:

“Immigration is big; it’s the driving issue,” McLaughlin said. “The mainstream media ran down our immigration plan last week, saying it was unrealistic and too tough. Our voters love it. We’ve gotten nothing but positive response.”

Clearly Thompson’s pollster has an interest in spinning this the best way possible, but I think there is truth in his words on several points:

1) Immigration is big in Iowa. In a state with still mildly low levels of immigration in comparison with other states, voters in this state are receiving their information from elected officials and mainstream media…

2) We often heat the same thing: anti-immigrants voice their opinions, those that disagree may voice it to friends, but rarely speak out to campaigns or elected officials - it’s time we change that threat…

3) The fact that Thompsons immigration plan could receive positive support anywhere in the US means that our electoral debates are painfully skewed in the direction of divisive, unworkable policies that have no bearing in the reality of our lived experience in small towns across the country.

It’s time for us to pushback and say “no hate in the debate” scapegoating immigrants can’t be the center of the 2008 elections– we as a country need a hard look at education, the war, heatlhcare, along with workable immigration plans. We can move the electoral debate, if we start speaking out and taking action to tell candidates what we are really thinking.

Call to Action: STOP Sherrifs from hunting victims of California fires

- Concerned community leaders are urged to communicate with Sheriff Kolender and Undersheriff Bill Gore at (858) 974-2250 or bill.Gore@sdsheriff.org. 

From community advocates in California:

- As evacuation orders are lifted on San Diego County communities, Sheriff Kolender plans to check i.d. of returning residents at checkpoints and continue his practice of detaining and handing over people suspected of being undocumented to U.S. Border Patrol.

- Sheriff Kolender, who typically says the Sheriff’s Department does not have the resources to do the federal government’s job of immigration enforcement, has refused to drop his policy of nonetheless helping Border Patrol when identifying potentially undocumented persons despite the tremendous demands on the Sheriff’s Department and the highly unusual practice of setting up military-style checkpoints outside people’s neighborhoods.

- Sheriff Kolender also dismissed advice that people who are undocumented will be afraid to return to family and residences in the area due to the Sheriff’s checkpoints and policy of cooperating with Border Patrol.

- “In a time of emergency, the Sheriff seems inclined to put immigration politics over basic human decency,” said Kevin Keenan, executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “It will be a shameful mark on an otherwise commendable performance during the County’s historic wildfire tragedy.”

- The checkpoints may last between one and three days. During this time Border Patrol and other agencies will be assisting the Sheriff’s Department. North (San Diego) County is home to a large population of farmworkers, landscapers, and domestic workers–many undocumented–who help harvest tomatoes and other crops and tend to the area’s many wealthy residences. It is expected that this same population will be relied upon to rebuild, clean up, and hastily harvest surviving crops.

- “The Sheriff needs to prioritize helping people get home after this long ordeal,” said Norma Chavez Peterson, executive director of Justice Overcoming Boundaries. “He will exacerbate the area’s crisis by keeping residents displaced, rather than administering a safe and swift return.”

- Concerned community leaders are urged to communicate with Sheriff Kolender and Undersheriff Bill Gore at (858) 974-2250 or bill.Gore@sdsheriff.org.

ICE uses tragedy to hunt

Scenes from the raging fires in southern California:

Ms. Trujillo and others who help the immigrants said they saw several out in the fields as the fires approached and ash fell on them. She said many were afraid to lose their jobs.

“There were Mercedeses and Jaguars pulling out, people evacuating, and the migrants were still working,” said Enrique Morones, who takes food and blankets to the immigrants’ camps. “It’s outrageous.”

Some of the illegal workers who sought help from the authorities were arrested and deported. Opponents of illegal immigration, including civilian border watch groups, seized on news that immigrants had been detained at the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center as evidence of trouble that illegal immigrants cause.

The Border Patrol also arrested scores of illegal immigrants made visible by the fires. Agent Fisher of the Border Patrol said 100 had been arrested since the fires started Sunday.  

ICE is not only interrogating victims that seek refuge, they are setting up checkpoints to hunt individuals who are traveling back to their burned out homes. ICE is setting up checkpoints throughout the fire burned communities in southern California to check fire victims’ immigration status.

Sick.

These are individuals whose lives have been in danger and whose homes have been destroyed. Rather than help them heal, rather than help families and children gain some sense of safety- ICE is attacking victims of the fires in San Diego.

Glare of Fires Pulls Migrants From Shadows
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and WILL CARLESS
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26 — Out of the burning brush, from behind canyon rocks, several immigrants bolted toward a group of firefighters, chased not by the border police but by the onrush of flames from one of the biggest wildfires this week.

Their appearance startled the firefighters, who let them into their vehicles. But with the discovery of four charred bodies in an area of heavy illegal immigration, concern is growing that others may not have survived.

“Their hands were burned, and they were clearly tired and grateful,” Capt. Mike Parkes of the State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported on what his firefighting team saw.

Call to Action: Fight back in NY!

It’s time to fight back in New York State. Even if you aren’t in the state, please send whatever help you can! What happens in one state, ineveitably comes back to affect our own!

The Fair Immigration Reform Movement is urging organizations to make strong statements opposing Spitzer’s decision to comply with the REAL ID Act. We urge individuals to call Eliot Spitzer’s office to show opposition!!

For more information, or to get involved contact Milan Bhatt mbhatt@thenyic.org.

Spitzer goes to the dark side

On Saturday, Governor Spitzer announced that New York State would comply with the REAL ID Act, a law that passed Congress a couple years ago but has not yet been implemented.  In fact, several states have moved to block implementation of the law due to serious concerns raised with respect to civil liberties, privacy and costs pushed onto state governments. 

This announcement followed another decision made by Spitzer five weeks ago that granted drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants.  Anti-immigrant forces in New York have successfully cornered the Governor.  Spitzer is willing to undermine his own policy positions and betray his own principles at the risk of privacy and civil liberties for all New Yorkers.

An article on Spitzer’s announcement on REAL ID can be found at http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–licensespat1028oct28,0,279677.story <http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–licensespat1028oct28,0,279677.story> . 

An article on immigrant community reactions can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/nyregion/28react.html <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/nyregion/28react.html> .

For more information about drivers licenses and the REAL ID Act, please go to http://www.nilc.org/immspbs/DLs/index.htm <http://www.nilc.org/immspbs/DLs/index.htm> .
 

You are Illegal

 Had to share this editorial on the word “illegal”- what do you think? Share with somene you know who thinks only immigrants are “illegal”….

What Part of ‘Illegal’ Don’t You Understand?
By LAWRENCE DOWNES
I am a human pileup of illegality. I am an illegal driver and an illegal parker and even an illegal walker, having at various times stretched or broken various laws and regulations that govern those parts of life. The offenses were trivial, and I feel sure I could endure the punishments — penalties and fines — and get on with my life. Nobody would deny me the chance to rehabilitate myself. Look at Martha Stewart, illegal stock trader, and George Steinbrenner, illegal campaign donor, to name two illegals whose crimes exceeded mine.

Good thing I am not an illegal immigrant. There is no way out of that trap. It’s the crime you can’t make amends for. Nothing short of deportation will free you from it, such is the mood of the country today. And that is a problem.

America has a big problem with illegal immigration, but a big part of it stems from the word “illegal.” It pollutes the debate. It blocks solutions. Used dispassionately and technically, there is nothing wrong with it. Used as an irreducible modifier for a large and largely decent group of people, it is badly damaging. And as a code word for racial and ethnic hatred, it is detestable.

“Illegal” is accurate insofar as it describes a person’s immigration status. About 60 percent of the people it applies to entered the country unlawfully. The rest are those who entered legally but did not leave when they were supposed to. The statutory penalties associated with their misdeeds are not insignificant, but neither are they criminal. You get caught, you get sent home.

Since the word modifies not the crime but the whole person, it goes too far. It spreads, like a stain that cannot wash out. It leaves its target diminished as a human, a lifetime member of a presumptive criminal class. People are often surprised to learn that illegal immigrants have rights. Really? Constitutional rights? But aren’t they illegal? Of course they have rights: they have the presumption of innocence and the civil liberties that the Constitution wisely bestows on all people, not just citizens.

Video: Nafta, 10 years of broken promises — you be the judge

Here’s a video, what do you think?

Your home could be next

The New York Times reported this month on Peggy De La Rosa-Delgado, a U.S. citizen caught up in recent ICE raids in Long Island, New York. Her home was raided twice by federal agents looking for the same individual who, as far she knows, never lived at her address. ICE detained her family, pointed a gun at a family member, and made them all prove they had a legal right to live in the home she bought in 2003. De La Rosa-Delgado’s experience is not exceptional. Nassau County police involved in the raids say that despite entering dozens of homes, ICE only caught six of the 96 fugitives it was looking for. >> Get the coverage at Think Progress

Despite lawsuits, public outcry, and human rights infractions, ICE continues to raids our private homes- in the middle of the night, armed to the hilt, they’re coming for all of us. Indiscriminate wiretaps, indiscriminate house raids without warrants…. this isn’t the government we want. Call you senator today and tell them you want raids on homes STOPPED.