Dream Act Texas blog has reached 3,000 hits. As I've mentioned before we started the blog on July 17, 2007. It made it to 1,000 hits on September 5th, just 3 1/2 weeks ago!
Who knows what lies in the future for dreamacttexas.blogspot.com. At least we know that right now lots of people want to read about the DREAM ACT. Thank you again for reading our blog.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Suit Against ICE for Swift Raids
Swift Bacon - Do you still buy it?
Reasons not to buy Swift Bacon
1. Bacon is really bad for your cholesterol.
2. Eating bacon on a regular basis, significantly contributes to the incidence of diabetes and heart trouble.
3. Swift Bacon probably has bad energy now that the company colluded with ICE on the raids in Dec. 2006.
4. Eating animals is bad for your health and theirs.
5. The Virgin of Guadalupe might be upset that you are eating Swift products since they allowed the raid to occur on her feast day.
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Democracy Now
September 28, 2008
Amy Goodman interviewing
Gloria Contrera-Edin, Executive Director of Centro Legal
On December 12, federal agents raided Swift plants across six states. More than 1,200 undocumented workers were arrested overall, including more than 200 workers in Worthington.
The lawsuit claims that federal agents "insulted, abused, and humiliated the plaintiffs on account of their race." The suit says female Latino workers were ordered to disrobe in front of federal agents during the raid, while white workers were allowed to move about the plant freely...
The lawsuit was filed on September 4 of this year, the day after Labor Day, and it’s on behalf of ten plaintiffs who are either US citizens, legal permanent residents, or those who are authorized to work in this country. We are alleging constitutional violations...
What’s important to recognize in this particular case is that this really wasn’t a typical immigration raid. This was a part of a criminal investigation that the government had been conducting for possibly over a year. They had a list of people whom they could have gone in, picked up, without any disrupt to the companies, to the communities, and they chose not to. And so, whenever you’re part of a criminal investigation -- now, I’m not a criminal lawyer, but I know enough to say that when you’re part of a criminal investigation, you’re afforded certain protections. You’re afforded the protection of an unreasonable detention. You’re also afforded the protection to have the right to remain silent, the right to counsel. You’re also afforded the protection to be able to speak to an attorney if an attorney is available to you. In all these situation and across the country, people were not afforded these rights. And so that’s why we filed this lawsuit...
100-plus agents descended upon this Swift Company packing plant in Worthington, Minnesota, and we know that -- we also know that the employer, Swift and Company, supervisors were working with the agents and preventing people from leaving the site. So they surrounded the premises with agents and their vehicles. They pulled up approximately six buses to load people up. And then they systematically and procedurally started rounding up people who were of Latino descent.
It’s important to recognize here that people who did not look Latino were allowed to roam freely throughout the plant, and so those who were Latino, even if you were a citizen or a resident, were required to prove that they were here lawfully. Now, I personally can’t prove that I’m a US citizen. I wouldn’t know how to do it. But in this case they required everyone to do it upon the threat of deportation and removal...
for audio interview and transcript click the title to this post
photo: http://boortz.com/images/swift_bacon_1955.jpg
Cuauhtemoc Blanco - the U.S. Wants Immigrants if They are Stars
Photo: Cuauhtemoc Blanco
U.S. immigration priorities are upside down
It's ok that Cuauhtemoc Blanco is an immigrant. The Minute Men aren't going to protest against him or the team that signed him on. He doesn't have to get anxious while going through LAX.
The U.S. wants people like Blanco. You don't hear much about visa problems for Mexican immigrants who are stars. I suppose the U.S. thinks it needs them. This country forgets those that it really needs; everyday people who construct homes and office buildings, keep small companies going; that keep the mechanics of the U.S. working. While the nation runs after Cuauhtemoc, it forgets there are also lots of DREAM ACT students already here, that have not been as welcome as Blanco (with the exception of the military - where their bodies are wanted for recruitment).They could take on the technical jobs that the U.S. is having so much troubling filling.
Congratulations to Cuauhtemoc Blanco for his success. With all due respect to a great soccer player...the U.S. could do without a soccer star, but it cannot function without the regular Mexican immigrant and his/her children, the DREAM ACT kids.
By the way,
When the reporter commented on a recent interview with Blanco he said:
"He [Cuauhtemoc] kept his answers short and without controversy. The exception perhaps came in response to a question on immigration, when Blanco said, "Even if they put up a wall between us, we are intelligent enough to find a way to jump it."
Perhaps he could be a spokesman for the cause.
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Blanco walks on mild side
Mexican soccer star relaxes his famously fiery demeanor as he tries to help Chicago into the MLS playoffs. He didn't even have harsh words for Chivas USA.
By Jaime Cárdenas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
"...We were desperate for a player like Cuauhtemoc," Armas said. "He brings lot of creativity. He never plays backward, always forward. He's always looking for penetrating passes [and] he lives to set up goals. Sometimes the media gets caught up . . . but he really brings a lot of passion and he cares about winning so much that he came at the perfect time to the team."
Blanco's presence has attracted more media attention than usual for tonight's game.
Mexican TV networks Televisa and TV Azteca have dispatched crews to cover the game. And ESTO, an all-sports newspaper, previewed the game and ran an Old West-style "wanted" poster of 34-year-old Blanco.
Even the Fire's arrival at LAX on Thursday was all about Blanco. About 50 Club America fans were waiting for him. One witness described the scene as chaotic as fans climbed up on the baggage claim turnstile, stepping on pieces of luggage in the process, just to be closer to Blanco. Some even followed him to the men's room.
Asked Friday about that fan reaction, Blanco said, "It's good that people welcome you in such a way, no?"
For link to complete article click title to this post
Photo: http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2005/writers/luis_bueno/11/11/blanco.lavolpe/p1_blanco_1110.jpg
Spitzer's Driver's License Plan Criticized
If Guiliani is against Spitzers move on the driver's license issue, it might not be so bad. Pete Wilson of California is supporting Guiliani - and in a political campaign that may not be a good thing.
_____
September 29, 2007
New York Times
License Plan by Spitzer Gains Critic in Giuliani
By MARC SANTORA and DANNY HAKIM
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 — Rudolph W. Giuliani joined the chorus of Republicans opposing a plan by the New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, calling the proposal a “mistake” that would only lead to greater chaos.
“I think it would just create an even further level of fraud and confusion in what is already a very confusing picture,” said Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, speaking to reporters after a campaign stop at a downtown restaurant Friday morning.
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks came as the governor’s plan continued to trigger intense reaction. Mr. Spitzer has said the policy would improve public safety by bringing immigrants out of the shadows and reduce insurance costs as more immigrants obtained licenses and car insurance.
But some county clerks upstate whose offices double as Department of Motor Vehicles branches have suggested they would refuse to issue the licenses.
On Friday, Republicans in the State Senate said they would act on a bill next month that would halt Mr. Spitzer’s policy, which is scheduled to take effect in December. Mr. Spitzer would allow foreign passports to be accepted as identification for a driver’s license application. Current policy requires Social Security numbers.
“The governor’s demand that clerks issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is yet another example of the governor’s arrogance and his attempt to go around the Legislature and bypass 212 elected representatives of the people,” the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, said. “The governor has said publicly that he doesn’t need the Legislature and can run the state by himself. The driver’s license order is another result of that dictatorial attitude.”
In addition, Republicans in the Democratic-controlled State Assembly demanded that Mr. Spitzer rescind his plan, saying it was unlawful. “Handing licenses out like lollipops to illegal immigrants is an affront to those who are in our country legally and puts our communities at risk,” said Assemblyman Pete Lopez of Schoharie.
Meanwhile, the state’s A.F.L.-C.I.O. came out in support of Mr. Spitzer, calling the issue one of fairness. “As a progressive, enlightened society it is our responsibility to ensure a level playing field for all who want to work in this country,” Denis M. Hughes, president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., said in a statement. “This policy change is a step toward eliminating exploitation.”
Mr. Giuliani, who was endorsed by Pete Wilson, the former governor of California, in Santa Monica on Thursday, has seen his campaign swing dominated by questions about immigration...
Danny Hakim reported from Albany.
For link to complete article, click title to this post
_____
September 29, 2007
New York Times
License Plan by Spitzer Gains Critic in Giuliani
By MARC SANTORA and DANNY HAKIM
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 — Rudolph W. Giuliani joined the chorus of Republicans opposing a plan by the New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, calling the proposal a “mistake” that would only lead to greater chaos.
“I think it would just create an even further level of fraud and confusion in what is already a very confusing picture,” said Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, speaking to reporters after a campaign stop at a downtown restaurant Friday morning.
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks came as the governor’s plan continued to trigger intense reaction. Mr. Spitzer has said the policy would improve public safety by bringing immigrants out of the shadows and reduce insurance costs as more immigrants obtained licenses and car insurance.
But some county clerks upstate whose offices double as Department of Motor Vehicles branches have suggested they would refuse to issue the licenses.
On Friday, Republicans in the State Senate said they would act on a bill next month that would halt Mr. Spitzer’s policy, which is scheduled to take effect in December. Mr. Spitzer would allow foreign passports to be accepted as identification for a driver’s license application. Current policy requires Social Security numbers.
“The governor’s demand that clerks issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is yet another example of the governor’s arrogance and his attempt to go around the Legislature and bypass 212 elected representatives of the people,” the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, said. “The governor has said publicly that he doesn’t need the Legislature and can run the state by himself. The driver’s license order is another result of that dictatorial attitude.”
In addition, Republicans in the Democratic-controlled State Assembly demanded that Mr. Spitzer rescind his plan, saying it was unlawful. “Handing licenses out like lollipops to illegal immigrants is an affront to those who are in our country legally and puts our communities at risk,” said Assemblyman Pete Lopez of Schoharie.
Meanwhile, the state’s A.F.L.-C.I.O. came out in support of Mr. Spitzer, calling the issue one of fairness. “As a progressive, enlightened society it is our responsibility to ensure a level playing field for all who want to work in this country,” Denis M. Hughes, president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., said in a statement. “This policy change is a step toward eliminating exploitation.”
Mr. Giuliani, who was endorsed by Pete Wilson, the former governor of California, in Santa Monica on Thursday, has seen his campaign swing dominated by questions about immigration...
Danny Hakim reported from Albany.
For link to complete article, click title to this post
Driving With a License in New York
September 29, 2007
Editorial
New York Times
Political License in New York
When Gov. Eliot Spitzer decided this month to make it easier for immigrants to drive legally, his critics predicted the sky would fall on anyone with a New York State driver’s license. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg, normally a measured voice, warned that New Yorkers might not be able to use their licenses to get on airplanes if the governor has his way.
That is not so as it turns out. Or certainly, it will not be so for some time yet. If Congress fails to change the Real ID Act — a clunker of a law passed two years ago — state driver’s licenses will have to be re-engineered by 2013 to be accepted as federal identification. Until then, New York’s licenses will be as good in the security lines at the airports as those from the eight other states that do not require proof of immigration status to drive.
So far, no state licenses comply with the tough Real ID standards. The list of requirements includes a special paper stock with secret markers, laser engraving, mandatory re-licensing in person and not by mail, proof of residence and, in most cases, a Social Security card.
Some states have already opted out of Real ID, citing costs that should be — but are not — borne by Washington, privacy concerns and questions about whether Real ID would actually be more secure. If the law goes into effect as written and passenger regulations stay the same, residents of many of these states would need another form of identification, such as a passport, to board a plane.
Governor Spitzer has not said whether he wants New York to opt out of the Real ID law. He is expected to ask for more time from the federal authorities to figure out whether and how to offer a New York driver’s license that complies with the law. One possibility would be a two-tiered system in which residents who want the more elaborate Real ID pay extra for it after 2013. Among the problems with such an approach is that the creation of a lesser license could mean more harassment of anyone who tries to use it.
Republican opposition to Mr. Spitzer’s move has taken a strident anti-immigrant tone that is unwelcome in this discussion. State Senator Joseph Bruno, New York’s top elected Republican, got it right initially when he said he could “understand the merits” of Mr. Spitzer’s proposal. Too bad he soon joined other Republicans and accused the governor of trying to give illegal immigrants the right to vote. It is a baseless claim since New Yorkers do not need a driver’s license to vote, and the criminal laws against vote fraud provide ample deterrent to any illegal immigrant thinking of casting a ballot.
Mr. Spitzer has made the right decision. New York State driver’s licenses should go to residents who have proved their identity — and their ability to drive safely. There will be plenty of time between now and 2013 to figure out whether and how New York State should integrate its driver’s license with federal standards.
for link to article click title to this post
Editorial
New York Times
Political License in New York
When Gov. Eliot Spitzer decided this month to make it easier for immigrants to drive legally, his critics predicted the sky would fall on anyone with a New York State driver’s license. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg, normally a measured voice, warned that New Yorkers might not be able to use their licenses to get on airplanes if the governor has his way.
That is not so as it turns out. Or certainly, it will not be so for some time yet. If Congress fails to change the Real ID Act — a clunker of a law passed two years ago — state driver’s licenses will have to be re-engineered by 2013 to be accepted as federal identification. Until then, New York’s licenses will be as good in the security lines at the airports as those from the eight other states that do not require proof of immigration status to drive.
So far, no state licenses comply with the tough Real ID standards. The list of requirements includes a special paper stock with secret markers, laser engraving, mandatory re-licensing in person and not by mail, proof of residence and, in most cases, a Social Security card.
Some states have already opted out of Real ID, citing costs that should be — but are not — borne by Washington, privacy concerns and questions about whether Real ID would actually be more secure. If the law goes into effect as written and passenger regulations stay the same, residents of many of these states would need another form of identification, such as a passport, to board a plane.
Governor Spitzer has not said whether he wants New York to opt out of the Real ID law. He is expected to ask for more time from the federal authorities to figure out whether and how to offer a New York driver’s license that complies with the law. One possibility would be a two-tiered system in which residents who want the more elaborate Real ID pay extra for it after 2013. Among the problems with such an approach is that the creation of a lesser license could mean more harassment of anyone who tries to use it.
Republican opposition to Mr. Spitzer’s move has taken a strident anti-immigrant tone that is unwelcome in this discussion. State Senator Joseph Bruno, New York’s top elected Republican, got it right initially when he said he could “understand the merits” of Mr. Spitzer’s proposal. Too bad he soon joined other Republicans and accused the governor of trying to give illegal immigrants the right to vote. It is a baseless claim since New Yorkers do not need a driver’s license to vote, and the criminal laws against vote fraud provide ample deterrent to any illegal immigrant thinking of casting a ballot.
Mr. Spitzer has made the right decision. New York State driver’s licenses should go to residents who have proved their identity — and their ability to drive safely. There will be plenty of time between now and 2013 to figure out whether and how New York State should integrate its driver’s license with federal standards.
for link to article click title to this post
Friday, September 28, 2007
Day Labor Sanctuary in Arizona No Longer Safe
Sheriff Arpaio says of the nine arrested near day labor sanctuary: "Thursday's arrests were just the beginning"
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9 arrested near day labor sanctuary
Crackdown on church precedes tougher laws
Beth Duckett
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 28, 2007 12:00 AM
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he is not waiting for new Cave Creek laws to take effect before cracking down on the town's mostly undocumented-immigrant day laborers.
Sheriff's deputies arrested nine people near a church sanctuary Thursday, just days after Arpaio heralded new town laws expected to trigger a crackdown on the workers when the laws take effect next month.
"We're not waiting for the 30 days for these ordinances to be implemented," Arpaio said. "We have received a lot of calls about Cave Creek having drophouses and illegals in the area."
Up in arms about the arrests is Father Glenn B. Jenks of Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church, 6502 E. Cave Creek Road, which for more than six years has been a safe haven for laborers looking for employment.
"They'll just go to another community not as shortsighted as this one," Jenks said. "This may make the sheriff look tough, but it's not in the best interest of the community."
The Cave Creek Town Council passed two laws Monday, touting them as safety measures. One toughens the town's ban on loitering, and the other bans cars from stopping on town streets.
Both take effect Oct. 24.
But on Thursday, sheriff's deputies - which act as Cave Creek's police force - arrested workers who were passengers in two vehicles as they exited the church's parking lot. One car was speeding and the other had a broken taillight, Arpaio said.
"The drivers were legal, but the passengers were illegal," the sheriff said. "We've been doing this all over the Valley."
The drivers were given warnings. No citations were issued.
What was once only a climate of fear has flared into panic for workers at the day-labor center.
"I can't believe this is happening," Jenks said. "The attitude is, 'Let's just sweep the rats into Phoenix and get them out of our town.' "
Jenks, who called the arrests "counterproductive," said he expects the dozens of remaining workers to gather elsewhere.
Cave Creek Mayor Vincent Francia, a supporter of the church's efforts, dismissed the arrests as "doing what they do everyday," pulling over people suspected of breaking the law.
"It just has to do with the normal activities they do for us," Francia said.
Arpaio said Thursday's arrests were just the beginning.
"We're not done yet, and I'm not just talking about Cave Creek," the sheriff said. "Stay tuned."
for link to article click title of this post
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9 arrested near day labor sanctuary
Crackdown on church precedes tougher laws
Beth Duckett
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 28, 2007 12:00 AM
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he is not waiting for new Cave Creek laws to take effect before cracking down on the town's mostly undocumented-immigrant day laborers.
Sheriff's deputies arrested nine people near a church sanctuary Thursday, just days after Arpaio heralded new town laws expected to trigger a crackdown on the workers when the laws take effect next month.
"We're not waiting for the 30 days for these ordinances to be implemented," Arpaio said. "We have received a lot of calls about Cave Creek having drophouses and illegals in the area."
Up in arms about the arrests is Father Glenn B. Jenks of Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church, 6502 E. Cave Creek Road, which for more than six years has been a safe haven for laborers looking for employment.
"They'll just go to another community not as shortsighted as this one," Jenks said. "This may make the sheriff look tough, but it's not in the best interest of the community."
The Cave Creek Town Council passed two laws Monday, touting them as safety measures. One toughens the town's ban on loitering, and the other bans cars from stopping on town streets.
Both take effect Oct. 24.
But on Thursday, sheriff's deputies - which act as Cave Creek's police force - arrested workers who were passengers in two vehicles as they exited the church's parking lot. One car was speeding and the other had a broken taillight, Arpaio said.
"The drivers were legal, but the passengers were illegal," the sheriff said. "We've been doing this all over the Valley."
The drivers were given warnings. No citations were issued.
What was once only a climate of fear has flared into panic for workers at the day-labor center.
"I can't believe this is happening," Jenks said. "The attitude is, 'Let's just sweep the rats into Phoenix and get them out of our town.' "
Jenks, who called the arrests "counterproductive," said he expects the dozens of remaining workers to gather elsewhere.
Cave Creek Mayor Vincent Francia, a supporter of the church's efforts, dismissed the arrests as "doing what they do everyday," pulling over people suspected of breaking the law.
"It just has to do with the normal activities they do for us," Francia said.
Arpaio said Thursday's arrests were just the beginning.
"We're not done yet, and I'm not just talking about Cave Creek," the sheriff said. "Stay tuned."
for link to article click title of this post
Underside of the DREAM ACT
This post has been circulating around Latino academia the past few days. Now that the in-state tuition clause is definitely extracted from senate bill this warning does not seem so strange...
What is interesting is that this comment by Mariscal came several days before any media news began to circulate about the in-state tuition being dropped.
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FROM Professor JORGE MARISCAL
Project YANO has been warning for several years about the stealth military recruiting component of the DREAM Act. Nobody wanted to hear about it. Now the connections with the Pentagon are becoming crystal clear. Check out Senator Durbin's remarks from the Congressional Record of last July (and today he agreed to drop the in-state tuition clause for the college option thereby eliminating the college option for thousands of undocs). Apparently, the Pentagon is pushing hard for the amendment (despite opposition from Homeland Security). It could be voted on tomorrow.
---
Durbin:
On the floor of the Senate, when we return next week, we will resume consideration of the Defense authorization bill. It turns out that many in the Department of Defense believe, as I do, that the DREAM Act is an important part of making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in our military. I have spoken to people at the Department of Defense who support the idea of the DREAM Act. I think we ought to include it in the Defense authorization bill. I hope to have that opportunity. [snip]
I hope when we return to the Defense authorization bill we can make the DREAM Act part of that bill. Certainly, it is going to help our defense and help our military. I think it is going to help America even beyond that. [snip]
Mr. President, as I said, I rise to speak about legislation known as the DREAM Act, which I hope to offer as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill.
Some people might ask why the Senate should revisit immigration again and whether an immigration amendment should be included in the Defense authorization bill. The answer is simple: The DREAM Act would address a very serious recruitment crisis that faces our military.
Under the DREAM Act, tens of thousands of well-qualified potential recruits would become eligible for military service for the first time. They are eager to serve in the Armed Forces during a time of war. And under the DREAM Act they would have a very strong incentive to enlist because it would give them a path to permanent legal status.
The DREAM Act doesn't mandate military service. A student who is otherwise eligible could earn legal status by attending college. It would be inconsistent with the spirit our volunteer military to force young people to enlist as a condition for obtaining legal status.
But the DREAM Act creates a strong incentive for military service. And many DREAM Act kids come from a demographic group that is already predisposed towards military service. A 2004 survey by the Rand Corporation found that 45 percent of Hispanic males and 31 percent of Hispanic females between ages 16 and 21 were very likely to serve in the Armed Forces, compared to 24 percent of White men and 10 percent of White women.
What is interesting is that this comment by Mariscal came several days before any media news began to circulate about the in-state tuition being dropped.
-----
FROM Professor JORGE MARISCAL
Project YANO has been warning for several years about the stealth military recruiting component of the DREAM Act. Nobody wanted to hear about it. Now the connections with the Pentagon are becoming crystal clear. Check out Senator Durbin's remarks from the Congressional Record of last July (and today he agreed to drop the in-state tuition clause for the college option thereby eliminating the college option for thousands of undocs). Apparently, the Pentagon is pushing hard for the amendment (despite opposition from Homeland Security). It could be voted on tomorrow.
---
Durbin:
On the floor of the Senate, when we return next week, we will resume consideration of the Defense authorization bill. It turns out that many in the Department of Defense believe, as I do, that the DREAM Act is an important part of making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in our military. I have spoken to people at the Department of Defense who support the idea of the DREAM Act. I think we ought to include it in the Defense authorization bill. I hope to have that opportunity. [snip]
I hope when we return to the Defense authorization bill we can make the DREAM Act part of that bill. Certainly, it is going to help our defense and help our military. I think it is going to help America even beyond that. [snip]
Mr. President, as I said, I rise to speak about legislation known as the DREAM Act, which I hope to offer as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill.
Some people might ask why the Senate should revisit immigration again and whether an immigration amendment should be included in the Defense authorization bill. The answer is simple: The DREAM Act would address a very serious recruitment crisis that faces our military.
Under the DREAM Act, tens of thousands of well-qualified potential recruits would become eligible for military service for the first time. They are eager to serve in the Armed Forces during a time of war. And under the DREAM Act they would have a very strong incentive to enlist because it would give them a path to permanent legal status.
The DREAM Act doesn't mandate military service. A student who is otherwise eligible could earn legal status by attending college. It would be inconsistent with the spirit our volunteer military to force young people to enlist as a condition for obtaining legal status.
But the DREAM Act creates a strong incentive for military service. And many DREAM Act kids come from a demographic group that is already predisposed towards military service. A 2004 survey by the Rand Corporation found that 45 percent of Hispanic males and 31 percent of Hispanic females between ages 16 and 21 were very likely to serve in the Armed Forces, compared to 24 percent of White men and 10 percent of White women.
NILC Update on DREAM ACT 9 28 07
Interesting turn of events. Let's hope Reid follows through - with the in-state tuition provision included.
_____
The DREAM Act is alive and well!
Anti-immigrant groups are claiming victory because the DREAM Act failed to get a vote as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill. They are wrong to do so. Although the DREAM Act did not get a vote on that bill, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) pledged Wednesday evening that it will be brought to the Senate floor for a vote sometime before November 16th.
It is unusual for specific legislation like the DREAM Act to get such a public pledge, which will require the Senate Leadership to set aside days of floor time just before Congress is scheduled to leave for the year. That means that other issues supported by powerful constituencies and armies of lobbyists may not be addressed, whereas the DREAM Act, which is supported only by reason and fairness, will be given a chance to move forward. The Senate Majority Leader's willingness to make such a promise reflects well on him, but it also shows how much progress the DREAM Act has made in recent months as a result of the blood, sweat and tears of immigrant students and their allies. It is now a top-tier issue, one that will not go away.
When the DREAM Act does come to the Senate floor, it will need 60 votes to pass.
We expect a very close vote, and the anti-immigrant advocates will again be out in force. Although they have publicly claimed victory, they must actually be squirming inside because they hit immigrant students with their best shot of lies, talk radio, hysterical blog entries and angry calls to Senate offices, yet the DREAM Act is nevertheless on the threshold of a historic vote. It is imperative to counterbalance their efforts with increased pro-DREAM contact with every Senator. Please resolve to call or fax both of your Senators today and every day until the vote occurs to urge a yes vote, and take the time to motivate other supporters to do the same. You can find you Senators' phone and fax numbers here.
In addition (easier, but less important), you can send an e-mail to your Senators by simply clicking here.
Finally, please take a moment to contact Senator Reid to let him know how grateful we are to him for having kept the DREAM Act alive. It was a courageous step, and he will undoubtedly get grief from the other side.
_____
The DREAM Act is alive and well!
Anti-immigrant groups are claiming victory because the DREAM Act failed to get a vote as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill. They are wrong to do so. Although the DREAM Act did not get a vote on that bill, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) pledged Wednesday evening that it will be brought to the Senate floor for a vote sometime before November 16th.
It is unusual for specific legislation like the DREAM Act to get such a public pledge, which will require the Senate Leadership to set aside days of floor time just before Congress is scheduled to leave for the year. That means that other issues supported by powerful constituencies and armies of lobbyists may not be addressed, whereas the DREAM Act, which is supported only by reason and fairness, will be given a chance to move forward. The Senate Majority Leader's willingness to make such a promise reflects well on him, but it also shows how much progress the DREAM Act has made in recent months as a result of the blood, sweat and tears of immigrant students and their allies. It is now a top-tier issue, one that will not go away.
When the DREAM Act does come to the Senate floor, it will need 60 votes to pass.
We expect a very close vote, and the anti-immigrant advocates will again be out in force. Although they have publicly claimed victory, they must actually be squirming inside because they hit immigrant students with their best shot of lies, talk radio, hysterical blog entries and angry calls to Senate offices, yet the DREAM Act is nevertheless on the threshold of a historic vote. It is imperative to counterbalance their efforts with increased pro-DREAM contact with every Senator. Please resolve to call or fax both of your Senators today and every day until the vote occurs to urge a yes vote, and take the time to motivate other supporters to do the same. You can find you Senators' phone and fax numbers here.
In addition (easier, but less important), you can send an e-mail to your Senators by simply clicking here.
Finally, please take a moment to contact Senator Reid to let him know how grateful we are to him for having kept the DREAM Act alive. It was a courageous step, and he will undoubtedly get grief from the other side.
ICE Raid in Nevada - at McDonalds
Sept. 28, 2007, 6:27AM
Over 40 arrests in Nev. immigration raid
Houston Chronicle
By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
RENO, Nev. — Federal agents raided 11 McDonald's restaurants in northern Nevada and made dozens of arrests Thursday as part of an investigation into illegal immigration.
Agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made at least 56 arrests in Reno, Sparks and Fernley after raids at the restaurants and a franchise corporate headquarters in Reno, agency spokesman Richard Rocha said.
"They are people suspected of being in the country illegally. As far as I know, they were all McDonald's employees," he told The Associated Press.
The investigation began five months ago and was sparked by an identity theft complaint, Rocha said. A local law enforcement agency then gave ICE information that illegal immigrants were working at specific McDonald's restaurants, he said.
Luther Mack, who owns at least some of the restaurants that were raided, insisted that his businesses require employees to provide documentation.
"As an employer, I do not knowingly hire or employ undocumented or unauthorized workers," Mack said in a statement.
Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for McDonald's Corp., based in Oak Brook, Ill., said the company had no comment on the arrests.
"This is a local situation with a local operator," she said.
The raids drew immediate criticism from Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and activists, who estimated the number of arrests to be closer to 100.
The mayor joined a news conference area Hispanic leaders and members of the American Civil Liberties Union called in front of the federal courthouse late Thursday.
"We don't approve of the Gestapo methods ICE is using," said Gilbert Cortez, a Latino leader who urged Hispanic workers to stay home from work in protest Friday...
For complete article click title of this post
Pelosi on the Border Fence and the DREAM ACT
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
While this AP article quotes Pelosi on the DREAM ACT:
''It just isn't fair,'' Pelosi said. ''Those young people who came to America one way or another ... their opportunities are curtailed because of the situation. And it's not only harmful to them -- it's harmful to the country.''
It also states that :
"The DREAM Act would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing illegal immigrants with lower in-state tuition rates"
It has been reported by several sources that the in-state tuition clause was dropped to make the bill more palatable. Is the AP wrong or do they know something we don't know?
-----
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Times
Published: September 28, 2007
Filed at 8:09 a.m. ET
EDINBURG, Texas (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a plan to build fencing along parts of the Mexico border a ''terrible idea'' that overlooks local communities.
Pelosi made the comments during her trip to the Rio Grande Valley for the annual Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology Week conference at the University of Texas-Pan American.
''I have been against the fence, I thought it's a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion,'' said Pelosi, D-Calif. ''These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them.''
Last year, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act requiring the construction of fencing along the 2,000-mile border. The plans call for about 370 miles of fence and 200 miles of vehicle barriers, including concrete barriers, by the end of 2008.
Pelosi also touted legislation known as the DREAM Act that would make it easier for some illegal immigrants to receive higher education benefits. She spoke at a conference that drew more than 5,000 students for activities designed to inspire careers in science and technology.
The DREAM Act would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing illegal immigrants with lower in-state tuition rates. It also would allow permanent residency for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children and have been admitted to an institution of higher education.
''It just isn't fair,'' Pelosi said. ''Those young people who came to America one way or another ... their opportunities are curtailed because of the situation. And it's not only harmful to them -- it's harmful to the country.''
For link to article click the title of this post
U.S. Continues to Ban Immigrants with HIV
Just to remind everyone:
from Salon.com
Glen Greenwald
September 26, 2007
..."[T]he U.S. remains one of the only Western countries to ban anyone with HIV from immigrating to this country. Efforts to repeal both laws have been repeatedly blocked by the political party to which our warrior/gay-rights-crusaders pledge their allegiance. And that same political party happily continued its alliance with the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson even after they both blamed the 9/11 attacks on gay rights. And as Juan Cole documents, as we all scoff at the primitive ignorance of Ahmadinejad, we tolerate quite similar sentiments among some of our most respected political figures..."
for entire entry, click title to this post
from Salon.com
Glen Greenwald
September 26, 2007
..."[T]he U.S. remains one of the only Western countries to ban anyone with HIV from immigrating to this country. Efforts to repeal both laws have been repeatedly blocked by the political party to which our warrior/gay-rights-crusaders pledge their allegiance. And that same political party happily continued its alliance with the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson even after they both blamed the 9/11 attacks on gay rights. And as Juan Cole documents, as we all scoff at the primitive ignorance of Ahmadinejad, we tolerate quite similar sentiments among some of our most respected political figures..."
for entire entry, click title to this post
Powerful Men (& Women) at the U.S. -Mexico Border
The author is well aware of the "awesome power" of border officers. Although his perspective on immigration is not entirely digestible, his description of crossing the international line is accurate.
_____
Salon.com
Andrew Leonard
September 24, 2007
Getting back from Baja
Notes from a bachelor's party in Rosarito, Mexico.
If you take a taxi from the San Diego International Airport to the border on a Friday morning, walking into Mexico requires nothing more than pushing your way through a revolving metal door. No one examines your papers, no one does so much as glance at your bags. No one, in an official capacity, gives a shit. The only people who demonstrate the remotest interest in you are the Tijuana taxi drivers lined up on the other side.
If you desire to return to the United States via the same crossing point on a Sunday afternoon, the line to walk across the border stretches endlessly alongside the highway that leads to the checkpoint and requires several hours to successfully negotiate. Mexicans, Americans, families and tourists, workers of all kinds returning after a weekend of visiting family or chugging tequila; they wait more or less patiently under a moderately hot sun for the opportunity to have their papers inspected and their luggage X-rayed. As they shuffle forward on the sidewalk, drug-sniffing dogs trot from car to car and buses inch along. There is a slight aura of tension -- even with passport in hand and a backpack filled only with the clothes that you brought into the country, you're a little bit nervous. You don't want to give the immigration agent a chance to wield his awesome power, which you suspect he is more than willing to do if he decides you are a suspicious character, or just a smart ass.
On either side of the border, the brown hills that roll down to the Pacific Ocean are identical, as is the ethnic mix of citizens and even the currency. While in Mexico I watched a Tijuana cabbie pay a highway toll on the way to Rosarito using dollar bills instead of pesos, and I had my choice of ATMs that would disgorge either currency. English billboards abound south of the border just as Spanish-language advertisements crowd the north-of-the-border landscape.
The key difference, of course, is the strength of the economy on one side of a border drawn by the victors of a war 159 years ago, and the weakness on the other. You can blame that reality on whatever you like, but watching the masses of people attempting, ever so legally, to make their way north, it was hard to ignore the feeling that the U.S. was really just a giant magnet, relentlessly sucking the peoples of the south into its maw. No legislation, no fence, no army of border patrol agents or horde of vigilantes can negate that force.
Slow it down, yes. Make it annoying for all concerned, sure. Stop it, never.
-- Andrew Leonard
_____
Salon.com
Andrew Leonard
September 24, 2007
Getting back from Baja
Notes from a bachelor's party in Rosarito, Mexico.
If you take a taxi from the San Diego International Airport to the border on a Friday morning, walking into Mexico requires nothing more than pushing your way through a revolving metal door. No one examines your papers, no one does so much as glance at your bags. No one, in an official capacity, gives a shit. The only people who demonstrate the remotest interest in you are the Tijuana taxi drivers lined up on the other side.
If you desire to return to the United States via the same crossing point on a Sunday afternoon, the line to walk across the border stretches endlessly alongside the highway that leads to the checkpoint and requires several hours to successfully negotiate. Mexicans, Americans, families and tourists, workers of all kinds returning after a weekend of visiting family or chugging tequila; they wait more or less patiently under a moderately hot sun for the opportunity to have their papers inspected and their luggage X-rayed. As they shuffle forward on the sidewalk, drug-sniffing dogs trot from car to car and buses inch along. There is a slight aura of tension -- even with passport in hand and a backpack filled only with the clothes that you brought into the country, you're a little bit nervous. You don't want to give the immigration agent a chance to wield his awesome power, which you suspect he is more than willing to do if he decides you are a suspicious character, or just a smart ass.
On either side of the border, the brown hills that roll down to the Pacific Ocean are identical, as is the ethnic mix of citizens and even the currency. While in Mexico I watched a Tijuana cabbie pay a highway toll on the way to Rosarito using dollar bills instead of pesos, and I had my choice of ATMs that would disgorge either currency. English billboards abound south of the border just as Spanish-language advertisements crowd the north-of-the-border landscape.
The key difference, of course, is the strength of the economy on one side of a border drawn by the victors of a war 159 years ago, and the weakness on the other. You can blame that reality on whatever you like, but watching the masses of people attempting, ever so legally, to make their way north, it was hard to ignore the feeling that the U.S. was really just a giant magnet, relentlessly sucking the peoples of the south into its maw. No legislation, no fence, no army of border patrol agents or horde of vigilantes can negate that force.
Slow it down, yes. Make it annoying for all concerned, sure. Stop it, never.
-- Andrew Leonard
Army is Getting Ready for the DREAM ACT
Recruitment Poster for World War I, ca. 1917
Now that Senator Reid has obliged the senate to pass the DREAM ACT this fall, the Army is preparing for its windfall of recruits. Since the DREAM ACT bill does not contain in-state tuition - most of the young people eligible will have no other choice since only 10 out of the 50 states offer in-state tuition to undocumented students.
In the spring of 07 Texas experienced a heated battle to save in-state tuition, which had been in place since 2001 (thanks to Texas Rep. Rick Noriega) -- after dozens of harsh anti-immigration bills were submitted to the Texas Legislature. In-State tuition in Texas was only preserved because of an error on the part of those wanting to rescind the bill - its sort of like a judge ruling a mistrial. The event occurred so late in the session, the opposing bill was dropped.
If Congress would finally agree to end the Iraq War, students takiing the military option would be in great shape. But after watching the senate hearings these past few weeks, I can't imagine our lawmakers will come to an agreement about troop withdrawal.
On the bright side (if there is one), during World War II military experience had a huge impact on Hispanics in the United States- effectively created a middle class - The war experience and going to other countries helped Latinos see beyond the restrictive attitudes in the U.S. southwest. The GI Bill helped hundreds of thousands to further their education and buy homes.
For the present, those that enlist and return home healthy will determine the political future of this country. They are going to remember that when they were younger they weren't able to go to college because the DREAM ACT dropped the in-state tuition clause.
-----
Army looks to accelerate expansion
Increasing the force should happen in four years, not five, the service's secretary says. Ideas focus on adding enticements to keep soldiers.
By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Army's top official called Thursday for the acceleration of a multiyear expansion of the country's biggest fighting force, a move that probably would require radical new approaches for keeping soldiers in uniform.
Army Secretary Pete Geren said the planned expansion from its official size of 482,000 to 547,000, announced by President Bush in December as the first post-Cold War increase in U.S. forces, should be completed in four years rather than five to alleviate the strain on troops from frequent combat tours.
Defense officials planning for the increase have voiced concern over recent loosening of standards for new enlistees because of the heavy pressure to meet recruiting goals.
The new Army plan would attempt to build the larger force in a shorter time by instead moving aggressively to retain personnel.
The military has begun to consider options beyond the traditional cash bonuses and college scholarships to entice soldiers to continue service. New approaches under consideration include the promise of graduate school for young officers and the offer of educational benefits for career soldiers' children.
The new approaches reflect the continuing fallout of the 4 1/2-year-old Iraq war. Prolonged and repeated deployments have created new stresses on troops, which have forced the Army to reevaluate how it provides for soldiers and their families.
"The demographics of the Army change, the needs of the soldiers change, stress on the force changes," Geren said. "We have to continue to find ways to adjust our benefits package, writ large, to meet those different needs..."
for entire article click title to this post
photo: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/14573-POD/1099858~I-Want-You-for-the-U-S-Army-c-1917-Posters.jpg
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Houston Chronicle on the DREAM ACT
Sept. 26, 2007, 10:33PM
Senate temporarily sidelines immigration legalization bill
Democrats vow to pass measure aiding 1 million youths
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that senators would vote on the the measure, which is strongly opposed by anti-illegal immigration groups, before the Senate finishes its work for the year in mid-November.
"All who care about this matter should know that we will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," he said.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had sought to attach the DREAM Act to the defense authorization bill. But Reid announced Wednesday night that Democrats were shelving the effort because of difficulties getting past legislative roadblocks.
"Unfortunately, some Republicans are opposed to this proposal and are unwilling to let us move forward on this bill," Reid said.
'Issue doesn't stop here'
Durbin and immigrant rights advocates were dismayed by the setback but vowed to find other means to pass the legislation, which they have sought since 2001.
"There is no question that this issue doesn't stop here," said Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza. "The longer we wait, the more talented young people we close the door of opportunity to."
The bill — officially the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — would allow illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. before the age of 16, and who have lived here at least five years, to receive conditional legal status if they have graduated from high school and have a clean record. After six years, they could become permanent legal residents if they serve in the U.S. military for at least two years or complete at least two years of college. As with most green card holders, they could apply for citizenship after five years.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that slightly more than 1 million high school graduates and children still in class could gain legal status under the legislation.
60 votes needed
With conservatives being barraged with calls, faxes and e-mails from anti-illegal immigration groups that view the DREAM Act as amnesty, some Republicans who supported the measure in the past have been reluctant to do so now. Durbin needed 60 votes to surmount an expected filibuster. Some Senate Republicans, including Texans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, objected to the measure being brought up on a defense bill.
"Putting extraneous things on this bill isn't helpful," Hutchison said.
Other Republicans aren't ready to revisit a debate that imploded in June when the Senate scuttled an overhaul endorsed by the White House that would have given most illegal immigrants a chance for legal status.
"People, I think, want to let the immigration thing cool off a bit before we jump back in," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who helped derail the comprehensive immigration bill.
Josh Bernstein, federal policy director for the National Immigration Law Center, predicted DREAM Act supporters eventually will prevail.
"The politics is right and the commitment is there," Bernstein said. "We're not giving up."
michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com
for link to article click title to this post
Senate temporarily sidelines immigration legalization bill
Democrats vow to pass measure aiding 1 million youths
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that senators would vote on the the measure, which is strongly opposed by anti-illegal immigration groups, before the Senate finishes its work for the year in mid-November.
"All who care about this matter should know that we will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," he said.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had sought to attach the DREAM Act to the defense authorization bill. But Reid announced Wednesday night that Democrats were shelving the effort because of difficulties getting past legislative roadblocks.
"Unfortunately, some Republicans are opposed to this proposal and are unwilling to let us move forward on this bill," Reid said.
'Issue doesn't stop here'
Durbin and immigrant rights advocates were dismayed by the setback but vowed to find other means to pass the legislation, which they have sought since 2001.
"There is no question that this issue doesn't stop here," said Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza. "The longer we wait, the more talented young people we close the door of opportunity to."
The bill — officially the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — would allow illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. before the age of 16, and who have lived here at least five years, to receive conditional legal status if they have graduated from high school and have a clean record. After six years, they could become permanent legal residents if they serve in the U.S. military for at least two years or complete at least two years of college. As with most green card holders, they could apply for citizenship after five years.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that slightly more than 1 million high school graduates and children still in class could gain legal status under the legislation.
60 votes needed
With conservatives being barraged with calls, faxes and e-mails from anti-illegal immigration groups that view the DREAM Act as amnesty, some Republicans who supported the measure in the past have been reluctant to do so now. Durbin needed 60 votes to surmount an expected filibuster. Some Senate Republicans, including Texans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, objected to the measure being brought up on a defense bill.
"Putting extraneous things on this bill isn't helpful," Hutchison said.
Other Republicans aren't ready to revisit a debate that imploded in June when the Senate scuttled an overhaul endorsed by the White House that would have given most illegal immigrants a chance for legal status.
"People, I think, want to let the immigration thing cool off a bit before we jump back in," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who helped derail the comprehensive immigration bill.
Josh Bernstein, federal policy director for the National Immigration Law Center, predicted DREAM Act supporters eventually will prevail.
"The politics is right and the commitment is there," Bernstein said. "We're not giving up."
michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com
for link to article click title to this post
From Albuquerque Journal - On the DREAM ACT
Albuquerque Journal
Written by Bruce Daniels -
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vows to revisit illegal-alien students legislation.
It had become an under-the-radar cause celebre for both sides of the immigration debate, dominating talk shows and flooding senatorial offices with e-mails, phone calls and faxes from supporters and opponents alike.
But it appears that the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- the so-called DREAM Act -- is dead for now, but not for long, according to today's Washington Times.
The DREAM Act was attached by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., as an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act and would have given legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, according to the Times report.
"We will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who took the amendment off the table late Wednesday. "I'm going to do my utmost to do it by Nov. 16." The proposal was strongly opposed by some Republicans, like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who objected to mixing the immigration issue with the defense bill and who vowed a filibuster to defeat the measure if the Democrats insisted on bringing it up, the Times reported.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is among the co-sponsors of Durbin's amendment, and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., hadn't publicly said how he would vote.
Republicans late Wednesday moved to cut off debate on H.R. 1585, the Defense Authorization Act, leaving Democrats with practically no options for inserting Durbin's amendment, the Times reported. The amendment would have given conditional legal status to illegal aliens who were brought to the United States before age 16, have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school or obtained an equivalency degree, according to a report in Wednesday's Houston Chronicle.
After six years, they could become permanent legal residents if they have served in the U.S. military for at least two years or complete at least two years of college, and after another five years could apply for U.S. citizenship, the Chronicle reported.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that slightly more than 1 million high school graduates and children still in school could gain legal status under the legislation, the Chronicle said.
The DREAM Act had become the top priority for Hispanic and pro-immigration groups and drew equally strong opposition from those who want to crack down on illegal immigration, according to the Times report. Anti-illegal immigration activists -- fearful that the bill is a backdoor way of granting amnesty to thousand, if not millions of illegal immigrants -- have called it the "Nightmare Act."
Supporters, who have sought passage of the legislation since 2001, have said that passage of the amendment would remove thousands of young people from legal limbo and that it is unfair to punish children for the illegal actions of their parents.
Durbin himself signaled his fading hopes for the amendment earlier this week, telling the Houston Chronicle he had modified the original bill in hopes of meeting Republican objections, but said he didn't think it was enough.
Durbin tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status, according to today's Washington Times report.
Written by Bruce Daniels -
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vows to revisit illegal-alien students legislation.
It had become an under-the-radar cause celebre for both sides of the immigration debate, dominating talk shows and flooding senatorial offices with e-mails, phone calls and faxes from supporters and opponents alike.
But it appears that the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- the so-called DREAM Act -- is dead for now, but not for long, according to today's Washington Times.
The DREAM Act was attached by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., as an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act and would have given legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, according to the Times report.
"We will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who took the amendment off the table late Wednesday. "I'm going to do my utmost to do it by Nov. 16." The proposal was strongly opposed by some Republicans, like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who objected to mixing the immigration issue with the defense bill and who vowed a filibuster to defeat the measure if the Democrats insisted on bringing it up, the Times reported.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is among the co-sponsors of Durbin's amendment, and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., hadn't publicly said how he would vote.
Republicans late Wednesday moved to cut off debate on H.R. 1585, the Defense Authorization Act, leaving Democrats with practically no options for inserting Durbin's amendment, the Times reported. The amendment would have given conditional legal status to illegal aliens who were brought to the United States before age 16, have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school or obtained an equivalency degree, according to a report in Wednesday's Houston Chronicle.
After six years, they could become permanent legal residents if they have served in the U.S. military for at least two years or complete at least two years of college, and after another five years could apply for U.S. citizenship, the Chronicle reported.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that slightly more than 1 million high school graduates and children still in school could gain legal status under the legislation, the Chronicle said.
The DREAM Act had become the top priority for Hispanic and pro-immigration groups and drew equally strong opposition from those who want to crack down on illegal immigration, according to the Times report. Anti-illegal immigration activists -- fearful that the bill is a backdoor way of granting amnesty to thousand, if not millions of illegal immigrants -- have called it the "Nightmare Act."
Supporters, who have sought passage of the legislation since 2001, have said that passage of the amendment would remove thousands of young people from legal limbo and that it is unfair to punish children for the illegal actions of their parents.
Durbin himself signaled his fading hopes for the amendment earlier this week, telling the Houston Chronicle he had modified the original bill in hopes of meeting Republican objections, but said he didn't think it was enough.
Durbin tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status, according to today's Washington Times report.
In-State Tuition Clause Taken Out of the DREAM ACT
This reminds me of how extremely difficult it was this past spring to keep in-state tuition for DREAM ACT kids in Texas. With just a handful of states offering in-state tuition, and those only holding on to them very tenaciously, it doesn't look very good for those who want to take the college option.
"Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status."
-----
Article published Sep 27, 2007
Student illegals bill dropped--------
Washington Times
September 27, 2007
By Stephen Dinan - Senate Democrats yesterday retreated from forcing a debate about giving illegal-alien students a path to citizenship in the middle of the defense bill, although Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to find time before the end of the year for a vote on the proposal.
"We will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here. I"m going to do my utmost to do it by November 16," Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said last night.
The proposal faced strong opposition from Republicans who objected to mixing immigration with the defense bill and who vowed to filibuster to defeat the measure if Democrats insisted on bringing it up now.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times last week that enough Republicans were opposed to mixing the two debates that they could block the amendment. Late yesterday, Republicans moved to cut off debate on the defense bill, leaving Democrats with practically no options for inserting their proposal, known as the Dream Act.
The bill would have applied to illegal aliens who were brought to the United States before age 16, have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school or obtained an equivalency degree. They are granted legal status and have six years to complete two years of college or serve in the military.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status.
"If you meet these people, you"ll come to understand the potential that they bring to America"s future," he said.
He said it is unfair to punish children for their parents" illegal actions — a stance many Republicans share.
The Dream Act has become the top priority for Hispanic and pro-immigration groups and has become the top target for defeat for those who wish to crack down on illegals. The delay gives both sides a chance to rally support.
Decoupling the measure from the defense bill gives it a better chance of passage, but it also means another contentious issue for Mr. Reid to schedule before Congress adjourns for the year. Another immigration-related proposal — to legalize illegal-alien agriculture workers — is also expected to come up for debate.
--
thanks to Michael Olivas for sending this on.
"Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status."
-----
Article published Sep 27, 2007
Student illegals bill dropped--------
Washington Times
September 27, 2007
By Stephen Dinan - Senate Democrats yesterday retreated from forcing a debate about giving illegal-alien students a path to citizenship in the middle of the defense bill, although Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to find time before the end of the year for a vote on the proposal.
"We will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here. I"m going to do my utmost to do it by November 16," Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said last night.
The proposal faced strong opposition from Republicans who objected to mixing immigration with the defense bill and who vowed to filibuster to defeat the measure if Democrats insisted on bringing it up now.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times last week that enough Republicans were opposed to mixing the two debates that they could block the amendment. Late yesterday, Republicans moved to cut off debate on the defense bill, leaving Democrats with practically no options for inserting their proposal, known as the Dream Act.
The bill would have applied to illegal aliens who were brought to the United States before age 16, have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school or obtained an equivalency degree. They are granted legal status and have six years to complete two years of college or serve in the military.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, tried to win extra support by altering the bill to cap eligibility to those younger than 30 and by eliminating a mandate that states offer in-state tuition to those who qualified for legal status.
"If you meet these people, you"ll come to understand the potential that they bring to America"s future," he said.
He said it is unfair to punish children for their parents" illegal actions — a stance many Republicans share.
The Dream Act has become the top priority for Hispanic and pro-immigration groups and has become the top target for defeat for those who wish to crack down on illegals. The delay gives both sides a chance to rally support.
Decoupling the measure from the defense bill gives it a better chance of passage, but it also means another contentious issue for Mr. Reid to schedule before Congress adjourns for the year. Another immigration-related proposal — to legalize illegal-alien agriculture workers — is also expected to come up for debate.
--
thanks to Michael Olivas for sending this on.
Editorial on the DREAM ACT from the Washington Post
Its a great thing that the Wash. Post is endorsing the DREAM ACT, but what good will it do without the in-state tuition clause. this had been my concern (see Post "A Second Look at the DREAM ACT, September 22, 2007).
Its really important not to forget what happened in Vietnam. I repeat that information. 20% of the military deaths during the Vietnam War were Hispanic soldiers, at the time Hispanics only consisted of 10% of the population.
-----
A Future for Children
Young immigrants should be given a chance to succeed in America -- even if they entered illegally.
Washington Post
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; Page A18
TENS OF thousands of illegal immigrants graduate from American high schools every year, having entered the United States as children or young teenagers with their parents. They may be computer geniuses, talented artists, gifted debaters, entrepreneurial whiz kids or superb athletes, but it doesn't really matter; most of them, no matter how bright and ambitious, face insurmountable obstacles to success -- through no fault of their own. Although they grew up here and may seem culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from their native-born peers, they cannot share their classmates' high hopes and bright prospects.
Moved by their stories, senators from both political parties are sponsoring a measure that would give these youngsters what America has always given promising newcomers: a chance. The legislation, known as the Dream Act, would apply only to those who entered the country at age 15 or younger, have lived here for at least five years and have unblemished records. Upon graduating from high school, they would be granted conditional legal status for six years, a grace period in which they would have to spend at least two years enrolled in a four-year or community college or serving in a branch of the U.S. military. If they satisfied all those conditions while staying out of trouble, they would qualify to become legal permanent residents.
According to the Urban Institute, an estimated 360,000 undocumented immigrants who have already finished high school could be eligible right off the bat for six-year conditional legal status under Dream's provisions; 65,000 more would graduate annually and become eligible in the coming years. Many would elect to join the armed forces, thereby providing the military, which is struggling to meet recruitment targets, with a high-quality pool of potential recruits. Many others would enroll in institutions of higher education, instantly improving their long-term prospects to be well-paid, taxpaying, high-achieving members of society. If, as members of Congress and the Bush administration routinely acknowledge, there is to be no mass deportation of illegal immigrants, the Dream Act goes some way toward ensuring that the youngest and most promising immigrants will benefit this country for many years to come.
The Dream Act has been offered as an amendment to the Defense Department's appropriations bill and could face a floor vote in the Senate this week. Predictably, the anti-illegal-immigrant forces are howling about a new "amnesty." Let them use whatever word they choose. But let's also be clear about the victims if the measure is defeated -- promising young English speakers who had no say about how they were brought to this country. Most will stay here, in the only land where they feel at home. The real question is whether America is big enough and wise enough to offer them a future or will doom them to lives on the margins.
Its really important not to forget what happened in Vietnam. I repeat that information. 20% of the military deaths during the Vietnam War were Hispanic soldiers, at the time Hispanics only consisted of 10% of the population.
-----
A Future for Children
Young immigrants should be given a chance to succeed in America -- even if they entered illegally.
Washington Post
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; Page A18
TENS OF thousands of illegal immigrants graduate from American high schools every year, having entered the United States as children or young teenagers with their parents. They may be computer geniuses, talented artists, gifted debaters, entrepreneurial whiz kids or superb athletes, but it doesn't really matter; most of them, no matter how bright and ambitious, face insurmountable obstacles to success -- through no fault of their own. Although they grew up here and may seem culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from their native-born peers, they cannot share their classmates' high hopes and bright prospects.
Moved by their stories, senators from both political parties are sponsoring a measure that would give these youngsters what America has always given promising newcomers: a chance. The legislation, known as the Dream Act, would apply only to those who entered the country at age 15 or younger, have lived here for at least five years and have unblemished records. Upon graduating from high school, they would be granted conditional legal status for six years, a grace period in which they would have to spend at least two years enrolled in a four-year or community college or serving in a branch of the U.S. military. If they satisfied all those conditions while staying out of trouble, they would qualify to become legal permanent residents.
According to the Urban Institute, an estimated 360,000 undocumented immigrants who have already finished high school could be eligible right off the bat for six-year conditional legal status under Dream's provisions; 65,000 more would graduate annually and become eligible in the coming years. Many would elect to join the armed forces, thereby providing the military, which is struggling to meet recruitment targets, with a high-quality pool of potential recruits. Many others would enroll in institutions of higher education, instantly improving their long-term prospects to be well-paid, taxpaying, high-achieving members of society. If, as members of Congress and the Bush administration routinely acknowledge, there is to be no mass deportation of illegal immigrants, the Dream Act goes some way toward ensuring that the youngest and most promising immigrants will benefit this country for many years to come.
The Dream Act has been offered as an amendment to the Defense Department's appropriations bill and could face a floor vote in the Senate this week. Predictably, the anti-illegal-immigrant forces are howling about a new "amnesty." Let them use whatever word they choose. But let's also be clear about the victims if the measure is defeated -- promising young English speakers who had no say about how they were brought to this country. Most will stay here, in the only land where they feel at home. The real question is whether America is big enough and wise enough to offer them a future or will doom them to lives on the margins.
DREAM ACT News from NILC - 10:30 pm 9 26 07
Date: Sep 26, 2007 10:57 PM
Subject: DREAM Update: Great News
Hi United We DREAM friends,
Despite what you may have heard (even from us) the DREAM Act remains
very much alive and well.
As you know, Senator Durbin had planned to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the DoD authorization bill this week, and we have been trying to keep a stiff upper lip as the days of debate on the bill passed and the prospects for a DREAM Act vote dimmed. As of this morning, we despaired that it would get a vote, though we still held out a sliver of hope.
But you kept working, and calls continued to come in to Sen. Reid and other Senators, and students continued to lobby on their own behalf. And Senator Durbin refused to give up.
To his lasting credit, Senator Reid listened. Earlier this evening,he went to the floor to lament the fact that some Republicans had blocked the DREAM Act vote the DoD Authorization bill. But he did not stop there. Rather, he pledged that it would get a vote vote by mid-November. That is very unusual, almost unprecedented for a bill such as this. Obviously, the DREAM Act still has to win that vote, and it has to move forward in the House as well... It has a long to go before becoming law.
But this is a huge deal. The DREAM Act has come a long way in recent months. What Senator Reid did is a recognition of the fact that it is now a top-tier issue, one that cannot be ignored. You did that. You should all feel proud.
Thank you ULI in Austin for distributing this information
Subject: DREAM Update: Great News
Hi United We DREAM friends,
Despite what you may have heard (even from us) the DREAM Act remains
very much alive and well.
As you know, Senator Durbin had planned to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the DoD authorization bill this week, and we have been trying to keep a stiff upper lip as the days of debate on the bill passed and the prospects for a DREAM Act vote dimmed. As of this morning, we despaired that it would get a vote, though we still held out a sliver of hope.
But you kept working, and calls continued to come in to Sen. Reid and other Senators, and students continued to lobby on their own behalf. And Senator Durbin refused to give up.
To his lasting credit, Senator Reid listened. Earlier this evening,he went to the floor to lament the fact that some Republicans had blocked the DREAM Act vote the DoD Authorization bill. But he did not stop there. Rather, he pledged that it would get a vote vote by mid-November. That is very unusual, almost unprecedented for a bill such as this. Obviously, the DREAM Act still has to win that vote, and it has to move forward in the House as well... It has a long to go before becoming law.
But this is a huge deal. The DREAM Act has come a long way in recent months. What Senator Reid did is a recognition of the fact that it is now a top-tier issue, one that cannot be ignored. You did that. You should all feel proud.
Thank you ULI in Austin for distributing this information
Reid's Statement in Spanish
Para difusión inmediata
Fecha: miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2007
CONTACTO: Federico A. de Jesús, (202) 224-2939
REID: TENEMOS QUE INVERTIR EN EL FUTURO DE TODOS LOS NIÑOS DE NUESTRA NACIÓN
Washington, DC—El Líder de la Mayoría del Senado Harry Reid hizo las
siguientes declaraciones hoy en el pleno del Senado de los EE.UU.
apoyando el DREAM Act, para asegurar que todos los niños que han
crecido en los Estados Unidos tengan la oportunidad de salir adelante.
Adjunto sus declaraciones, según fueron preparadas para su discurso:
Señor Presidente, estuve profundamente decepcionado cuando los
republicanos bloquearon la reforma integral de inmigración este año.
Sigo creyendo que una reforma firme, justa, práctica e integral es la
única manera de tomar el control de nuestro sistema roto de
inmigración y de restablecer el imperio de la ley.
Sigo comprometido con implementar tal legislación en el futuro. Al no
hacer nada, los Estados Unidos se quedan con el mismo problema que ha
plagado nuestro sistema roto por años.
Pero hasta que podamos progresar otra vez en la reforma migratoria,
debemos implementar dos elementos cruciales de esa reforma: el DREAM
Act y la propuesta AgJobs.
Soy coauspiciador del DREAM Act y lo apoyo firmemente porque creo que
la educación es la llave al futuro de nuestros niños y nuestro éxito
como nación.
El DREAM Act le permitiría a los niños que han crecido en los Estados
Unidos – traídos aquí por sus padres sin ellos tener la culpa – a
obtener un status legal. El DREAM Act reconoce que los niños no se
deben castigar por las acciones de sus padres. Muchos de estos niños
vinieron cuando eran muy jóvenes. Muchos ni siquiera recuerdan sus
países ni hablan el lenguaje de su país natal. Se consideran
estadounidenses y son tan leales y devotos a nuestro país como
cualquier otro estadounidense.
Sólo los niños que vinieron a los EE.UU. cuando tenían 15 años o menos
y que han estado en los EE.UU. por al menos cinco años pueden
solicitar, y tendrían que cumplir ciertos requisitos, incluyendo --
-- tener un diploma de escuela secundaria
-- demostrar buen carácter moral;
-- y aprobar una evaluación de antecedentes penales y de seguridad.
Para cualificar para status legal permanente, tienen que ir a la
universidad o servir en el ejército por dos años.
Señor Presidente, he conocido estudiantes estrella en Nevada que
cualificarían para el DREAM Act. Con él, sus futuros no tienen
límites. Sin él, se reducen sus esperanzas.
Muchos de los niños que este proyecto de ley ayudaría tienen mucho
talento y se han graduado en el tope o cerca del tope de sus clases.
Qué desperdicio es el hacerles más difícil que vayan a la universidad,
o impedirles conseguir empleos, cuando podrían estar haciendo
aportaciones a sus comunidades y a nuestro país.
¿A quién le beneficia impedirle a estos jóvenes que tengan un futuro?
Yo tenía la esperanza de que presentáramos esta medida como una
enmienda al proyecto de ley pendiente, sobre las asignaciones de
defensa.
En los últimos días, he tenido muchas conversaciones con el Senador
Durbin, el auspiciador principal del DREAM Act, y otros colegas del
Senado sobre hacerlo.
Desafortunadamente, algunos republicanos se oponen a esta propuesta y
están obstinados con impedirnos movernos hacia adelante con este
proyecto de ley.
No dejaremos de luchar, y estamos comprometidos a tratar de impulsar
esta medida importante en o antes de mediados de noviembre.
Implementar el DREAM Act le dará a más de nuestros niños la
oportunidad de salir adelante. Espero que se implemente pronto, para
que podamos poner el sueño estadounidense al alcance de más niños en
Nevada y en nuestra nación.
Fecha: miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2007
CONTACTO: Federico A. de Jesús, (202) 224-2939
REID: TENEMOS QUE INVERTIR EN EL FUTURO DE TODOS LOS NIÑOS DE NUESTRA NACIÓN
Washington, DC—El Líder de la Mayoría del Senado Harry Reid hizo las
siguientes declaraciones hoy en el pleno del Senado de los EE.UU.
apoyando el DREAM Act, para asegurar que todos los niños que han
crecido en los Estados Unidos tengan la oportunidad de salir adelante.
Adjunto sus declaraciones, según fueron preparadas para su discurso:
Señor Presidente, estuve profundamente decepcionado cuando los
republicanos bloquearon la reforma integral de inmigración este año.
Sigo creyendo que una reforma firme, justa, práctica e integral es la
única manera de tomar el control de nuestro sistema roto de
inmigración y de restablecer el imperio de la ley.
Sigo comprometido con implementar tal legislación en el futuro. Al no
hacer nada, los Estados Unidos se quedan con el mismo problema que ha
plagado nuestro sistema roto por años.
Pero hasta que podamos progresar otra vez en la reforma migratoria,
debemos implementar dos elementos cruciales de esa reforma: el DREAM
Act y la propuesta AgJobs.
Soy coauspiciador del DREAM Act y lo apoyo firmemente porque creo que
la educación es la llave al futuro de nuestros niños y nuestro éxito
como nación.
El DREAM Act le permitiría a los niños que han crecido en los Estados
Unidos – traídos aquí por sus padres sin ellos tener la culpa – a
obtener un status legal. El DREAM Act reconoce que los niños no se
deben castigar por las acciones de sus padres. Muchos de estos niños
vinieron cuando eran muy jóvenes. Muchos ni siquiera recuerdan sus
países ni hablan el lenguaje de su país natal. Se consideran
estadounidenses y son tan leales y devotos a nuestro país como
cualquier otro estadounidense.
Sólo los niños que vinieron a los EE.UU. cuando tenían 15 años o menos
y que han estado en los EE.UU. por al menos cinco años pueden
solicitar, y tendrían que cumplir ciertos requisitos, incluyendo --
-- tener un diploma de escuela secundaria
-- demostrar buen carácter moral;
-- y aprobar una evaluación de antecedentes penales y de seguridad.
Para cualificar para status legal permanente, tienen que ir a la
universidad o servir en el ejército por dos años.
Señor Presidente, he conocido estudiantes estrella en Nevada que
cualificarían para el DREAM Act. Con él, sus futuros no tienen
límites. Sin él, se reducen sus esperanzas.
Muchos de los niños que este proyecto de ley ayudaría tienen mucho
talento y se han graduado en el tope o cerca del tope de sus clases.
Qué desperdicio es el hacerles más difícil que vayan a la universidad,
o impedirles conseguir empleos, cuando podrían estar haciendo
aportaciones a sus comunidades y a nuestro país.
¿A quién le beneficia impedirle a estos jóvenes que tengan un futuro?
Yo tenía la esperanza de que presentáramos esta medida como una
enmienda al proyecto de ley pendiente, sobre las asignaciones de
defensa.
En los últimos días, he tenido muchas conversaciones con el Senador
Durbin, el auspiciador principal del DREAM Act, y otros colegas del
Senado sobre hacerlo.
Desafortunadamente, algunos republicanos se oponen a esta propuesta y
están obstinados con impedirnos movernos hacia adelante con este
proyecto de ley.
No dejaremos de luchar, y estamos comprometidos a tratar de impulsar
esta medida importante en o antes de mediados de noviembre.
Implementar el DREAM Act le dará a más de nuestros niños la
oportunidad de salir adelante. Espero que se implemente pronto, para
que podamos poner el sueño estadounidense al alcance de más niños en
Nevada y en nuestra nación.
Good News on the DREAM ACT From Senator Reid
For Immediate Release
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
CONTACT: Federico A. de Jesús, (202) 224-2939
REID: WE MUST INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF ALL OUR NATION'S CHILDREN
Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following
statement today on the floor of the U.S. Senate in favor of the DREAM
Act, to help ensure that all children who grow up in the United States
have a chance to succeed.
Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. President, I was profoundly disappointed when Republicans blocked
the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform legislation earlier this
year.
I continue to believe that tough, fair, practical and comprehensive
reform is the only way to get control of our broken immigration system
and to restore the rule of law.
I remain committed to enacting such legislation in the future. By
doing nothing, America is left with the same problems that have
plagued our broken system for years.
But until we can once again move forward on comprehensive reform, we
should enact two crucially important elements of that reform: the
DREAM Act and the AgJobs proposal.
I am a co-sponsor and strong supporter of the DREAM Act, because I
believe that education is the key to our children's future and our
success as a nation.
The DREAM Act would allow children who have grown-up in the United
States -- brought here by their parents through no fault of their own
-- to legalize their status. The DREAM Act recognizes that children
should not be penalized for the actions of their parents.
Many of these children came here when they were very young. Many
don't even remember their home countries or speak the language of
their home countries. They think of themselves as American and they
are just as loyal and devoted to our country as any American.
Only children who came to the US when they were 15 years old or
younger and have been in the US for at least five years can apply, and
they would have to meet certain criteria, including --
-- including earning a high school diploma;
-- demonstrating good moral character;
-- and passing criminal and security clearances.
To qualify for permanent status, they must go to college or serve in
the military for two years.
Mr. President, I have met star students in Nevada who would qualify
for the DREAM Act. With it, their futures are limitless. Without it,
their hope is diminished.
Many of the children this bill would help are very talented and have
graduated at the top or near the top of their classes.
What a waste it is to make it more difficult for them to go to
college, or to prohibit them from getting jobs, when they could be
making meaningful contributions to their communities and to our
country.
What good does it do anybody to prevent these young people from having
a future?
I had hoped that we would be able to offer this legislation as an
amendment to the pending legislation, the DOD authorization bill.
Over the last few days, I have had numerous conversations with Senator
Durbin, the DREAM Act's chief sponsor, and other Senate colleagues
about doing so.
Unfortunately, some Republicans are opposed to this proposal and are
unwilling to let us move forward on this bill.
We will not give up the fight, and are committed to trying to move
this important legislation by mid-November.
Enacting the DREAM Act will give more of our children an opportunity
to succeed. I hope it will soon be enacted, so we can put the
American dream within reach for more children in Nevada and in our
nation.
###
Thank you ULI in Austin for distributing this
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
CONTACT: Federico A. de Jesús, (202) 224-2939
REID: WE MUST INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF ALL OUR NATION'S CHILDREN
Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following
statement today on the floor of the U.S. Senate in favor of the DREAM
Act, to help ensure that all children who grow up in the United States
have a chance to succeed.
Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. President, I was profoundly disappointed when Republicans blocked
the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform legislation earlier this
year.
I continue to believe that tough, fair, practical and comprehensive
reform is the only way to get control of our broken immigration system
and to restore the rule of law.
I remain committed to enacting such legislation in the future. By
doing nothing, America is left with the same problems that have
plagued our broken system for years.
But until we can once again move forward on comprehensive reform, we
should enact two crucially important elements of that reform: the
DREAM Act and the AgJobs proposal.
I am a co-sponsor and strong supporter of the DREAM Act, because I
believe that education is the key to our children's future and our
success as a nation.
The DREAM Act would allow children who have grown-up in the United
States -- brought here by their parents through no fault of their own
-- to legalize their status. The DREAM Act recognizes that children
should not be penalized for the actions of their parents.
Many of these children came here when they were very young. Many
don't even remember their home countries or speak the language of
their home countries. They think of themselves as American and they
are just as loyal and devoted to our country as any American.
Only children who came to the US when they were 15 years old or
younger and have been in the US for at least five years can apply, and
they would have to meet certain criteria, including --
-- including earning a high school diploma;
-- demonstrating good moral character;
-- and passing criminal and security clearances.
To qualify for permanent status, they must go to college or serve in
the military for two years.
Mr. President, I have met star students in Nevada who would qualify
for the DREAM Act. With it, their futures are limitless. Without it,
their hope is diminished.
Many of the children this bill would help are very talented and have
graduated at the top or near the top of their classes.
What a waste it is to make it more difficult for them to go to
college, or to prohibit them from getting jobs, when they could be
making meaningful contributions to their communities and to our
country.
What good does it do anybody to prevent these young people from having
a future?
I had hoped that we would be able to offer this legislation as an
amendment to the pending legislation, the DOD authorization bill.
Over the last few days, I have had numerous conversations with Senator
Durbin, the DREAM Act's chief sponsor, and other Senate colleagues
about doing so.
Unfortunately, some Republicans are opposed to this proposal and are
unwilling to let us move forward on this bill.
We will not give up the fight, and are committed to trying to move
this important legislation by mid-November.
Enacting the DREAM Act will give more of our children an opportunity
to succeed. I hope it will soon be enacted, so we can put the
American dream within reach for more children in Nevada and in our
nation.
###
Thank you ULI in Austin for distributing this
1 Million Iraqis Die in War - U.S. Only Takes 1,600 as Refugees
Op-Ed Columnist
By ROGER COHEN
Published: September 27, 2007
New York Times
MALMO, Sweden
...When Tobias Billstrom, the migration minister, says, “Yes, of course the United States should do more,” you can feel his indignation about to erupt like milk boiling over. He notes that given the huge population difference, Sweden’s intake of Iraqis “is the equivalent of the U.S. taking in about 500,000 refugees.”
Of all the Iraq war scandals, America’s failure to do more for refugees, including thousands who put their lives at risk for the U.S., stands out for its moral bankruptcy. Last time I checked, Sweden did not invade Iraq. Its generosity shames President Bush’s fear-infused nation.
I know, the U.S. is showering aid (more than $122 million in 2007) on Iraq’s neighbors to help more than two million fleeing Iraqis. It set up a refugee task force in February and, when that faltered, appointed two refugee czars this month.
“We want people engaged in this 24/7, breaking down barriers and expeditiously helping the refugees,” Paula Dobriansky, the under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, told me. “We have a moral obligation, and especially to those who have worked at our embassy.”
A commitment has been made to process 7,000 refugees in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Visas for 500 Iraqis a year who worked for the U.S. have been promised. But these are velleities. Concern has been unmatched by results. Bush has never addressed the issue, an example of his Green Zone politics: shut out ugly reality and with luck it will vanish.
An aggressive American intake of refugees would suggest that their quick return to Iraq is improbable: that smacks too much of failure for Bush. Moreover, you have to scrutinize refugees from countries “infiltrated by large numbers of terrorists,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff opined recently.
The result has been “major bottlenecks,” in the words of a leaked cable from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Instead of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees supposed to get here this fiscal year, perhaps 1,600 will.
“The numbers are totally embarrassing,” says Kirk Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Iraq. “We can’t recognize a moral imperative any more.”
Imperative is right. People who risked their lives for America are dying or being terrorized because of craven U.S. lethargy. Others are in limbo. Bush now says “Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.” That’s too glib; one may be waiting to be saved.
The I-told-you-so phase of the Iraq invasion is thankfully ending. What is needed now is consensus on American responsibility. That starts with a more open door to Iraqis in flight. Mr. President, say something.
Gamil lost his job when the army was disbanded. He worked sporadically as a translator. But when threats came — as a Sunni ex-officer he was an obvious target to Shiite militias — “I had to save my life and my wife’s.”
Sweden will give him a lawyer to argue his asylum case. Ekblad says the “overwhelming majority” are approved. Refugees then get a permanent resident permit leading to possible citizenship in five years. “Our costs are huge, and we’d like to see more burden-sharing,” he says.
Burden sharing! How about guts? Swedes are polite to a fault.
You are invited to comment at my blog: www.iht.com/passages.
-----
for link to full article click the title of this post
By ROGER COHEN
Published: September 27, 2007
New York Times
MALMO, Sweden
...When Tobias Billstrom, the migration minister, says, “Yes, of course the United States should do more,” you can feel his indignation about to erupt like milk boiling over. He notes that given the huge population difference, Sweden’s intake of Iraqis “is the equivalent of the U.S. taking in about 500,000 refugees.”
Of all the Iraq war scandals, America’s failure to do more for refugees, including thousands who put their lives at risk for the U.S., stands out for its moral bankruptcy. Last time I checked, Sweden did not invade Iraq. Its generosity shames President Bush’s fear-infused nation.
I know, the U.S. is showering aid (more than $122 million in 2007) on Iraq’s neighbors to help more than two million fleeing Iraqis. It set up a refugee task force in February and, when that faltered, appointed two refugee czars this month.
“We want people engaged in this 24/7, breaking down barriers and expeditiously helping the refugees,” Paula Dobriansky, the under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, told me. “We have a moral obligation, and especially to those who have worked at our embassy.”
A commitment has been made to process 7,000 refugees in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Visas for 500 Iraqis a year who worked for the U.S. have been promised. But these are velleities. Concern has been unmatched by results. Bush has never addressed the issue, an example of his Green Zone politics: shut out ugly reality and with luck it will vanish.
An aggressive American intake of refugees would suggest that their quick return to Iraq is improbable: that smacks too much of failure for Bush. Moreover, you have to scrutinize refugees from countries “infiltrated by large numbers of terrorists,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff opined recently.
The result has been “major bottlenecks,” in the words of a leaked cable from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Instead of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees supposed to get here this fiscal year, perhaps 1,600 will.
“The numbers are totally embarrassing,” says Kirk Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Iraq. “We can’t recognize a moral imperative any more.”
Imperative is right. People who risked their lives for America are dying or being terrorized because of craven U.S. lethargy. Others are in limbo. Bush now says “Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.” That’s too glib; one may be waiting to be saved.
The I-told-you-so phase of the Iraq invasion is thankfully ending. What is needed now is consensus on American responsibility. That starts with a more open door to Iraqis in flight. Mr. President, say something.
Gamil lost his job when the army was disbanded. He worked sporadically as a translator. But when threats came — as a Sunni ex-officer he was an obvious target to Shiite militias — “I had to save my life and my wife’s.”
Sweden will give him a lawyer to argue his asylum case. Ekblad says the “overwhelming majority” are approved. Refugees then get a permanent resident permit leading to possible citizenship in five years. “Our costs are huge, and we’d like to see more burden-sharing,” he says.
Burden sharing! How about guts? Swedes are polite to a fault.
You are invited to comment at my blog: www.iht.com/passages.
-----
for link to full article click the title of this post
National Anxiety is About is About Money, not a Common Race or Ethnic Identity
While people are screaming that immigrants should go home because they are defusing the identity of our country I recall Lamar Alexander's plurbus unim statement- (see post "Ken Burns Little Snicker "September 24, 2007). Alexander says that racial and ethnic minorities are tearing the country apart because they don't want to be part of a unified nation. In this case Harold Meyerson says its economics. People are feeling the squeeze. Credit card debt is too high, everyone has a 400+ car payment, and mortgages now eat up most of peoples monthly earnings. Of course people are angry... and as usual with human beings we look for the scapegoat, this time the undocumented immigrant or diverse ethnic and racial groups in general. Meyerson says the discontent is really caused by a nation-state that is out of touch with its populace, and lets our quest for capitalism take the economy where it wants.
Its easier to blame the people that don't look like you than your national leaders who you are supposed to respect and admire.
During late summer, Juli wrote a post saying that she always like to see what a writer says at the end of their essay, that its usually very telling.
I think she is right on.
-----
Rise of the Have-Nots
Why More Americans Are Feeling Shut Out of Good Times
By Harold Meyerson
Washington Post
Thursday, September 27, 2007; Page A25
...Apparently, so great is Republicans' loyalty to the Bush presidency that they're willing to overlook their own experience. And, in many cases, to attribute the nation's transformation solely to immigration, rather than to the rise of a stateless laissez-faire capitalism over which the American people wield less and less power. Which helps explain why Republican presidential candidates bluster about a fence on the border and have nothing to say about providing health coverage or restoring some power to American workers.
But the big story here isn't Republican denial. It's the shattering of Americans' sense of a common identity in a time when the economy no longer promotes the general welfare. The world the New Deal built has been destroyed, and we are, as we were before the New Deal, two nations.
meyersonh@washpost.com
For link to entire essay, click title to this post.
Its easier to blame the people that don't look like you than your national leaders who you are supposed to respect and admire.
During late summer, Juli wrote a post saying that she always like to see what a writer says at the end of their essay, that its usually very telling.
I think she is right on.
-----
Rise of the Have-Nots
Why More Americans Are Feeling Shut Out of Good Times
By Harold Meyerson
Washington Post
Thursday, September 27, 2007; Page A25
...Apparently, so great is Republicans' loyalty to the Bush presidency that they're willing to overlook their own experience. And, in many cases, to attribute the nation's transformation solely to immigration, rather than to the rise of a stateless laissez-faire capitalism over which the American people wield less and less power. Which helps explain why Republican presidential candidates bluster about a fence on the border and have nothing to say about providing health coverage or restoring some power to American workers.
But the big story here isn't Republican denial. It's the shattering of Americans' sense of a common identity in a time when the economy no longer promotes the general welfare. The world the New Deal built has been destroyed, and we are, as we were before the New Deal, two nations.
meyersonh@washpost.com
For link to entire essay, click title to this post.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
DREAM ACT Update 9 26 07
It is 7:38 Eastern time. Harry Reid just spoke about the DREAM ACT. He praised Senator Durbin and the DREAM ACT itself. He said they weren't going to pass it "this time" - but that it would be passed by mid-November.
He minimized the military option. If there were some type of guarrantee that DREAM ACT students would not be coerced into the military (especially while Iraq is still going on) then the bill would be great. Is there a way to be sure that the college option won't be taken away - Its absolutely necessary for the students to have the in-state tuition option while they are waiting to regularize. Otherwise it's almost impossible to pay the high tuition.
In Texas, DREAM ACT students are in crisis because the financial aide that they were getting from the state has not materialized this school year. There were extensive delays last year, and I thought maybe it was due to some internal administrative problem. However, this time, its across the board. Students from community colleges and state universities are experiencing the same problem- there seems be opposition growing regarding Texas grants based upon need. Many people are complaining that U.S. citizens should be given the grants first, even if they are in a better economic situation. In other words, if the students become ineligible because of their residency status, the grants would no longer be based on financial need, since the DREAM ACT students would not be eligible.
He minimized the military option. If there were some type of guarrantee that DREAM ACT students would not be coerced into the military (especially while Iraq is still going on) then the bill would be great. Is there a way to be sure that the college option won't be taken away - Its absolutely necessary for the students to have the in-state tuition option while they are waiting to regularize. Otherwise it's almost impossible to pay the high tuition.
In Texas, DREAM ACT students are in crisis because the financial aide that they were getting from the state has not materialized this school year. There were extensive delays last year, and I thought maybe it was due to some internal administrative problem. However, this time, its across the board. Students from community colleges and state universities are experiencing the same problem- there seems be opposition growing regarding Texas grants based upon need. Many people are complaining that U.S. citizens should be given the grants first, even if they are in a better economic situation. In other words, if the students become ineligible because of their residency status, the grants would no longer be based on financial need, since the DREAM ACT students would not be eligible.
Kansas City Parks & Recreation Turned Over to a Minuteman
Border war over immigration comes to Midwest
By Carey Gillam
Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 2:58 PM
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A routine city hall appointment threatens to turn Kansas City into a new front in the U.S. debate over illegal immigration, even though the closest Mexico border crossing is hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.
Anger has been simmering among Hispanic leaders since the summer, when newly elected Mayor Mark Funkhouser appointed Frances Semler, a dues-paying member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), to the city's parks and recreation board.
...The group is now seizing on the appointment controversy to increase its visibility in the Midwest, promising to make Kansas City the site of a winter leadership meeting and a public education "open house" on immigration concerns.
...IMMIGRATION ISSUE
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. How to deal with them and others seeking to come in has become a divisive issue for Americans and a key topic for contenders for president in the November 2008 election.
This week's battle in Washington over legislation that would grant permanent legal status to students under certain conditions is only the latest proposal that has outraged those seeking stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
La Raza and other ethnic organizations are threatening to boycott Kansas City by canceling conventions unless the mayor removes Semler -- a move the mayor has refused.
"It's a pickle," said Kendrick Blackwood, a spokesman for Funkhouser. "I'm optimistic that we're going to find some way to work through this."
Semler, who joined the Minuteman group in December because of frustration with a lack of enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, said she has been vilified in smear campaigns on the Internet and elsewhere. But she has no intention of backing away from the group.
"I feel very strongly about enforcing the law," she said.
The furor has left city and business leaders frustrated.
"I'm concerned about our image nationally," said city councilwoman Jan Marcason, who fears the controversy makes the metropolitan area of 2 million people look like a "right-wing extremist community."
"The border of Kansas and Missouri is not in jeopardy," Marcason said. "It is odd that they feel like they should even be here."
For entire article, click the title of this post
By Carey Gillam
Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 2:58 PM
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A routine city hall appointment threatens to turn Kansas City into a new front in the U.S. debate over illegal immigration, even though the closest Mexico border crossing is hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.
Anger has been simmering among Hispanic leaders since the summer, when newly elected Mayor Mark Funkhouser appointed Frances Semler, a dues-paying member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), to the city's parks and recreation board.
...The group is now seizing on the appointment controversy to increase its visibility in the Midwest, promising to make Kansas City the site of a winter leadership meeting and a public education "open house" on immigration concerns.
...IMMIGRATION ISSUE
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. How to deal with them and others seeking to come in has become a divisive issue for Americans and a key topic for contenders for president in the November 2008 election.
This week's battle in Washington over legislation that would grant permanent legal status to students under certain conditions is only the latest proposal that has outraged those seeking stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
La Raza and other ethnic organizations are threatening to boycott Kansas City by canceling conventions unless the mayor removes Semler -- a move the mayor has refused.
"It's a pickle," said Kendrick Blackwood, a spokesman for Funkhouser. "I'm optimistic that we're going to find some way to work through this."
Semler, who joined the Minuteman group in December because of frustration with a lack of enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, said she has been vilified in smear campaigns on the Internet and elsewhere. But she has no intention of backing away from the group.
"I feel very strongly about enforcing the law," she said.
The furor has left city and business leaders frustrated.
"I'm concerned about our image nationally," said city councilwoman Jan Marcason, who fears the controversy makes the metropolitan area of 2 million people look like a "right-wing extremist community."
"The border of Kansas and Missouri is not in jeopardy," Marcason said. "It is odd that they feel like they should even be here."
For entire article, click the title of this post
A Response to Politico's Article on the DREAM ACT
This comment from Politico is a response to the article on the DREAM ACT, and to the insulting and vulgar comments made about undocumented immigrants...
#46
Sep. 25, 2007 - 3:55 PM EST
Wow . . . I am appalled at the level of ignorance that seeps through these comments. Not to mention the fact that I have seen more misspelling(ie "citzon" and "illigals") than I saw when I tutored elementary kids. I imagine that you are all well aware of how Italian Immigrants or Polish immigrants were treated when they first came to the United States in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Like absolute SCUM. They were checked for LICE at Ellis Island before coming into the U.S. And who might those immigrants be related to? Hmm, well I would venture to say that about 75% percent of all you are probably descendants of those very same immigrants that were considered scum. what makes any of you any better than immigrants today?
I am an immigrant. Yes, I am here LEGALLY, but because of your absolutely, ridiculously STUPID immigration system, I am unable to go back home and see my family. So you see, it is not just the undocumented low-skilled workers that suffer from this senseless system, but also someone that is now working in DC and butts heads with the office of Senators and knows more about the way your legislative system works that probably half of you.
I graduated MAGNA CUM LAUDE from one of the most prestigious universities in the Northeast. And I went through college on financial aid- and I am very grateful to my institution for that. And NEVER during the four years that I was in college did I feel like I was taking an "American's" place- because I worked my ass off to get into and through college, much more than I can say of many of my American counterparts (not all, of course, but some) who skipped classes and insulted the professors because they felt they had a "right" to be there. Maybe you all could learn a thing or two about the so called "illegals" who come here and spread their "offspring". Please. Grow the..up....
DM
for link to entire comment, click the title to this post. It is comment #46
#46
Sep. 25, 2007 - 3:55 PM EST
Wow . . . I am appalled at the level of ignorance that seeps through these comments. Not to mention the fact that I have seen more misspelling(ie "citzon" and "illigals") than I saw when I tutored elementary kids. I imagine that you are all well aware of how Italian Immigrants or Polish immigrants were treated when they first came to the United States in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Like absolute SCUM. They were checked for LICE at Ellis Island before coming into the U.S. And who might those immigrants be related to? Hmm, well I would venture to say that about 75% percent of all you are probably descendants of those very same immigrants that were considered scum. what makes any of you any better than immigrants today?
I am an immigrant. Yes, I am here LEGALLY, but because of your absolutely, ridiculously STUPID immigration system, I am unable to go back home and see my family. So you see, it is not just the undocumented low-skilled workers that suffer from this senseless system, but also someone that is now working in DC and butts heads with the office of Senators and knows more about the way your legislative system works that probably half of you.
I graduated MAGNA CUM LAUDE from one of the most prestigious universities in the Northeast. And I went through college on financial aid- and I am very grateful to my institution for that. And NEVER during the four years that I was in college did I feel like I was taking an "American's" place- because I worked my ass off to get into and through college, much more than I can say of many of my American counterparts (not all, of course, but some) who skipped classes and insulted the professors because they felt they had a "right" to be there. Maybe you all could learn a thing or two about the so called "illegals" who come here and spread their "offspring". Please. Grow the..up....
DM
for link to entire comment, click the title to this post. It is comment #46
The DREAM ACT from Politico.com
Immigration debate roils anew
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Politico.com
September 25, 2007 06:32 AM EST
As the Senate prepares to vote on an immigration measure this week, senators are being forced back into politically treacherous territory on the controversial question of amnesty. In many ways, the debate is a mini-version of the free-for-all that consumed the doomed comprehensive bill in June.
Legalization opponents and supporters are picking up where they left off earlier this year, flooding congressional offices and Internet blogs with talking points on the latest legislation.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been trying for years to stitch together a bipartisan coalition for a narrower measure that he calls the DREAM Act. It would give illegal immigrants who were brought to the country at 15 years old or younger — and have remained here for at least five years — a path to citizenship if they go to college or enter the military.
“The fundamental premise,” Durbin said on the floor last week, “is that we shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made. That isn’t the American way. The DREAM Act says to these students: America is going to give you a chance. It won’t be easy, but you can earn your way into legal status.”
Durbin is offering the measure as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill, in part because it could ease strains on military recruiting.
An opponent of the most recent comprehensive bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), signed on as a co-sponsor last week, joining Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and a dozen Democrats.
But with anti-immigration groups calling the amendment “amnesty on the installment plan,” passage is far from assured in a chamber that operates on a 60-vote threshold.
NumbersUSA, the group that helped derail the comprehensive bill that would have offered legal status to the existing 12 million illegal immigrants, posted on its website a tally of its “anti-amnesty champions.” So far, 21 senators have signaled to NumbersUSA that they will oppose the amendment. The group is looking for 20 more senators to block it.
“If you were to pass another amnesty, you would only encourage more illegal behavior because it is seen as a reward,” said Caroline Espinosa, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which claims credit for more than 260,000 faxes sent by its supporters to Congress in the past week.
Proponents of the measure dispute the amnesty argument, saying it applies only to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for five years at the time of the bill’s enactment.
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization, estimates that 360,000 undocumented students would become immediately eligible for conditional legal status. An additional 65,000 could be added to the pool annually, the group found.
Like previous battles, advocates on both sides of the issue have been pressing Congress, blasting e-mails to supporters and asking them to contact senators. The office of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), one of the members being targeted by both sides, reported a spike in calls starting last Monday.
The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform attempted to counter its opponents, pleading with members in an e-mail last Tuesday: “We need your calls beginning NOW, before senators get the idea (again) that they only hear from anti-immigrant constituents, and that they should play it safe and vote against the amendment.”
for link to article click the title of this post
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Politico.com
September 25, 2007 06:32 AM EST
As the Senate prepares to vote on an immigration measure this week, senators are being forced back into politically treacherous territory on the controversial question of amnesty. In many ways, the debate is a mini-version of the free-for-all that consumed the doomed comprehensive bill in June.
Legalization opponents and supporters are picking up where they left off earlier this year, flooding congressional offices and Internet blogs with talking points on the latest legislation.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been trying for years to stitch together a bipartisan coalition for a narrower measure that he calls the DREAM Act. It would give illegal immigrants who were brought to the country at 15 years old or younger — and have remained here for at least five years — a path to citizenship if they go to college or enter the military.
“The fundamental premise,” Durbin said on the floor last week, “is that we shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made. That isn’t the American way. The DREAM Act says to these students: America is going to give you a chance. It won’t be easy, but you can earn your way into legal status.”
Durbin is offering the measure as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill, in part because it could ease strains on military recruiting.
An opponent of the most recent comprehensive bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), signed on as a co-sponsor last week, joining Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and a dozen Democrats.
But with anti-immigration groups calling the amendment “amnesty on the installment plan,” passage is far from assured in a chamber that operates on a 60-vote threshold.
NumbersUSA, the group that helped derail the comprehensive bill that would have offered legal status to the existing 12 million illegal immigrants, posted on its website a tally of its “anti-amnesty champions.” So far, 21 senators have signaled to NumbersUSA that they will oppose the amendment. The group is looking for 20 more senators to block it.
“If you were to pass another amnesty, you would only encourage more illegal behavior because it is seen as a reward,” said Caroline Espinosa, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which claims credit for more than 260,000 faxes sent by its supporters to Congress in the past week.
Proponents of the measure dispute the amnesty argument, saying it applies only to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for five years at the time of the bill’s enactment.
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization, estimates that 360,000 undocumented students would become immediately eligible for conditional legal status. An additional 65,000 could be added to the pool annually, the group found.
Like previous battles, advocates on both sides of the issue have been pressing Congress, blasting e-mails to supporters and asking them to contact senators. The office of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), one of the members being targeted by both sides, reported a spike in calls starting last Monday.
The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform attempted to counter its opponents, pleading with members in an e-mail last Tuesday: “We need your calls beginning NOW, before senators get the idea (again) that they only hear from anti-immigrant constituents, and that they should play it safe and vote against the amendment.”
for link to article click the title of this post
Critiquing Obamas Interview
Dan Kowalski (Bender's Immigration Bulletin) Comments on the Barack Obama Interview: ""Obama on Immigration: Just OK"
From Immigration Prof Blog:
Dan Kowalski, Editor-in-Chief Bender's Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis), offers these insights on the interview with Barack Obama that was posted here yesterday. If you would like to publish a commentary on the interview, please send it our way:
To be honest, when this "exclusive interview" was announced, I was expecting a video (or at least an audio podcast) of a live give-and-take between skeptical reporters or topic experts asking tough questions and putting the candidate on the spot with little, if any, opportunity for reflection. So I was a bit disappointed to find, instead, a canned written product, giving us nothing we hadn't heard before. I'm sure the Senator approved the final product, but I'm also sure 99% of it was written for him by a staffer. I hope this format will be scrapped when other candidates are "interviewed."
Beyond the platitudes, the nugget that struck me hardest was the Senator's rationale for voting for the Secure Fence Act. He says he voted for it even though it sends two strong messages with which he disagrees - that Mexico is "not our friend" and that an enforcement-only approach can work - because "restoring order in the border region is necessary to winning the American people's support for full reform." That's disingenuous (a word Obama loves) at best, because he knows that no fence, long or short, will restore "order" on the borders. Moreover, it's a candidate's (and a President's) job to lead and persuade, not hide behind "safe" votes. And as I've argued before, trying to "secure the borders" first is putting things backwards. Obama tries to soften the blow by saying he'll only support more border fencing "where it can help discourage illegal entry and dangerous crossings over desert terrain [Where else would they put it?] ...[and only] in coordination and cooperation with local communities." Reaction from border communities to today's release of the Border Patrol's fencing plans should make it abundantly clear that the border fence is nothing more than a pork-barrel boondoggle of the highest order; Obama should suck it up and admit his vote was wrong.
Obama (and all your interviewees) should be pinned down on numbers and categories and definitions: How many (more) green cards do we need? How many (more) non-immigrant visas? How should we re-write the visa categories, grounds of exclusion and removal, detention rules, judicial review rules and hardship waivers to bring the statute into the 21st century. It could get tedious, and long, but as Justice Scalia says, "administrative law is not for sissies."
Finally, when your group interviews other candidates, I'd scrap the Elvira Arrellano question. Call me heartless, but her story leaves me cold. There are thousands of stories out there of folks who suffered much more than she did, and without breaking any laws beyond crossing without papers. They would be better examples of our broken system.
Daniel M. Kowalski
[It should go w/o saying, but those are my views alone, not necessarily those of Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., and/or LexisNexis]
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/dan-kowalski-be.html
From Immigration Prof Blog:
Dan Kowalski, Editor-in-Chief Bender's Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis), offers these insights on the interview with Barack Obama that was posted here yesterday. If you would like to publish a commentary on the interview, please send it our way:
To be honest, when this "exclusive interview" was announced, I was expecting a video (or at least an audio podcast) of a live give-and-take between skeptical reporters or topic experts asking tough questions and putting the candidate on the spot with little, if any, opportunity for reflection. So I was a bit disappointed to find, instead, a canned written product, giving us nothing we hadn't heard before. I'm sure the Senator approved the final product, but I'm also sure 99% of it was written for him by a staffer. I hope this format will be scrapped when other candidates are "interviewed."
Beyond the platitudes, the nugget that struck me hardest was the Senator's rationale for voting for the Secure Fence Act. He says he voted for it even though it sends two strong messages with which he disagrees - that Mexico is "not our friend" and that an enforcement-only approach can work - because "restoring order in the border region is necessary to winning the American people's support for full reform." That's disingenuous (a word Obama loves) at best, because he knows that no fence, long or short, will restore "order" on the borders. Moreover, it's a candidate's (and a President's) job to lead and persuade, not hide behind "safe" votes. And as I've argued before, trying to "secure the borders" first is putting things backwards. Obama tries to soften the blow by saying he'll only support more border fencing "where it can help discourage illegal entry and dangerous crossings over desert terrain [Where else would they put it?] ...[and only] in coordination and cooperation with local communities." Reaction from border communities to today's release of the Border Patrol's fencing plans should make it abundantly clear that the border fence is nothing more than a pork-barrel boondoggle of the highest order; Obama should suck it up and admit his vote was wrong.
Obama (and all your interviewees) should be pinned down on numbers and categories and definitions: How many (more) green cards do we need? How many (more) non-immigrant visas? How should we re-write the visa categories, grounds of exclusion and removal, detention rules, judicial review rules and hardship waivers to bring the statute into the 21st century. It could get tedious, and long, but as Justice Scalia says, "administrative law is not for sissies."
Finally, when your group interviews other candidates, I'd scrap the Elvira Arrellano question. Call me heartless, but her story leaves me cold. There are thousands of stories out there of folks who suffered much more than she did, and without breaking any laws beyond crossing without papers. They would be better examples of our broken system.
Daniel M. Kowalski
[It should go w/o saying, but those are my views alone, not necessarily those of Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., and/or LexisNexis]
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/dan-kowalski-be.html
Who is Responsible for the Sting in Danburry, CT?
ICE says it conducts all operations legally. that Danburry police initiated the arrests in question. Danburry says ICE did it.
Either way, they are being sued for arresting without probable cause - a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
What about the times that ICE has entered schools? people's homes? or Jack in the Box? Especially since the Swift raid, ICE has continuously violated the Fourth amendment. See post "Knocks and Talk," September 26, 2007.
___
Challenge in Connecticut Over Immigrants’ Arrest
By NINA BERNSTEIN
New York Times
Published: September 26, 2007
Nine day laborers are expected to file a federal lawsuit today challenging the legality of a sting operation in Danbury, Conn., last year that led to their arrest on immigration charges.
Those plaintiffs, and a tenth man whose traffic stop for a noisy muffler resulted in his deportation to Ecuador, contend that their arrests were illegal and part of a campaign based on racial profiling. They also say that the city of Danbury, its mayor, Mark D. Boughton, and its police chief acted to enforce federal immigration law without authority.
...The plaintiffs charge that they were arrested without probable cause, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The suit also contends that the arrests violated the First Amendment because they were calculated to silence the laborers’ expression of their availability for work in a traditional public forum, and to chill the speech of other day laborers who now avoid the park for fear of arrest.
“Looking at a group of day laborers and assuming that they are undocumented is a form of racial profiling,” said Geri Greenspan, one of the law students working on the case with Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor.
...Federal immigration agents have maintained that the arrests were initiated by the Danbury police, she said, while Danbury officials insist that it was a federal operation.
None of the day laborers arrested had an outstanding order of deportation, the lawsuit says, and immigration officers involved in the operation were not looking for a fugitive at the Danbury park, which might have provided a rationale for a federal immigration operation.
According to the police incident reports filed at the time, the day laborers were arrested by the police at 7 a.m. on a charge of entering the country illegally, a federal misdemeanor. Connecticut law does not authorize local Danbury police to make warrantless arrests for federal misdemeanors, Ms. Greenspan said, and the officers had no evidence of illegal entry into the country.
In the case of the 10th plaintiff, Danilo Brito Vargas, the lawsuit charges that his arrest in February was part of a pattern of police stopping Hispanic drivers on the pretext of minor traffic infractions, then investigating the immigration status of the drivers through the National Crime Information Center database, and arresting them for civil immigration violations.
...Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the federal immigration agency, said the agency had not seen the complaint. But he added: “Immigration Customs Enforcement conducts all of our operations lawfully and in full accordance with ICE policies and procedures.”
For complete article click title of this post
photo: http://www.latinodawah.org/newsletter/img2k5/imancentral4.jpg
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Why Isn't Lou Dobbs Accused of Mistakes?
The Houston Chronicle joined the bandwagon in criticizing MoveOn.org for the Petraeus ad in the New York Times. They also think Dan Rather was wrong in suing CBS for being fired due to an inaccurate story on Bush and his supposed time in the National Guard.
They chastized the GOP for immigrant bating, which is great since few media outlets have criticized this.
But I think they really missed the most important "media legend." Where is Lou Dobbs in all of this? Without his constant harping on immigration issues day after day, we might not be in such a mess with immigration reform; the DREAM ACT would probably pass; the state of Virginia wouldn't be considering building a detention facility for immigrants.
The way Lou Dobbs repeatedly gives out mis-information (lies) is unfortunate. It reminds me of this guy from Sevilla I read about who was an important character in the Spanish Inquisition. I believe his name was Ferrer. He was a priest. One Sunday in June, 1391 he gave a Lou Dobbs type of sermon at mass. He told his audience that Jews were terrible and should be eliminated. The congregation got really excited and ran out of the church. Others joined them and by the end of the day 5,000 Jews were killed. The massacre also forced thousands of Jewish families to flee, mostly going to Portugal.
Would you believe the church made him a saint?
This is a true story.
Its kind of the same thing that Dobbs is doing. He is inciting people to hate immigrants. His diatribes are broadcast every evening at 5 pm on CNN. He has a chance to get almost everybody in the U.S. excited about explusing undocumented immigrants. He has been successful. There is a lot more hate in the air since he began his mission.
I'm surprised that the Houston Chronicle did not comment on Lou Dobbs and the harm he has brought to our nation.
-----
Sept. 24, 2007, 10:01PM
Mistakes
Political forces on the left and the right and a media legend diminish themselves
Houston Chronicle
While the American public faces important and consequential questions of public policy, the news media have found time to focus on three relatively minor mistakes. Though small, each mistake has cast a large shadow on the person or persons who made it:
• The left-leaning MoveOn.org erred when it placed a cut-rate advertisement in The New York Times implying that Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, might have betrayed the American people. First, Petraeus did not deserve such a jibe, and second, MoveOn.org destroyed its credibility so that its legitimate message — progress in bringing stability to Iraq has been uneven and insignificant — was lost in the well-provoked response to the ad.
• On the right, Republican candidates for president are mistaken to spurn candidate forums put on by minority organizations. Blacks and Hispanics might not be large forces in GOP primaries, but the GOP presidential nominee will need substantial minority support in November 2008 to win.
Beyond the presidency, Republican influence in Congress and at the state level is waning, not only because of diminished support for the war, but also because of many conservatives' unhelpful and off-putting clamor against illegal immigrants. Without offering a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, the rhetoric tends to alienate naturalized citizens and native voters of Hispanic dissent, without which the Republican Party cannot prosper.
• Finally, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who got his start in Houston, wrote a sad footnote to his mostly distinguished career when he sued his old employers for $70 million. The suit alleges that CBS made Rather a scapegoat for an inaccurate story about George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Whatever the network executives' sins, they don't deserve to be punished to that degree after paying Rather millions per year long after he had passed his prime.
Rather's suit, while presenting a weak case against CBS, makes a wounding case against his own prowess as a broadcast journalist. Despite the fact that Rather bore the title of managing editor of CBS News, he alleges in his suit that he bore no responsibility for the content or accuracy of his broadcasts: The mighty network anchor is revealed for what he or she is, merely a familiar face reading from a teleprompter reports he or she had nothing to do with preparing.
For link to editorial click title of this post
photo: http://www.voteraction.org/video/stills/dobbs-bw.jpg
The Senate and the DREAM ACT
A newspaper reporter contacted me today asking me what do I think will happen now that the DREAM ACT is not going to pass this year.
The senate is still going round and round about Iraq and whether they should leave and surrender. The conversation at moments sounds like the time the European powers separated the middle east in the time of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
The senate is still going round and round about Iraq and whether they should leave and surrender. The conversation at moments sounds like the time the European powers separated the middle east in the time of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Obama Speaks on Immigration and the DREAM ACT
Law Professors Hing, Chacon, and Johnson from the UC Davis Law School arranged an interview with Barack Obama regarding immigration. For the most part his answers appear programmed, but the way presidential campaigns are these days, that's how candidates are supposed to talk.
He is saying he will be "finally passing the DREAM Act," which tells me he's thinking it will come later. Some were hoping it would come up this week. I actually thought that if the military is as desperate for recruits as is reported, they would pressure the senate to pass the bill. Looking back at U.S. history, the military usually gets what it wants. That is unless our senators who appear to be "segregationists in disguise" draw up so much hysteria that 60 senators can't be gathered up to vote on the DREAM ACT.
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The interview took place last night. Below is a small excerpt:
"I am committed to fighting for comprehensive iImmigration reform during my first term as president, to reducing the Latino drop-out rate, to finally passing the DREAM Act, to providing the 47 million uninsured Americans with affordable, high quality health care, to ending the war in Iraz, and to challenge the failing policies of the last seven years that have left many Latinos, and all Americans behind."
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
Click title of this post for Obama's complete interview
He is saying he will be "finally passing the DREAM Act," which tells me he's thinking it will come later. Some were hoping it would come up this week. I actually thought that if the military is as desperate for recruits as is reported, they would pressure the senate to pass the bill. Looking back at U.S. history, the military usually gets what it wants. That is unless our senators who appear to be "segregationists in disguise" draw up so much hysteria that 60 senators can't be gathered up to vote on the DREAM ACT.
-----
The interview took place last night. Below is a small excerpt:
"I am committed to fighting for comprehensive iImmigration reform during my first term as president, to reducing the Latino drop-out rate, to finally passing the DREAM Act, to providing the 47 million uninsured Americans with affordable, high quality health care, to ending the war in Iraz, and to challenge the failing policies of the last seven years that have left many Latinos, and all Americans behind."
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
Click title of this post for Obama's complete interview
Vermont Welcomes Immigrants - in 2007
Dairy farmers in Vermont work towards keeping their immigrant employees safe, and everybody wins. That is except ICE.
It will be interesting to see if the state of Vermont continues to be as welcoming when the percentage of immigrant workers reaches the same as in North Carolina or Virginia.
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On New England's dairy farms, foreign workers find a home
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff
Boston Globe
September 22, 2007
It looks like the quintessential Vermont dairy farm, like a page out of a storybook, with its red barns, rolling green fields, and black-and-white cows. And this farm is also typical in another way: Inside the barns, the men milking cows are from Mexico and Guatemala.
Some have documents that allow them to work in this country. Others do not, said the farmer who employs them. Legal or not, he said, they have improved his life.
...The dairy farms that define the northern New England countryside have come to depend on foreign workers in the past five to 10 years. Farmers say they have faced a crippling shortage of Americans willing to do the physically demanding, round-the-clock job of milking cows and cleaning barns. To fill the burgeoning gap, many farms have hired workers from Mexico and Central America, who often speak little English and lack proper documents but show up on time, learn quickly, and work tirelessly, farmers say.
That pipeline of largely illegal but dependable labor is threatened, however, by paperwork, fees, and government limits on the work that laborers can do and the length of time they can stay,
...Worsening the problem, they say, is a crackdown by federal agencies, felt in the past two years, including heightened scrutiny of hiring practices and a beefed-up Border Patrol presence at the Canadian border.
Critics of the crackdown say the resulting atmosphere, charged with fear and tension, has also eroded the quality of life of some foreign workers, and may discourage others from coming to the region. Many foreign workers stay indoors day and night because they fear discovery by authorities. Some have given up grocery shopping, playing soccer, and walking outside. Although most dairy workers who illegally enter the country cross the border from Mexico, farmers and advocates say that some fear the extra scrutiny found in northern New England, where Border Patrol agents roam the countryside on patrols.
Some dairy farmers, and other concerned Vermonters, shop and wire money for workers and drive them to visit relatives on other farms.
The farmer at the picture-perfect Vermont dairy farm said he has advised his workers not to open their doors to border officials. He does not allow them to work outdoors because he fears they could be caught.
The workers cut through the barns on the property to reach the trailers where they live instead of walking on the road, the farmer said.
"If we had a tunnel, they'd use that," he said. "We have to do a good job on the border, but I don't think we need the Border Patrol driving into the yard, looking for guys who milk cows."
He said agents have driven through his farm on patrols.
...Dairy farmers say workers earn about $8 per hour and often choose to work 60 or 70 hours per week. Many farms provide housing.
"It's not because they're cheaper," said Sheldon Sawyer, a New Hampshire dairy farmer who employs two foreign men with working papers. "We get them because we need them."
Among immigrant workers, dairy farm laborers are especially likely to lack papers, say their employers. Because dairy farms operate year round, they do not qualify for the seasonal visas that allow other foreign workers to participate in agricultural work including blueberry and apple harvests. New England dairy farmers have urged federal legislators to create a new guest worker program to accommodate them.
...farms reported that half as many workers showed up as in previous years, said Juan Perez-Febles, who monitors migrant workers for the state Department of Labor. As a result, many berries went unpicked.
...Some Vermonters say foreign labor is essential to preserve the rural landscape. The state lost 2,000 farms from 1977 to 2003, according to the Vermont Dairy Promotion Council.
Residents, church leaders, and health and social service workers in dairy-rich Addison County, south of Burlington, help legal and illegal foreign laborers find healthcare in the face of language barriers and fear of deportation. They have formed the Addison County Farmworkers Coalition, which also lobbies for federal policy changes that would make it easier for foreigners to work on dairy farms legally...
Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.
For complete article click title of this post
photo: http://spectre.nmsu.edu/media/photos/052402dairy.jpg
Illinois Stalls E-Verify, DHS Sues
A number of states have taken the route of Illinois and ruled it illegal for employers to use E-Verify to check employees residency status. Chertoff has chosen Illinois as his first target... the state is being sued for standing up to the DHS E-Verify system that has a 50% error rate.
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llinois sued by U.S. over worker law
Measure overrules immigration checks
By Frank James | Washington Bureau
Chicago Tribune
September 25, 2007
WASHINGTON - Department of Homeland Security officials, saying that Illinois is complicating their efforts to reduce illegal immigration, have sued the state to overturn an Illinois law that virtually blocks employers from taking part in a program designed to verify whether new employees are legally entitled to work in the U.S.
"The state of Illinois has now made it illegal to comply with federal law," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview. "That's not acceptable as a matter of the Constitution, and it's not acceptable as a matter of our discharging our federal obligation to enforce the immigration laws."
..."The Internet-based program has a less than 50 percent accuracy rate and takes 10 days to get results," she said. "Lawmakers in Illinois felt that's too long and leaves too much room for error."
The federal government sees the Illinois law as a violation of the Constitution's supremacy clause, which generally elevates federal law over state law.
"What we can't do when we pass a federal law is have the states decide they want to modify that law," said Chertoff, a former federal judge.
But Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the U.S. is being selective in its efforts.
She noted that a number of states have passed laws with provisions aimed at illegal immigrants but federal officials have not filed suit on what she called "clearly violations of the supremacy clause."
For complete article click title of this post
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llinois sued by U.S. over worker law
Measure overrules immigration checks
By Frank James | Washington Bureau
Chicago Tribune
September 25, 2007
WASHINGTON - Department of Homeland Security officials, saying that Illinois is complicating their efforts to reduce illegal immigration, have sued the state to overturn an Illinois law that virtually blocks employers from taking part in a program designed to verify whether new employees are legally entitled to work in the U.S.
"The state of Illinois has now made it illegal to comply with federal law," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview. "That's not acceptable as a matter of the Constitution, and it's not acceptable as a matter of our discharging our federal obligation to enforce the immigration laws."
..."The Internet-based program has a less than 50 percent accuracy rate and takes 10 days to get results," she said. "Lawmakers in Illinois felt that's too long and leaves too much room for error."
The federal government sees the Illinois law as a violation of the Constitution's supremacy clause, which generally elevates federal law over state law.
"What we can't do when we pass a federal law is have the states decide they want to modify that law," said Chertoff, a former federal judge.
But Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the U.S. is being selective in its efforts.
She noted that a number of states have passed laws with provisions aimed at illegal immigrants but federal officials have not filed suit on what she called "clearly violations of the supremacy clause."
For complete article click title of this post
500,000 Latino Soldiers in WWII, 13 Congressional Medals of Honor
I don't want to argue with Ken Burns. I'm sure he has his reasons to make the military in WWII all white. Since he won't do much to show Latinos... I'll help him out a bit with some pictures. (see post "Ken Burns' Snicker," September 24, 2007)
This is an odd time for Latinos in the military to be slighted, since the U.S. Military knows that its biggest recruiting potential is with Latinos - and they surely need lots of recruits. They should have talked to Burns while the documentary was being planned.
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The Story We Needed Ken Burns to Tell
By Cecilia Alvear
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A17
There's an application on my computer called the "Ken Burns effect." It can dress up my picture slideshows by inserting pans and zooms, adding a feeling of motion to the still images. It mimics the technique filmmaker Ken Burns uses to hold the attention of viewers in his epic documentaries, which rely heavily on historic paintings and photos.
As a Latina, I've unfortunately run across another kind of Ken Burns effect, one that leaves Hispanics largely invisible in those documentaries.
...Yet nowhere in the powerful original production did Burns include the stories of Latinos affected by the war. As many as half a million Hispanics served in World War II and earned at least 13 Medals of Honor. They returned to a country where they, like blacks, were treated as second-class citizens.
Some critics of Burns have previously noticed the way he ignores Latinos, pointing out that in his 19-hour documentary saga "Jazz," Latinos rated only 3 1/2 minutes of airtime and that many of the greats of Latin jazz, who played alongside whites and African Americans, were overlooked.
In his 23-hour production "Baseball," Burns devoted only six minutes to Latinos, who now play a dominant role in the sport. Six minutes, so help me A-Rod.
It's odd behavior for a filmmaker so adept at chronicling the black experience in this country. "Race is at the center of all of American history," Burns has said. Yes, it is. But there is more to the story than just black and white.
In a question-and-answer session after the screening I attended, Burns said that one reason Hispanics were overlooked in "The War" was that "no one came forward" from the Latino community when he and his team solicited stories. So why didn't they exercise a bit of journalistic due diligence and reach out to people? He also said it was impossible to tell the stories of every minority group involved. True, but in this case, a significant element had been omitted.
Because Sacramento was one of the places profiled, I phoned a Latino veterans group in that area of California. Within an hour I had the names of four men, still living, who had served honorably in World War II and had interesting stories about their experiences.
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has overseen an extensive project to collect the oral histories of Latino veterans of World War II. No one from Burns's team contacted her during production of "The War." Rivas-Rodriguez is a member of Defend the Honor, a group that pressured PBS and Burns to amend his documentary.
Despite strong initial resistance, Burns and PBS relented. "The War" now includes the stories of two Latinos and a Native American who fought in World War II. There are 28 minutes' worth of new interviews and pictures. It's unclear, though, whether these additional segments will be included in the companion books, DVDs and educational materials that are part of the project.
Burns said at the screening I attended that some Latinos were reacting as if "The War" would be the definitive account of World War II. Others could produce documentaries on this subject, he noted. I doubt, however, that PBS or any commercial network would be willing to spend millions of dollars on another World War II project anytime soon. And no other filmmaker would receive the attention or editorial freedom Burns gets.
In discussing the criticism, Burns told the Los Angeles Times this month that he noticed that Hispanic groups hadn't pressured Latino filmmakers to tell the stories he omitted. "No, no, no -- it has to be Ken Burns," he said. "In a way all of this was an extraordinary compliment." Yes, it was. Latinos recognize that Burns is the country's preeminent documentary filmmaker. We want him to recognize us and our contributions to America.
Cecilia Alvear, an independent television producer, is a former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
For complete article, click title of this post
Monday, September 24, 2007
Help the DREAM ACT
From National Immigration Law Center:
Anti-immigrant groups have blanketed the internet and talk radio with misinformation about the DREAM Act. It is interesting that they have to lie and exaggerate to scare their base into responding to such a common sense piece of legislation.
This week represents the best chance we will have this year to pass the DREAM Act in the Senate. It is not certain it will be brought up. It is not certain we will win. Those things depend, in part, on your response. We need to respond at a higher level than ever before.
Call and fax both of your Senators today and every day. When you are done, forward this e-mail to everyone you can think of. Then follow up the e-mail with a call to ensure that those who get your message do the same.
Anti-immigrant groups have blanketed the internet and talk radio with misinformation about the DREAM Act. It is interesting that they have to lie and exaggerate to scare their base into responding to such a common sense piece of legislation.
This week represents the best chance we will have this year to pass the DREAM Act in the Senate. It is not certain it will be brought up. It is not certain we will win. Those things depend, in part, on your response. We need to respond at a higher level than ever before.
Call and fax both of your Senators today and every day. When you are done, forward this e-mail to everyone you can think of. Then follow up the e-mail with a call to ensure that those who get your message do the same.
Ken Burn's Little Snicker
Ever since the media began advertising the Ken Burns series on World War II I've been thinking about making a comment on what everybody is calling a monumentous event. Today, when I sat down to watch the Senate for a while, I heard Senator Lamar Alexander make a statement about Latinos complaining that Burns did not include Latino soldiers in the series. Listening to the senator motivated me to write something.
He said that Latinos are wrong in wanting to show their (our) difference. That this country is plurbus unim - many into one. But that this complaint by Latinos was making us one into many. He then talked about how Burns influences the population.
Perhaps this is why it is so important to comment.
By chance I was sitting in front of the tv on Sunday watching ABC's This Week. Stephanopoulus was interviewing Burns. The show was going to air that evening. George S. asked Burns about the controversy surrounding not having minority soldiers represented in the show. What happened next concerned me more than the initial complaint.
Burns snickered a bit, and said that it was settled, that certain groups hadn't understood what was behind the show.
Here lies the question. Does Burns just not like for anyone to critique him? Has his success made him think he is allowed to be disrepectful to people on national tv? The snicker was bad, but the comment about not understanding (which he said with slight sarcasm) actually was worse. Mr. Burns, are Latinos not smart enough to "understand" your project? Was that what you were trying to tell us?
Burns' goal is very clear. He is in agreement with Alexander. They see the United States as "unim" -- one body of people, and they are not people of color. Maybe Burns thought there weren't enough Latinos in World War II to be worth filming. I'm not sure of that. But I do know from scholarly research that WWII was paramount in helping Latinos move towards the middle class. It changed everything.
Secondly, I know Vietnam is another war, but Latinos were 20% of the deaths, while they were only 10% of the population at that time. I would say that would merit some respect.
Its ironic. A book I wrote about Texas is just about to be released. In it I have a chapter titled "The Warrior" - Its about soldiers. One long story in particular is about Ssgt. Macario Garcia, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor during WWII, but wasn't served in a restaurant in Texas when he was discharged.
As I see Burns snicker I think of the men in my family who served in the U.S. military, - great great grandfather, in the Civil War (yes there were Mexicans in the U.S. at that time), my maternal grandfather in WWI, my father, two uncles, and several cousins in WWII.. My Dad was in the Pacific, and his brother was at the Battle of the Buldge. My maternal uncle was in France, another uncle was in north Africa.
There are thousands of other Latino families with the same stories.
Burns has his eyes closed to much of America.
By the way, I dedicated that book to my Dad, because he's a warrior too.
He said that Latinos are wrong in wanting to show their (our) difference. That this country is plurbus unim - many into one. But that this complaint by Latinos was making us one into many. He then talked about how Burns influences the population.
Perhaps this is why it is so important to comment.
By chance I was sitting in front of the tv on Sunday watching ABC's This Week. Stephanopoulus was interviewing Burns. The show was going to air that evening. George S. asked Burns about the controversy surrounding not having minority soldiers represented in the show. What happened next concerned me more than the initial complaint.
Burns snickered a bit, and said that it was settled, that certain groups hadn't understood what was behind the show.
Here lies the question. Does Burns just not like for anyone to critique him? Has his success made him think he is allowed to be disrepectful to people on national tv? The snicker was bad, but the comment about not understanding (which he said with slight sarcasm) actually was worse. Mr. Burns, are Latinos not smart enough to "understand" your project? Was that what you were trying to tell us?
Burns' goal is very clear. He is in agreement with Alexander. They see the United States as "unim" -- one body of people, and they are not people of color. Maybe Burns thought there weren't enough Latinos in World War II to be worth filming. I'm not sure of that. But I do know from scholarly research that WWII was paramount in helping Latinos move towards the middle class. It changed everything.
Secondly, I know Vietnam is another war, but Latinos were 20% of the deaths, while they were only 10% of the population at that time. I would say that would merit some respect.
Its ironic. A book I wrote about Texas is just about to be released. In it I have a chapter titled "The Warrior" - Its about soldiers. One long story in particular is about Ssgt. Macario Garcia, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor during WWII, but wasn't served in a restaurant in Texas when he was discharged.
As I see Burns snicker I think of the men in my family who served in the U.S. military, - great great grandfather, in the Civil War (yes there were Mexicans in the U.S. at that time), my maternal grandfather in WWI, my father, two uncles, and several cousins in WWII.. My Dad was in the Pacific, and his brother was at the Battle of the Buldge. My maternal uncle was in France, another uncle was in north Africa.
There are thousands of other Latino families with the same stories.
Burns has his eyes closed to much of America.
By the way, I dedicated that book to my Dad, because he's a warrior too.
What Makes a Person "One of Our Own?"
See letter to the editor at the end of this post:
What makes a boy "one of our own?" Is it because the young man was born here?
Would he still be one of our own if he was born in the U.S. and at age two he moved to Italy, and stayed throughout adulthood? What if in Italy he learned Italian, went to their schools, and even studied the history of the Roman Empire or played with an Italian soccer team?
Would that boy be American or Italian? What if he couldn't even speak English anymore? What if he could speak Italian only?
What if he was the president of the student body at his Italian high school? Would the Italians consider him one of their own?
Its kind of like being adopted... people adopt children that were not born to them, but they raised them, and the children know no one else as parents. Are they the children of their adoptive parents?
Because of NAFTA and other ramifications of capitalism and globalization, the DREAM ACT student found himself/herself in the United States. They might have been born in Guatemala, but soon after birth they were already in the U.S. - they know no other country.
The final question is, does a child become "one of our own" by growing up in a community and taking in the culture and traditions of that community? Or is he "not one of our own" just because he happened to be born somewhere else, and his parents didn't have the money and/or social status to regularize their residence in the U.S.?
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Letter to the Editor
It's time to take care of our own
Arizona Republic
Sept. 24, 2007 12:00 AM
Regarding the scholarship program for illegal immigrant students at Arizona State University:
Now, remind me, why my son has to take out thousands of dollars in a loan to finance his education and they are doling out scholarships to illegal aliens?
Tell me why ASU President Michael Crow is so bent on taking care of everyone else except our own.
We have plenty of citizens here in Arizona who could use these scholarships to further their education. I, for one, think it is well past time for the arrogant elite to step aside and allow someone to take charge who actually cares for our citizenry. - Brent Layton,Claypool
What makes a boy "one of our own?" Is it because the young man was born here?
Would he still be one of our own if he was born in the U.S. and at age two he moved to Italy, and stayed throughout adulthood? What if in Italy he learned Italian, went to their schools, and even studied the history of the Roman Empire or played with an Italian soccer team?
Would that boy be American or Italian? What if he couldn't even speak English anymore? What if he could speak Italian only?
What if he was the president of the student body at his Italian high school? Would the Italians consider him one of their own?
Its kind of like being adopted... people adopt children that were not born to them, but they raised them, and the children know no one else as parents. Are they the children of their adoptive parents?
Because of NAFTA and other ramifications of capitalism and globalization, the DREAM ACT student found himself/herself in the United States. They might have been born in Guatemala, but soon after birth they were already in the U.S. - they know no other country.
The final question is, does a child become "one of our own" by growing up in a community and taking in the culture and traditions of that community? Or is he "not one of our own" just because he happened to be born somewhere else, and his parents didn't have the money and/or social status to regularize their residence in the U.S.?
-----
Letter to the Editor
It's time to take care of our own
Arizona Republic
Sept. 24, 2007 12:00 AM
Regarding the scholarship program for illegal immigrant students at Arizona State University:
Now, remind me, why my son has to take out thousands of dollars in a loan to finance his education and they are doling out scholarships to illegal aliens?
Tell me why ASU President Michael Crow is so bent on taking care of everyone else except our own.
We have plenty of citizens here in Arizona who could use these scholarships to further their education. I, for one, think it is well past time for the arrogant elite to step aside and allow someone to take charge who actually cares for our citizenry. - Brent Layton,Claypool
Defending Fortress America
Paul Krugman's opinion piece on Race and the GOP reminds me of the recent trip I took through the South with nine Hispanic college students. It started when we got to Tennessee, and only got worse. People would look at us strangely. We were severely mistreated by Budget Rental Car when our rental had mechanical problems, and were called names at a convenience store in rural Virginia.
Before then, I thought that these things didn't happen anymore; if people still had hateful feelings, at least in Texas, they didn't show it. I grew up in a Jim Crow town and I can tell you, to be a child and hear these things about you, your family and community can be very painful.
Romney and Guiliani's spectacle (as Krugman calls it) shows they must not have much of a conscience if getting votes is worth such barbaric rhetoric against undocumented immigrants. But what they and their team, the GOP are doing, as Krugman says, is trying to defend Fortress America.
This makes me wonder if the students and I passed the gates of Fortress America once we entered Tennessee (we didn't stop in Louisiana except to get gas, so I can't say what would have happened there). We were in dangerous territory, where whiteness is supreme; where there is a deep seated investment in staying white...
Being college educated and erudite didn't help us while inside the fortress. We couldn't pass for white, so we were unwelcome. Perhaps the best thing is to stay away from those who guard the fortress so jealously.
If you are interested in the whiteness of Fortress America, you might want to read "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness," by George Lipzitz.
As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, it was the experience we had on the trip through the South that propelled the beginning of this blog.
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Politics in Black and White
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times
Published: September 24, 2007
Last Thursday there was a huge march in Jena, La., to protest the harsh and unequal treatment of six black students arrested in the beating of a white classmate. Students who hung nooses to warn blacks not to sit under a “white” tree were suspended for three days; on the other hand, the students accused in the beating were initially charged with second-degree attempted murder.
.. the reality is that things haven’t changed nearly as much as people think. Racial tension, especially in the South, has never gone away, and has never stopped being important. And race remains one of the defining factors in modern American politics.
...And yes, Southern white exceptionalism is about race, much more than it is about moral values, religion, support for the military or other explanations sometimes offered. There’s a large statistical literature on the subject, whose conclusion is summed up by the political scientist Thomas F. Schaller in his book “Whistling Past Dixie”: “Despite the best efforts of Republican spinmeisters to depict American conservatism as a nonracial phenomenon, the partisan impact of racial attitudes in the South is stronger today than in the past.”
...Republican politicians, who understand quite well that the G.O.P.’s national success since the 1970s owes everything to the partisan switch of Southern whites, have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism.
...But to get the Republican nomination, a candidate must appeal to the base — and the base consists, in large part, of Southern whites who carry over to immigrants the same racial attitudes that brought them into the Republican fold to begin with. As a result, you have the spectacle of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, pragmatists on immigration issues when they actually had to govern in diverse states, trying to reinvent themselves as defenders of Fortress America.
for complete article click title to this post
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Responses to LA Times Letters to the Editor
A few letters to the Editor from the LA Times - plus a response from DREAM ACT TEXAS
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Letter to the Editor
LA Times September 23
Re "A uniquely American DREAM," Opinion, Sept. 19
The DREAM Act is anything but "a small act of immigration reform." For every illegal immigrant student admitted into a state university system, another U.S. citizen or legal student will be rejected. Illegal immigrant students seeking in-state tuition at public universities aren't responsible for violating our laws, having been brought into this country illegally by their parents. But it's also true that U.S. citizens and legal residents who'll be rejected when illegal aliens are added to the queue are being punished for the actions of illegal immigrant parents.
RESPONSE-----
Only top ranked universities will be affected if an undocumented students takes a space. Most DREAM ACT students attend community colleges or lower ranked public univerisites - where very few citizens if none get shut out.
The DREAM ACT students are required to follow U.S. laws, they become immediately ineligible if they break ANY law.
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Letter:
Never mind that the legislation is chock-full of loopholes and open to fraud.
Its ultimate effect is that immigrants can use their newly acquired green card or citizen status to seek passage for the parents who brought them in and then put in motion the chain migration cycle.
RESPONSE
The legislation is open to fraud yes, but against the best interest of the students. The military has them cornered. They have to have an Honorable Discharge from the military (25% discharges are not honorable). If they are severely injured and cannot complete their two years, they are also disqualified. If they live in a state that does not have in-state tuition they have little chance to go to college - In fact only an extremely small percentage make it through high school - and when they do, they are likely to have attended a problemmatic inner city school - with them less prepared for college.
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Letter
The DREAM Act would permit illegal immigrant students to eventually seek green cards for their illegal immigrant parents, which could add millions of illegal aliens to the population. It is proposed by the same people who want to import poverty to the United States, which would eventually require increased taxes to support a burgeoning population of foreign nationals.
RESPONSE
DREAM ACT students can request green cards for their parents, but remember our legal immigration system is cumbersome and ridiculously inefficient. You forget that it often takes up to 12 years for a person to recieve a green card - if its done through a sponsor.
See previous post "Journalists Beware: How Do You Use Data to Tell a Story, September 18. Immigrants do not import poverty they keep our economy vibrant. In addition DREAM ACT students will be productive tax payers and will help pay for benefits of the entitled baby boomer generation. Without all those billions that get lost in the social security system (paid by immigrants who can never claim their benefits) the social security system would collapse.
for link to LA Times letters, click title to this post
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Letter to the Editor
LA Times September 23
Re "A uniquely American DREAM," Opinion, Sept. 19
The DREAM Act is anything but "a small act of immigration reform." For every illegal immigrant student admitted into a state university system, another U.S. citizen or legal student will be rejected. Illegal immigrant students seeking in-state tuition at public universities aren't responsible for violating our laws, having been brought into this country illegally by their parents. But it's also true that U.S. citizens and legal residents who'll be rejected when illegal aliens are added to the queue are being punished for the actions of illegal immigrant parents.
RESPONSE-----
Only top ranked universities will be affected if an undocumented students takes a space. Most DREAM ACT students attend community colleges or lower ranked public univerisites - where very few citizens if none get shut out.
The DREAM ACT students are required to follow U.S. laws, they become immediately ineligible if they break ANY law.
-----
Letter:
Never mind that the legislation is chock-full of loopholes and open to fraud.
Its ultimate effect is that immigrants can use their newly acquired green card or citizen status to seek passage for the parents who brought them in and then put in motion the chain migration cycle.
RESPONSE
The legislation is open to fraud yes, but against the best interest of the students. The military has them cornered. They have to have an Honorable Discharge from the military (25% discharges are not honorable). If they are severely injured and cannot complete their two years, they are also disqualified. If they live in a state that does not have in-state tuition they have little chance to go to college - In fact only an extremely small percentage make it through high school - and when they do, they are likely to have attended a problemmatic inner city school - with them less prepared for college.
-----
Letter
The DREAM Act would permit illegal immigrant students to eventually seek green cards for their illegal immigrant parents, which could add millions of illegal aliens to the population. It is proposed by the same people who want to import poverty to the United States, which would eventually require increased taxes to support a burgeoning population of foreign nationals.
RESPONSE
DREAM ACT students can request green cards for their parents, but remember our legal immigration system is cumbersome and ridiculously inefficient. You forget that it often takes up to 12 years for a person to recieve a green card - if its done through a sponsor.
See previous post "Journalists Beware: How Do You Use Data to Tell a Story, September 18. Immigrants do not import poverty they keep our economy vibrant. In addition DREAM ACT students will be productive tax payers and will help pay for benefits of the entitled baby boomer generation. Without all those billions that get lost in the social security system (paid by immigrants who can never claim their benefits) the social security system would collapse.
for link to LA Times letters, click title to this post
France Part Two: It's not our mission to be police auxiliaries
France Races to Oust Illegal Immigrants
con't
In the Netherlands, the first act of the new parliament elected in November 2006 was to halt deportations set in motion by the previous government.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's new government declared an amnesty for up to 30,000 people. New asylum seekers and illegal immigrants still face a tough regime, kept in camps while their cases are handled. Even legal immigrants must pass language tests before coming and take citizenship classes in order to remain.
Meanwhile, resistance to France's crackdown has built among human rights groups, politicians of the opposition left, and even police. Injuries of foreigners during the past two months have also mobilized critics.
The 12-year-old Russian boy, who was fleeing with his illegal alien father in the northern town of Amiens, has been hospitalized with serious head injuries since early August. The North African man in the southern town of Roussillon suffered double fractures to his leg. The Chinese woman fell from an apartment in Paris on Thursday when police investigating a theft complaint turned up to carry out a check.
"Neighborhood groups are forming," said Pierre Willem of the UNSA police union. "Reactions are becoming more and more violent."
Some police officers worry they will get caught in the numbers hunt _ accused of racism for making arrests on the basis of skin color or other illegal criteria.
Even unions representing Air France employees are protesting, saying the flagship carrier's image is suffering because the government uses it to return illegal aliens, sometimes bound hand and foot, on flights occasionally marked by violent incidents.
"It's not our mission to be police auxiliaries," said Leon Cremieux, a national secretary of Sud Aerien, a small union representing employees of the aviation industry. Conditions during some expulsions are "contrary to human rights."
Socialist lawmaker Michele Delaunay, of Bordeaux, recently became a symbolic sponsor of a Kurd of Turkish nationality who had been ordered to leave France, stalling the expulsion process.
"It's a way to show the public that these problems of expulsion are, above all, human problems and not numbers," Delaunay said, adding that the young man speaks French, worked and paid taxes, making his case "particularly legitimate."
She nevertheless received an official warning that citizens who help illegal aliens stay in France risk a five-year prison term.
con't
In the Netherlands, the first act of the new parliament elected in November 2006 was to halt deportations set in motion by the previous government.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's new government declared an amnesty for up to 30,000 people. New asylum seekers and illegal immigrants still face a tough regime, kept in camps while their cases are handled. Even legal immigrants must pass language tests before coming and take citizenship classes in order to remain.
Meanwhile, resistance to France's crackdown has built among human rights groups, politicians of the opposition left, and even police. Injuries of foreigners during the past two months have also mobilized critics.
The 12-year-old Russian boy, who was fleeing with his illegal alien father in the northern town of Amiens, has been hospitalized with serious head injuries since early August. The North African man in the southern town of Roussillon suffered double fractures to his leg. The Chinese woman fell from an apartment in Paris on Thursday when police investigating a theft complaint turned up to carry out a check.
"Neighborhood groups are forming," said Pierre Willem of the UNSA police union. "Reactions are becoming more and more violent."
Some police officers worry they will get caught in the numbers hunt _ accused of racism for making arrests on the basis of skin color or other illegal criteria.
Even unions representing Air France employees are protesting, saying the flagship carrier's image is suffering because the government uses it to return illegal aliens, sometimes bound hand and foot, on flights occasionally marked by violent incidents.
"It's not our mission to be police auxiliaries," said Leon Cremieux, a national secretary of Sud Aerien, a small union representing employees of the aviation industry. Conditions during some expulsions are "contrary to human rights."
Socialist lawmaker Michele Delaunay, of Bordeaux, recently became a symbolic sponsor of a Kurd of Turkish nationality who had been ordered to leave France, stalling the expulsion process.
"It's a way to show the public that these problems of expulsion are, above all, human problems and not numbers," Delaunay said, adding that the young man speaks French, worked and paid taxes, making his case "particularly legitimate."
She nevertheless received an official warning that citizens who help illegal aliens stay in France risk a five-year prison term.
France Part One: I Want Numbers Says Sarkozy
Terror in France
France Races to Oust Illegal Immigrants
By ELAINE GANLEY
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Saturday, September 22, 2007; 7:11 AM
PARIS -- A Russian boy suffers head injuries after falling from a window while trying to elude police. A North African man slips from a window ledge and fractures his leg while fleeing officers. A Chinese woman lies in a coma after plunging from a window during a police check.
As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year _ a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy _ tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll.
Critics say the hunt threatens values in a nation that prides itself on being a cradle of human rights and a land of asylum. Protesters have gathered by the dozens in Paris to protect illegal aliens as police move in.
But with three months left in the year, police have caught at least 11,800 immigrants, less than half the target, so Sarkozy has ordered officials to pick up the pace.
"I want numbers," Sarkozy reportedly told Brice Hortefeux, head of the Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, which Sarkozy set up after taking office in May. "This is a campaign commitment. The French expect (action) on this."
There are no solid estimates of the number of illegal aliens in France. The Immigration Ministry puts it at 200,000 to 400,000, many from former colonies in Africa. France has a population of some 63 million.
The president, who cultivated a tough-on-crime image while serving as Interior Minister, says France needs a new kind of immigrant _ one who is "selected, not endured."
His government is fast-tracking tighter immigration legislation. Parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a bill that would allow consular officers to request DNA samples from immigrants trying to join relatives in France. Even some Cabinet ministers dislike the measure, which critics say betrays France's humanitarian values.
The DNA tests would be voluntary and proponents say such testing, which would get a trial run until 2010, would speed visa processing and give immigrants a way to bolster their applications.
Immigration legislation under consideration also aims to ensure that immigrants joining family members here speak French and grasp French values _ to be proven with tests.
In a nationally televized interview Thursday, Sarkozy went further, saying he wants France to adopt immigration quotas by regions of the world and by occupation.
"I want us to be able to establish each year, after a debate in parliament, a quota with a ceiling for the number of foreigners we accept on our territory," he said.
European countries to the south, like Italy or Spain, face a greater challenge from illegal immigration than France _ but neither has set themselves targets for throwing aliens out...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Patriotism Erases Foreignness?
In 2004 Lea Ybarra published " Vietnam Veteranos" (University of Texas Press). His introduction (below) gives us a view of Latinos and the Vietnam War- and should provide some insight into Latinos and the Iraq War. Perhaps the U.S. Military believes that if the DREAM ACT is passed with the military service component - that immigrants will "give their lives" for their adopted country
-----
'"...In 1971 Ralph Guzmán brought the issue of race and war to the forefront and confirmed what many people in the Chicano movement had suspected. In his short but powerful article "Mexican American Casualties in Vietnam," Guzmán cites statistics that verify that Mexican American military personnel had higher death rates in Vietnam than all other ethnicities.
His analysis of casualty reports from January 1961 to February 1967 and from December 1967 to March 1969 shows that a high percentage of young men with Spanish surnames were killed in Vietnam and that a substantial number of them were involved in high-risk branches of the service, such as the U.S. Marine Corps.
Mexican Americans accounted for approximately 20 percent of U.S. casualties in Vietnam, although they made up only 10 percent of this country's population at the time.
According to Guzmán, Mexican Americans were under pressure to enlist because they had too often been considered foreigners in the land of their birth and felt they must prove their loyalty to the United States. Organizations like the GI Forum have long proclaimed the sizable contribution of the Mexican American soldier and point to impressive records of heroism in times of war. Guzmán emphasizes that there was a "concomitant number of casualties attending this Mexican American patriotic investment." There were also the desire for status that military life seemed to offer and a strong economic incentive, since many helped their families by sending money from their service allotments.
Relatively few of them avoided the draft by obtaining the college deferments available to students in the Vietnam era. Guzmán concludes: "Other factors motivate Mexican Americans to join the Armed Forces. Some may be rooted in the inherited culture of these people, while others may be imbedded in poverty and social disillusion. Whatever the real explanation, we do know that Mexican Americans are over-represented in the casualty reports from Vietnam and underrepresented in the graduating classes of our institutions of higher learning..."'
For link to Ybarra's book click title to this post
How Fluid is the Canadian Border?
Although this article focuses on how immigrants get scammed, it also provides a small bit of information on how Canada sees refugees.
-----
Undocumented immigrants vulnerable to scams
A South Florida group has sparked a growing exodus of undocumented immigrants to the Canadian border.
Posted on Sat, Sep. 22, 2007
Miami Herald
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
...Under an agreement signed with the United States in 2004, Canada allows nationals from countries who meet certain conditions to apply for refugee status. Nationals from Haiti and Mexico arriving to Canada from the United States may apply. Immigrants from countries in Central and South America may not.
Haitians denied refugee status likely would be allowed to stay because Canada has suspended deportations to Haiti because of political conditions there. Mexicans would be deported if denied refuge because there is no such moratorium.
STANDARD FOR STATUS
The bar is still high for refugee status in Canada, even for Haitians and Mexicans.
''There is no special program for Mexicans and Haitians or any other nationalities specifically to immigrate to Canada, and no one is automatically accepted for refugee status until a determination is made by an independent refugee board,'' said Mike Fraser, spokesman for the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in Ottawa.
``To be a refugee, claimants must demonstrate that they have reasons to fear persecution or risk of torture or punishment in their home country.''
Fraser added that Canadian officials have asked refugee groups in the United States to ``stop spreading information that may not be true...''
For entire article click title of this post
-----
Undocumented immigrants vulnerable to scams
A South Florida group has sparked a growing exodus of undocumented immigrants to the Canadian border.
Posted on Sat, Sep. 22, 2007
Miami Herald
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
...Under an agreement signed with the United States in 2004, Canada allows nationals from countries who meet certain conditions to apply for refugee status. Nationals from Haiti and Mexico arriving to Canada from the United States may apply. Immigrants from countries in Central and South America may not.
Haitians denied refugee status likely would be allowed to stay because Canada has suspended deportations to Haiti because of political conditions there. Mexicans would be deported if denied refuge because there is no such moratorium.
STANDARD FOR STATUS
The bar is still high for refugee status in Canada, even for Haitians and Mexicans.
''There is no special program for Mexicans and Haitians or any other nationalities specifically to immigrate to Canada, and no one is automatically accepted for refugee status until a determination is made by an independent refugee board,'' said Mike Fraser, spokesman for the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in Ottawa.
``To be a refugee, claimants must demonstrate that they have reasons to fear persecution or risk of torture or punishment in their home country.''
Fraser added that Canadian officials have asked refugee groups in the United States to ``stop spreading information that may not be true...''
For entire article click title of this post
Immigration Bashing in the U.K.
-----
Isolated, intimidated and undermined: the immigrants building a new life in the Fens
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 22 September 2007
London Independent
Shahid Rafique had not heard of "fozzie bashing" until the evening when a baying mob of 25 teenagers entered his internet café in Wisbech and tried to smash the computers before setting upon him and his Polish colleague. As kicks and punches rained down, the attackers shouted "f--- off home" and "Paki".
Mr Rafique was left bleeding on the doorstep of the business in the Cambridgeshire Fens that he spent his £25,000 life savings setting up. The gang's parting shot was to smash a window protected with wooden slats adorned with a painting of the Union Flag.
Mr Rafique, 32, a father-of-three, whose face is scarred from the assault seven months ago and whose voice still cracks with emotion when he talks about, said: "I put up the flag to show how proud I was to be in Britain, how happy I was to have set up my shop and to raise my children as British citizens.
"But this gang was like a pack of animals. Both boys and girls. I asked them if they had come to use the computers. But they just laughed and started shouting abuse and trying to destroy the equipment. They had no respect for their flag...
In the week that Cambridgeshire's chief constable, Julie Spence, made headlines by highlighting the strain put on her force by the arrival of 83,000 migrant workers in East Anglia since 2004 and suggesting that foreign nationals were responsible for a sharp rise in some criminal offences, Mr Rafique, who is half Portuguese and half Pakistani, is proof that the problem cuts both ways.
"Fozzie" or foreigner is a word that features often these days in Wisbech. Once a wealthy market town east of Peterborough awash with handsome Georgian architecture, it is now a hub for the thousands of East Europeans needed to work in the farms, orchards and processing plants that stretch across the surrounding Fens.
The influx over the last three years of Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russian and Latvians, who join a long-established community of Portuguese workers, has proved a boon for local employers and landlords looking to rent out crowded accommodation to foreign tenants.
But it has also brought with it suspicion, intolerance and violence. Many immigrants who have set up home in the town say they are scared of going into pubs or walking in the town centre late at night.
There is growing evidence that the increase in Cambridgeshire's population – predicted to grow by 94,000 by 2016, with nearly two thirds of that figure coming from abroad – has created tensions in once placid rural and urban communities. Racially aggravated crime in Cambridgeshire rose by nine per cent last year to 351 incidents of violent assault and criminal damage...
The two victims were so frightened of recriminations that they refused to press charges but CCTV footage of the attack in the town's Market Square allowed police to track down the gang. Defence lawyers said the youths had been "sucked into a maelstrom of violence".
But the case hinted at a more sinister malaise in the town and further afield whereby beating up migrant workers has become a past time.
Magistrates insisted the attack was not racist. But the attack was linked to a police investigation to a website called Friday Night Fighters, on which youths from Wisbech and the nearby town of King's Lynn discuss attacking foreigners. The phrase "fozzie bashing" featured prominently on the website...
For complete article click title of this post
Isolated, intimidated and undermined: the immigrants building a new life in the Fens
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 22 September 2007
London Independent
Shahid Rafique had not heard of "fozzie bashing" until the evening when a baying mob of 25 teenagers entered his internet café in Wisbech and tried to smash the computers before setting upon him and his Polish colleague. As kicks and punches rained down, the attackers shouted "f--- off home" and "Paki".
Mr Rafique was left bleeding on the doorstep of the business in the Cambridgeshire Fens that he spent his £25,000 life savings setting up. The gang's parting shot was to smash a window protected with wooden slats adorned with a painting of the Union Flag.
Mr Rafique, 32, a father-of-three, whose face is scarred from the assault seven months ago and whose voice still cracks with emotion when he talks about, said: "I put up the flag to show how proud I was to be in Britain, how happy I was to have set up my shop and to raise my children as British citizens.
"But this gang was like a pack of animals. Both boys and girls. I asked them if they had come to use the computers. But they just laughed and started shouting abuse and trying to destroy the equipment. They had no respect for their flag...
In the week that Cambridgeshire's chief constable, Julie Spence, made headlines by highlighting the strain put on her force by the arrival of 83,000 migrant workers in East Anglia since 2004 and suggesting that foreign nationals were responsible for a sharp rise in some criminal offences, Mr Rafique, who is half Portuguese and half Pakistani, is proof that the problem cuts both ways.
"Fozzie" or foreigner is a word that features often these days in Wisbech. Once a wealthy market town east of Peterborough awash with handsome Georgian architecture, it is now a hub for the thousands of East Europeans needed to work in the farms, orchards and processing plants that stretch across the surrounding Fens.
The influx over the last three years of Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russian and Latvians, who join a long-established community of Portuguese workers, has proved a boon for local employers and landlords looking to rent out crowded accommodation to foreign tenants.
But it has also brought with it suspicion, intolerance and violence. Many immigrants who have set up home in the town say they are scared of going into pubs or walking in the town centre late at night.
There is growing evidence that the increase in Cambridgeshire's population – predicted to grow by 94,000 by 2016, with nearly two thirds of that figure coming from abroad – has created tensions in once placid rural and urban communities. Racially aggravated crime in Cambridgeshire rose by nine per cent last year to 351 incidents of violent assault and criminal damage...
The two victims were so frightened of recriminations that they refused to press charges but CCTV footage of the attack in the town's Market Square allowed police to track down the gang. Defence lawyers said the youths had been "sucked into a maelstrom of violence".
But the case hinted at a more sinister malaise in the town and further afield whereby beating up migrant workers has become a past time.
Magistrates insisted the attack was not racist. But the attack was linked to a police investigation to a website called Friday Night Fighters, on which youths from Wisbech and the nearby town of King's Lynn discuss attacking foreigners. The phrase "fozzie bashing" featured prominently on the website...
For complete article click title of this post
Stock on the DREAM Act and Political Hypocrisy
Professor Margaret Stock is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve; and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Professor Stock, who is a member of the Federalist Sopciety (and recently spoke at UC Davis about immigrants in the military), is a thoughtful immigration expert.
Stock recently wrote on the ImmProf listserve about some of the latest political shenanigans in Congress:
"It's been interesting today to watch the various Congressional Representatives and Senators railing against Senator Durbin's tactic of trying to attach the DREAM Act to a DOD authorization bill. Among the ones who have been saying that this tactic is inherently wrong are Tom Tancredo, John Cornyn, and others who said nothing when the same tactic was used by R. James Sensenbrenner and others to pass anti-immigration legislation. Recall that REAL ID was passed as part of the Emergency Supplemental DOD appropriations bill. What did REAL ID have to do with a DOD emergency appropriations bill? Not much. If anyone can remember which other anti-immigration legislation in the past has been stuck onto DOD appropriations or authorization bills, let me know--I'm making a list."
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
For link to original article, click title of this post
Stock recently wrote on the ImmProf listserve about some of the latest political shenanigans in Congress:
"It's been interesting today to watch the various Congressional Representatives and Senators railing against Senator Durbin's tactic of trying to attach the DREAM Act to a DOD authorization bill. Among the ones who have been saying that this tactic is inherently wrong are Tom Tancredo, John Cornyn, and others who said nothing when the same tactic was used by R. James Sensenbrenner and others to pass anti-immigration legislation. Recall that REAL ID was passed as part of the Emergency Supplemental DOD appropriations bill. What did REAL ID have to do with a DOD emergency appropriations bill? Not much. If anyone can remember which other anti-immigration legislation in the past has been stuck onto DOD appropriations or authorization bills, let me know--I'm making a list."
Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
For link to original article, click title of this post
Taking a Closer Look at the DREAM ACT
An email was sent around yesterday (Sept. 21) by a number of academics that urged readers to take a closer look at the DREAM ACT. It was about the military provision. It made me pause. I never felt that comfortable about it. (see "Recruitment and Death in War, August 18, 2007, and "DREAM ACT and the Military, August 7, 2007). But I had convinced myself that it was only a tool to get the bill passed. Now I'm beginning to think differently. Like Fernando Suarez de Solar, I say BEWARE.
A good friend of mine that I've known for over 20 years said something to me recently about politics. He said that people don't pass laws so they can be nice to other people. They pass laws because it is in the lawmakers best interest. How does the DREAM ACT fit the interests of Senator Richard Durbin?
Ideally the DREAM ACT is great. The two year education option is an excellent way to help students get regularized. But the military option is beginning to sound more sinister. Durbin said that a number of immigrant students are pre-disposed to join the military... you know, us Latinos, our men are mostly those macho types (I say this with irony), many want to join the Marines or the Army so they can show how tough they are - wow can you imagine how big the lines would be for people to sign up!
However, watching the Senate debate this week really made me wonder if those senators had any idea of what the soldiers in Iraq are going through. They kept talking about victory, and wanting to leave Iraq after the country is stabilized. They laughed off the protection Senator Jim Webb was trying to get for the soldiers, when he asked for equal time at home. The Democrats are not able to get past the Republican stonewalling. But maybe there is a lession in this. Maybe its better that the DREAM ACT aka "Lets Get Lots of Latinos to use as Cannon Fodder" not pass. I imagine some of you are gasping.... what is this! She has been writing post after post pushing this bill.!
Unlike President Bush, I believe in changing positions if necessary - and I can admit I was wrong. The DREAM ACT is not wrong, but its wrong to seduce young immigrants into joining a military that just wants to toss them over there into the hell hole of the Middle East (which the U.S. created). In one second the student's dream would all end... all the senate has to do is outlaw in-state tuition for undocumented students as part of the bill. That would keep almost all the students from attending college... leaving them with limited options -- basically only joining the military.
Now -- this is not saying I'm unpatriotic. I just believe in respecting the lives of other human beings. I keep thinking of those thousands and thousands of American military who have returned home in pieces - and haven't been served well by the Veterans Administration. Many more are surviving their injuries compared to the Vietnam War..., but they remain useless to themselves and to our country.
A good friend of mine that I've known for over 20 years said something to me recently about politics. He said that people don't pass laws so they can be nice to other people. They pass laws because it is in the lawmakers best interest. How does the DREAM ACT fit the interests of Senator Richard Durbin?
Ideally the DREAM ACT is great. The two year education option is an excellent way to help students get regularized. But the military option is beginning to sound more sinister. Durbin said that a number of immigrant students are pre-disposed to join the military... you know, us Latinos, our men are mostly those macho types (I say this with irony), many want to join the Marines or the Army so they can show how tough they are - wow can you imagine how big the lines would be for people to sign up!
However, watching the Senate debate this week really made me wonder if those senators had any idea of what the soldiers in Iraq are going through. They kept talking about victory, and wanting to leave Iraq after the country is stabilized. They laughed off the protection Senator Jim Webb was trying to get for the soldiers, when he asked for equal time at home. The Democrats are not able to get past the Republican stonewalling. But maybe there is a lession in this. Maybe its better that the DREAM ACT aka "Lets Get Lots of Latinos to use as Cannon Fodder" not pass. I imagine some of you are gasping.... what is this! She has been writing post after post pushing this bill.!
Unlike President Bush, I believe in changing positions if necessary - and I can admit I was wrong. The DREAM ACT is not wrong, but its wrong to seduce young immigrants into joining a military that just wants to toss them over there into the hell hole of the Middle East (which the U.S. created). In one second the student's dream would all end... all the senate has to do is outlaw in-state tuition for undocumented students as part of the bill. That would keep almost all the students from attending college... leaving them with limited options -- basically only joining the military.
Now -- this is not saying I'm unpatriotic. I just believe in respecting the lives of other human beings. I keep thinking of those thousands and thousands of American military who have returned home in pieces - and haven't been served well by the Veterans Administration. Many more are surviving their injuries compared to the Vietnam War..., but they remain useless to themselves and to our country.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Jail for Rescuing Immigrants Off Coast of Sicily
Over 400 have died in the last year crossing the canal of Sicily. Even worse is that anyone helping them is being thrown in jail. France is right behind with Sarkozy wanting to deport over 20,000 migrants by Christmas.-----Switzerland is also in the game. Its a global disease and I'm not talking about migration, I'm talking about xenophobia.
-----
Tunisian fishermen face 15 years' jail in Italy for saving migrants from rough seas
By Peter Pophamin Rome
London Independent
Published: 20 September 2007
Seven Tunisian fishermen go on trial in Sicily today for the crime of rescuing 44 migrants from certain death in the sea. They are accused of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. If convicted, they face between one and 15 years in jail.
The men were arrested on 8 August after bringing the migrants ashore in Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island. They were remanded in custody and remained in jail until 10 September, when five were released on bail and the two officers of the boat were put under house arrest.
On the morning of 7 August, Abdelkarim Bayoudh and his crew had dropped anchor on a shelf 30 miles south of the island of Lampedusa. They had just turned in for a few hours' sleep when they were woken by screams for help.
Coming out on deck they saw a rubber boat crammed with people wallowing in the rough sea, taking in water and on the point of sinking. Among them were two children and 11 women – two of them pregnant and one elderly and badly ill. In the crush to get aboard the fishing boat, two of the migrants went in the water. Two of the Tunisian crew dived in and rescued them.
Captain Bayoudh then headed for the nearest harbour. Their home port of Monastir was 90 miles away, Lampedusa only 30 miles. The best destination was obvious. Yet on arrival in Lampedusa, the seven Tunisians were arrested and thrown in jail. Experts say the charge of aiding illegal immigration is absurd...
For complete article click title to this post
photo: UNHCR. http://www.eumap.org/journal/features/2004/migration/pt2/child
Suit Against Searches Without a Warrant
NY Suit Seeks to Stop Immigration Raids
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:35 AM
NEW YORK -- Immigration authorities violated Hispanic families' civil rights by raiding their homes without court warrants, sometimes bursting in before dawn to look for people who didn't live there, according to a federal lawsuit.
The suit was filed Thursday on behalf of 15 people _ including seven U.S. citizens _ who say their suburban homes were raided earlier this year.
Arguing that the raids violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, the suit seeks unspecified damages and a halt on the home raids until Immigration and Customs Enforcement develops legal guidelines for them...
For complete article click title of this post
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:35 AM
NEW YORK -- Immigration authorities violated Hispanic families' civil rights by raiding their homes without court warrants, sometimes bursting in before dawn to look for people who didn't live there, according to a federal lawsuit.
The suit was filed Thursday on behalf of 15 people _ including seven U.S. citizens _ who say their suburban homes were raided earlier this year.
Arguing that the raids violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, the suit seeks unspecified damages and a halt on the home raids until Immigration and Customs Enforcement develops legal guidelines for them...
For complete article click title of this post
"They Got Walter" is not a game
'“They got Walter.” The police, or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had come to the supermarket and picked up “Walter.” He was a young Latino who had worked his way up to full-time. Nobody on the job knew where he was taken, and nobody knew why he was taken. In the following days it was said he had a false Social Security number. The large-scale raids were supposed to be aimed at the MS-13 gang, but others, including a union organizer, were caught up, and terror spread through the “New Immigrant” communities like a thunderstorm across the Kansas plains.
White neighborhoods didn’t even know about the raids. But the Latino neighborhoods were deserted. Around the corner from my union hall in Lynn, Mass., Union Street has been transformed in the past 20 years from an abandoned district inhabited largely by drug dealers into a bustling commercial center of Latino businesses. When news of the raids was spread by the Spanish radio stations, an eerie silence spread over Union Street and other Spanish neighborhoods down into East Boston. The little store selling religious icons of Jesus and Mary was empty. White employers complained their workers disappeared. Parents kept their children home from school, behind locked doors.
Legal residents were affected, as well as those who had crossed the border illegally or overstayed their legal welcome. People knew from the workplace raids in New Bedford earlier this year that you could be arguing your case from a jail cell in Texas with little access to legal help and far from your children and even prescription medicines. Better to miss pay and risk discipline on the job and stay home with your children...'
previously posted on the FIRM website
For complete article click title of this post
White neighborhoods didn’t even know about the raids. But the Latino neighborhoods were deserted. Around the corner from my union hall in Lynn, Mass., Union Street has been transformed in the past 20 years from an abandoned district inhabited largely by drug dealers into a bustling commercial center of Latino businesses. When news of the raids was spread by the Spanish radio stations, an eerie silence spread over Union Street and other Spanish neighborhoods down into East Boston. The little store selling religious icons of Jesus and Mary was empty. White employers complained their workers disappeared. Parents kept their children home from school, behind locked doors.
Legal residents were affected, as well as those who had crossed the border illegally or overstayed their legal welcome. People knew from the workplace raids in New Bedford earlier this year that you could be arguing your case from a jail cell in Texas with little access to legal help and far from your children and even prescription medicines. Better to miss pay and risk discipline on the job and stay home with your children...'
previously posted on the FIRM website
For complete article click title of this post
Activism on the Internet
Politico.com lists a number of ways to use the internet for "e-activism"
1. Online social networking sites are good for creating buzz and spreading a message but not necessarily effective stimulants for traditional political activism.
2. Internet tools are seen as very effective by political consultants for reaching liberal activists, while more conventional campaign methods are still seen as the most effective means for reaching social conservatives.
3. Consultants continue to underestimate the impact of Internet tools for effectively reaching constituents.
4. Reaching the loyal base online is becoming more popular across all parties.
5. Voter respondents prefer television ads as a method of outreach from candidates, but there is significant demand for online campaigning.
6. Consultants consider Internet tools a poor choice for reaching Latino/Hispanic communities.
7. Single women are seen as active users of online social media tools.
8. More than 70 percent of consultants still have serious hesitations about using Internet tools in campaigns.
9. Constituents are more likely to forward a message about a candidate or cause than they are to act on it themselves.
10. People who are online show a strong intent to vote and are very likely to seek political information online.
This list is part of a 41-page study released by a panel for campaign, media and Internet professionals organized by the E-Voter Institute. Supported by The Politico, Brickfish Politics and HCD Research, among others.
1. Online social networking sites are good for creating buzz and spreading a message but not necessarily effective stimulants for traditional political activism.
2. Internet tools are seen as very effective by political consultants for reaching liberal activists, while more conventional campaign methods are still seen as the most effective means for reaching social conservatives.
3. Consultants continue to underestimate the impact of Internet tools for effectively reaching constituents.
4. Reaching the loyal base online is becoming more popular across all parties.
5. Voter respondents prefer television ads as a method of outreach from candidates, but there is significant demand for online campaigning.
6. Consultants consider Internet tools a poor choice for reaching Latino/Hispanic communities.
7. Single women are seen as active users of online social media tools.
8. More than 70 percent of consultants still have serious hesitations about using Internet tools in campaigns.
9. Constituents are more likely to forward a message about a candidate or cause than they are to act on it themselves.
10. People who are online show a strong intent to vote and are very likely to seek political information online.
This list is part of a 41-page study released by a panel for campaign, media and Internet professionals organized by the E-Voter Institute. Supported by The Politico, Brickfish Politics and HCD Research, among others.
Could this be Called Persecution?
Immigration Raids Single Out Hispanics, Lawsuit Says
By NINA BERNSTEIN
New York Times
Published: September 21, 2007
A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as well as foreigners here illegally...
According to the complaint, the raids are part of a program called Operation Return to Sender that was started in 2006 to arrest and deport “fugitive aliens” or immigrants previously ordered to leave the country. But, the lawsuit contends, “the agents regularly raid homes where the fugitive is not present and could not reasonably have been believed to be present.”
The complaint contends that “the unstated goal of these raids is to gain access to constitutionally protected areas in hope of seizing as many undocumented persons as possible” to meet annual arrest quotas recently increased by the agents’ superiors to 1,000 per fugitive team, up from 125 arrests in 2003. Mark Thorn, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the New York region, said that he was not familiar with the lawsuit, and that the agency does not comment on litigation...
In the case of ..[the Aguilar] family, immigration agents burst into their home in East Hampton to hunt for an illegal immigrant without a criminal record — Ms. Aguilar’s ex-husband, who had not lived in the house since 2003, when they divorced and he was ordered deported.
After detaining and questioning the frightened family members, including Ms. Aguilar’s 12-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the complaint said, the agents threatened to return.
In an account disputed by agents at the time, the complaint contends that another plaintiff, Nelly Amayo, was arrested in her East Hampton home when she demanded to see a search warrant. It says agents twisted her arm and eventually left her in her nightclothes in Manhattan.
Another raid was in a rooming house in Mount Kisco, N.Y., where David Lazaro Perez and other residents were awakened about 4 a.m. March 18 by agents who did not show a search warrant. The complaint said agents took his wallet containing $700 and that it was returned without the money.
For complete article click title of this post
By NINA BERNSTEIN
New York Times
Published: September 21, 2007
A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as well as foreigners here illegally...
According to the complaint, the raids are part of a program called Operation Return to Sender that was started in 2006 to arrest and deport “fugitive aliens” or immigrants previously ordered to leave the country. But, the lawsuit contends, “the agents regularly raid homes where the fugitive is not present and could not reasonably have been believed to be present.”
The complaint contends that “the unstated goal of these raids is to gain access to constitutionally protected areas in hope of seizing as many undocumented persons as possible” to meet annual arrest quotas recently increased by the agents’ superiors to 1,000 per fugitive team, up from 125 arrests in 2003. Mark Thorn, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the New York region, said that he was not familiar with the lawsuit, and that the agency does not comment on litigation...
In the case of ..[the Aguilar] family, immigration agents burst into their home in East Hampton to hunt for an illegal immigrant without a criminal record — Ms. Aguilar’s ex-husband, who had not lived in the house since 2003, when they divorced and he was ordered deported.
After detaining and questioning the frightened family members, including Ms. Aguilar’s 12-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the complaint said, the agents threatened to return.
In an account disputed by agents at the time, the complaint contends that another plaintiff, Nelly Amayo, was arrested in her East Hampton home when she demanded to see a search warrant. It says agents twisted her arm and eventually left her in her nightclothes in Manhattan.
Another raid was in a rooming house in Mount Kisco, N.Y., where David Lazaro Perez and other residents were awakened about 4 a.m. March 18 by agents who did not show a search warrant. The complaint said agents took his wallet containing $700 and that it was returned without the money.
For complete article click title of this post
The Definition of a Refugee
Thinking of those immigrants who are originally from Mexico and travel to Canada requesting refugee status..
Who could be considered a refugee? Cuban immigrants to this day, almost 40 years after Castro's takeover can arrive on a boat and are automatically welcomed as refugees. A few days ago I saw photographs of two women who traveled from Cuba to Florida in a small boat. The interaction between them and the police was so different compared to when undocumented immigrants from other Latin American countries meet the police. What would happen if two women immigrants from Mexico got in a boat in Tampico and made their way to Post Isabel in Texas? You can bet the reception wouldn't be the same. The Cuban women were being comforted by police, given blankets. The Mexican women would be in handcuffs.
Perhaps we can learn from this. How were Cubans able to negotiate refugee status? If the bottom line is that they have to be persecuted in their home country. Then I ask, are all the Cubans that have immigrated individually persecuted? Over the years I have met a number of individuals who they or family members had to leave Mexico, El Salvador, or Guatemala because of persecution, the kind with a bullet to your head. Especially those from Central America who were children at school when men with guns burst in classrooms and took out their teacher and killed him or her...
Who could be considered a refugee? Cuban immigrants to this day, almost 40 years after Castro's takeover can arrive on a boat and are automatically welcomed as refugees. A few days ago I saw photographs of two women who traveled from Cuba to Florida in a small boat. The interaction between them and the police was so different compared to when undocumented immigrants from other Latin American countries meet the police. What would happen if two women immigrants from Mexico got in a boat in Tampico and made their way to Post Isabel in Texas? You can bet the reception wouldn't be the same. The Cuban women were being comforted by police, given blankets. The Mexican women would be in handcuffs.
Perhaps we can learn from this. How were Cubans able to negotiate refugee status? If the bottom line is that they have to be persecuted in their home country. Then I ask, are all the Cubans that have immigrated individually persecuted? Over the years I have met a number of individuals who they or family members had to leave Mexico, El Salvador, or Guatemala because of persecution, the kind with a bullet to your head. Especially those from Central America who were children at school when men with guns burst in classrooms and took out their teacher and killed him or her...
From University Leadership Initiative in Austin
This was actually received as a comment. However I think its really important that everyone have a chance to read it. Making it a regular post instead of a comment makes it more accessible.
_____
Hello EDUCATION SUPPORTERS:
We must support and NOT TURN OUR BACK to our youth who are so desparate to continue with their education.
My name is Julieta. I am part of the University Leadership Initiative (ULI). ULI promotes higher education for Latino students, specifically undocumented immigrant students (as 95% of RAZA in ULI are the affected community), while promoting civic participation amongst our youth.
ULI promotes the passage of the DREAM Act, as it would provide an opportunity to our RAZA to practice their professions and further contribute in all levels for our RAZA. The passage of the DREAM Act is imperative for the youth of Texas and the nation. Since 2001, in-state tuition (HB 1403) was passed and as a result, many (in the thousands) of our HB 1403/Noriega’s students have earned a degree and/or are continuing to obtain a graduate degree.
ULI visits Texas high schools to provide information about HB 1403 and the DREAM Act. We inform students about eligibility for both, HB 1403 and DREAM Act, (i.e. earning a college degree and joining the military). The majority of the RAZA we encounter state that they decide to dropout of high school, NOT because they don’t want to go to college but because they believe that their undocumented status will allow limited opportunities for their advancement. Time and time again, ULI encounters students with the same mind set - “Miss, why should I come to school if I am illegal and they won’t let me attend college, pa’ que?.” Even after 6 years of the passage of HB 1403 the lack of information and complex process prevents many of our students from continuing with their education.
However, the DREAM Act will provide opportunities for our students and at the same time enable them to take action without any fear of repercussions.
The DREAM Act does contain a Military clause, but we must realize IT IS ONE OPTION. We urge others to focus on preventing our RAZA from dropping out of high school and instead give them the tools to earn a college degree. Our task as educators, parent-teacher liaisons, counselors, mentors, principals, superintendents, and community leaders is to get our youth to graduate from high school and go to college. It is our responsibility to raise the stakes in our schools and ensure that our students are provided with the necessary information to empower them to go to college. It is not the government or the schools; it is our duty as RAZA, as individuals to make sure our RAZA attends college and most importantly that they graduate from college.
We applaud the RAZA Educators who have provided scholarships for our youth and urge all the other organizations to raise funds for scholarship for these students, as one of the main barriers for our youth is the financial barrier.
Julieta Garibay
DREAM Campaign Director
University Leadership Initiative
Jovenes LULAC Council 4859
_____
Hello EDUCATION SUPPORTERS:
We must support and NOT TURN OUR BACK to our youth who are so desparate to continue with their education.
My name is Julieta. I am part of the University Leadership Initiative (ULI). ULI promotes higher education for Latino students, specifically undocumented immigrant students (as 95% of RAZA in ULI are the affected community), while promoting civic participation amongst our youth.
ULI promotes the passage of the DREAM Act, as it would provide an opportunity to our RAZA to practice their professions and further contribute in all levels for our RAZA. The passage of the DREAM Act is imperative for the youth of Texas and the nation. Since 2001, in-state tuition (HB 1403) was passed and as a result, many (in the thousands) of our HB 1403/Noriega’s students have earned a degree and/or are continuing to obtain a graduate degree.
ULI visits Texas high schools to provide information about HB 1403 and the DREAM Act. We inform students about eligibility for both, HB 1403 and DREAM Act, (i.e. earning a college degree and joining the military). The majority of the RAZA we encounter state that they decide to dropout of high school, NOT because they don’t want to go to college but because they believe that their undocumented status will allow limited opportunities for their advancement. Time and time again, ULI encounters students with the same mind set - “Miss, why should I come to school if I am illegal and they won’t let me attend college, pa’ que?.” Even after 6 years of the passage of HB 1403 the lack of information and complex process prevents many of our students from continuing with their education.
However, the DREAM Act will provide opportunities for our students and at the same time enable them to take action without any fear of repercussions.
The DREAM Act does contain a Military clause, but we must realize IT IS ONE OPTION. We urge others to focus on preventing our RAZA from dropping out of high school and instead give them the tools to earn a college degree. Our task as educators, parent-teacher liaisons, counselors, mentors, principals, superintendents, and community leaders is to get our youth to graduate from high school and go to college. It is our responsibility to raise the stakes in our schools and ensure that our students are provided with the necessary information to empower them to go to college. It is not the government or the schools; it is our duty as RAZA, as individuals to make sure our RAZA attends college and most importantly that they graduate from college.
We applaud the RAZA Educators who have provided scholarships for our youth and urge all the other organizations to raise funds for scholarship for these students, as one of the main barriers for our youth is the financial barrier.
Julieta Garibay
DREAM Campaign Director
University Leadership Initiative
Jovenes LULAC Council 4859
Thursday, September 20, 2007
DREAM ACT Texas Blog Hits 2000!
Dream Act Texas just made it to 2,000! Its only been 16 days since we reached 1,000.. For a blog that started just 2 months ago, its pretty unusual - at least that is what people tell me.
We thank you for your interest and support.
We thank you for your interest and support.
Rushing Towards Canada - Frightened by ICE
"as many as 7,000 Mexicans might be seeking refugee status in the coming weeks."
Its a different type of immigration backlash
Ice raids have left an imprint on undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. A social service agency in Florida encouraged a large group living in Naples to go to Canada and request refugee status. Perhaps it was that, plus news from other immigrants that Canada is much safer - there are not ICE raids occurring every few days (in fact, what country is raiding people's homes and schools in this mannter?)
While not refugees in the traditional sense, if you think about it they are being persecuted, they really are. Although Canadian authorities might not think so. "To win refugee status from the Refugee and Immigration Board of Canada, immigrants must show “a well founded fear of persecution” linked to their race, religion, nationality or political background." Undocumented immigrants from Latin American countries are being persecuted by ICE. In Chaparral, New Mexico parents kept their children home from school because they feared ICE would enter their school - again. You don't see ICE raids in schools looking for Irish immigrants.
Well, the rule of law, as they say, defines persecution in a different way. Like I"ve said before, the rule of law is capricious... it changes according to the situation - especially in the U.S. during the second Bush administration. The rule of law is different for Rove and Libby - it is much harsher on undocumented immigrants from Mexico or Haiti.
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Illegal Immigrants Chase False Hope to Canada
By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: September 21, 2007
New York Times
WINDSOR, Ontario, Sept. 20 — Fleeing stepped-up sweeps by the American authorities, illegal immigrants to the United States, mostly Mexican, are arriving in growing numbers at the foot of the bridge in this Canadian border town seeking refugee status.
Still more immigrants, mostly Mexicans living illegally in Florida, have begun trying to make their way past America’s northern border at other locations, the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday.
The arrivals here began suddenly three weeks ago, just a family or two at first, fueled by the notion — largely unfounded, the authorities here say — that Canada would grant them asylum.
The journey, some of the immigrants said, was first suggested by an organization in Naples, Fla., which charged a fee for assisting with the paperwork. Now the idea has spread on the Internet and through social networks.
By Thursday, at least 200 people had turned up here, across the border from Detroit, with as much of their lives as they could shove into suitcases, boxes and garbage bags in their cars. Thousands more, refugee advocates and Canadian officials say, may be on their way.
...Illegal immigrants have been especially frightened of deportation in recent months, people in Naples and surrounding Collier County said. The community has been filled with tales of immigrants’ being caught and deported and the sending of government letters to employers warning them not to employ illegal immigrants...
...Already, they have filled a shelter with 30 single men and are now paying four motels to house families, said Maj. Wilfred Harbin, administrator for the Salvation Army here. Meals were being delivered to the families by taxi cab.
“We have no idea what we are going to do,” said Major Harbin, who said he had heard that as many as 7,000 Mexicans might be seeking refugee status in the coming weeks....
For complete article click title of this post
photo: http://www.stepbystepimmigrationcanada.com/immigration-to-canada.jpg
FACT Sheet on the DREAM ACT
From the Immigration Policy Institute
Dreams Deferred: The Costs of Ignoring Undocumented Students
The political debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States has largely ignored the plight of undocumented children who, for the most part, have grown up and received much of their primary and secondary education in this country. As a forthcoming report from the Immigration Policy Center makes clear, without a means to legalize their status, these children are seldom able to go on to college, cannot work legally in the United States, and therefore cannot put their educations to good use. This wasted talent imposes financial and emotional costs not only on undocumented students themselves, but on the U.S. economy and U.S. society as a whole. Below are excerpts from the soon to be released report.
Undocumented School-Age Kids: How Many? Who Are They?
➢ Children account for 1.8 million (or 15 percent) of the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. Of these undocumented children, roughly 65,000 who have lived in the United States for five years or longer graduate from high school each year.
➢ These children, born abroad yet brought at an early age to live in the United States by their parents, have some association with their countries of origin, but their primary identification is with the United States. Many of them have been in this country nearly their entire lives and have attended most of their K-12 education here.
➢ These children are honor roll students, class presidents, valedictorians, and aspiring teachers, engineers, and doctors. Nevertheless, because of the numerous legal and financial obstacles confronting undocumented students, many are unable to apply to college. It is estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of undocumented high school graduates go on to college.
Access to Higher Education: Wages Increase and the Tax Base Deepens
➢ The economic advantages of a higher education for both workers and the economy are clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who lacked a high-school diploma in 2006 earned an average of only $419 per week and had an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent. In contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree earned $962 per week and had an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent, while those with a doctorate earned $1,441 and had an unemployment rate of only 1.4 percent.
➢ Studies of undocumented immigrants who legalized their status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 reveal that legal status brings fiscal, economic, and labor-market benefits to individual immigrants, their families, and U.S. society in general. The U.S. Department of Labor found that the wages of those immigrants who received legal status under IRCA had increased by roughly 15 percent five years later. Given a chance, now-undocumented students will improve their education, get better jobs, and pay more in taxes.
➢ A 1999 RAND study found that, although raising the Hispanic college graduation rate to the same level as that of non-Hispanic whites would increase spending on public education, these costs would be more than offset by savings in public health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues resulting from higher incomes.
• For instance, a 30-year old Mexican immigrant woman with a college degree will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year compared to a high-school dropout with similar characteristics.
Experience Shows That Access to Higher Education Helps Kids Without Burdening Institutions of Higher Learning
➢ Ten states—Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska—have passed laws permitting undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they attended and graduated from high school in the state. In addition, New Mexico and Texas allow undocumented students to compete for financial aid.
• The experience of these states reveals that the number of undocumented students is far too small to deprive native-born students of college admission slots or financial aid. For instance, three years after Texas allowed undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, the total number of students paying in-state tuition to the state’s colleges and universities amounted to only 0.36 percent of all students in the Texas public education system.
Jeffrey S. Passel The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S. Estimates Based on the March 2005
Current Population Survey. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, March 7, 2006.
Jeffrey S. Passel, Further Demographic Information Relating to the DREAM Act. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, October 21, 2003.
ibid.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Spotlight on Statistics: Back to School, August 2007 (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2007/back_to_school/)
Mary G. Powers, Ellen Percy Kraly & William Seltzer, “IRCA: Lessons of the Last U.S. Legalization program,” Migration Information Source, July 2004.
Shirley Smith, Roger G. Kramer & Audrey Singer, Effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act: Characteristics and Labor Market Behavior of the Legalized Population Five Years Following Legalization. Washington, DC: Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, May 1996.
Georges Vernez, Richard A. Krop & C. Peter Rydell, Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Education, 1999.
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy, Special Report of the Texas Comptroller, December 2006, p. 5.
Thanks to National Immigration Law Center for this report
Dreams Deferred: The Costs of Ignoring Undocumented Students
The political debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States has largely ignored the plight of undocumented children who, for the most part, have grown up and received much of their primary and secondary education in this country. As a forthcoming report from the Immigration Policy Center makes clear, without a means to legalize their status, these children are seldom able to go on to college, cannot work legally in the United States, and therefore cannot put their educations to good use. This wasted talent imposes financial and emotional costs not only on undocumented students themselves, but on the U.S. economy and U.S. society as a whole. Below are excerpts from the soon to be released report.
Undocumented School-Age Kids: How Many? Who Are They?
➢ Children account for 1.8 million (or 15 percent) of the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. Of these undocumented children, roughly 65,000 who have lived in the United States for five years or longer graduate from high school each year.
➢ These children, born abroad yet brought at an early age to live in the United States by their parents, have some association with their countries of origin, but their primary identification is with the United States. Many of them have been in this country nearly their entire lives and have attended most of their K-12 education here.
➢ These children are honor roll students, class presidents, valedictorians, and aspiring teachers, engineers, and doctors. Nevertheless, because of the numerous legal and financial obstacles confronting undocumented students, many are unable to apply to college. It is estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of undocumented high school graduates go on to college.
Access to Higher Education: Wages Increase and the Tax Base Deepens
➢ The economic advantages of a higher education for both workers and the economy are clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who lacked a high-school diploma in 2006 earned an average of only $419 per week and had an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent. In contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree earned $962 per week and had an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent, while those with a doctorate earned $1,441 and had an unemployment rate of only 1.4 percent.
➢ Studies of undocumented immigrants who legalized their status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 reveal that legal status brings fiscal, economic, and labor-market benefits to individual immigrants, their families, and U.S. society in general. The U.S. Department of Labor found that the wages of those immigrants who received legal status under IRCA had increased by roughly 15 percent five years later. Given a chance, now-undocumented students will improve their education, get better jobs, and pay more in taxes.
➢ A 1999 RAND study found that, although raising the Hispanic college graduation rate to the same level as that of non-Hispanic whites would increase spending on public education, these costs would be more than offset by savings in public health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues resulting from higher incomes.
• For instance, a 30-year old Mexican immigrant woman with a college degree will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year compared to a high-school dropout with similar characteristics.
Experience Shows That Access to Higher Education Helps Kids Without Burdening Institutions of Higher Learning
➢ Ten states—Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska—have passed laws permitting undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they attended and graduated from high school in the state. In addition, New Mexico and Texas allow undocumented students to compete for financial aid.
• The experience of these states reveals that the number of undocumented students is far too small to deprive native-born students of college admission slots or financial aid. For instance, three years after Texas allowed undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, the total number of students paying in-state tuition to the state’s colleges and universities amounted to only 0.36 percent of all students in the Texas public education system.
Jeffrey S. Passel The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S. Estimates Based on the March 2005
Current Population Survey. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, March 7, 2006.
Jeffrey S. Passel, Further Demographic Information Relating to the DREAM Act. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, October 21, 2003.
ibid.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Spotlight on Statistics: Back to School, August 2007 (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2007/back_to_school/)
Mary G. Powers, Ellen Percy Kraly & William Seltzer, “IRCA: Lessons of the Last U.S. Legalization program,” Migration Information Source, July 2004.
Shirley Smith, Roger G. Kramer & Audrey Singer, Effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act: Characteristics and Labor Market Behavior of the Legalized Population Five Years Following Legalization. Washington, DC: Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, May 1996.
Georges Vernez, Richard A. Krop & C. Peter Rydell, Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Education, 1999.
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy, Special Report of the Texas Comptroller, December 2006, p. 5.
Thanks to National Immigration Law Center for this report
Waiting for the DREAM ACT
There are lots of things I need to do today; grade papers, read the material for my next class, work on my manuscript. Instead I'm sitting here at the computer just waiting. I listen to C-Span on line, knowing that the DREAM Act probably won't come up today. Occasionally I look for publications related to the DREAM ACT.
I started thinking about all the things that are going on before we see Durbin or Sessions make their speeches. What are they talking about that we can't hear. Are they really honest about what they say when they go up to the microphone? Does Durbin really have a heart for the DREAM ACT kids? Or is he thinking long term about the huge Latino voting population in Chicago? Does Sessions really have so much venom in him? Maybe he's just kidding and isn't such a bad guy after all. If he is being sincere he's scary.
What kind of political maneuvers are they trading to get the DREAM ACT passed? I've been told that passing legislation is like making sausage. So what awful stuff will be going into the DREAM ACT?
Then I wonder to myself, do the senators really know who the DREAM ACT kids are? Do they even consider the positive things everyone says about the students? For those like Senator Sessions, do they really think passing the DREAM ACT will ruin the United States?
I've watched the blog get flooded the last few days. The DREAM ACT is on everybody's mind. Its not just a law, or amendment, its the future of hundreds of thousands of kids.
I started thinking about all the things that are going on before we see Durbin or Sessions make their speeches. What are they talking about that we can't hear. Are they really honest about what they say when they go up to the microphone? Does Durbin really have a heart for the DREAM ACT kids? Or is he thinking long term about the huge Latino voting population in Chicago? Does Sessions really have so much venom in him? Maybe he's just kidding and isn't such a bad guy after all. If he is being sincere he's scary.
What kind of political maneuvers are they trading to get the DREAM ACT passed? I've been told that passing legislation is like making sausage. So what awful stuff will be going into the DREAM ACT?
Then I wonder to myself, do the senators really know who the DREAM ACT kids are? Do they even consider the positive things everyone says about the students? For those like Senator Sessions, do they really think passing the DREAM ACT will ruin the United States?
I've watched the blog get flooded the last few days. The DREAM ACT is on everybody's mind. Its not just a law, or amendment, its the future of hundreds of thousands of kids.
Don't Forget What Happened to Pete Wilson in California
GOP determined to avoid minority voters?
Republicans are passing up opportunities right and left
by Carl Leubsdorf:
06:58 AM CDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007
Dallas Morning News
Nothing has more significance for America's long-term political evolution than the demographic changes that are diversifying a mostly white nation.
But you'd never know it from the Republican presidential race.
Not only is the GOP field all white and male – in a year that Democratic contenders include an African-American senator, a Hispanic governor and a woman – but its candidates seem determined to avoid many of the nation's more diverse groups.
So far, most Republicans have bypassed three chances to woo the fastest-growing, most tempting minority, Hispanics. They also turned down a chance to appear before a leading group of gays and lesbians and have avoided some unions, where Republicans poll a significant minority.
...Their actions defy warnings that their party needs to expand its share of minority votes or doom itself to minority status. After 2000, President Bush's strategists said he'd lose in 2004 unless he increased his share of the Hispanic vote to 40 percent.
He did – and he won.
Last year, after most leading Republicans denounced his immigration plan providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, the party's share of the Hispanic vote dropped sharply.
Just last week, The Wall Street Journal, a pillar of conservatism, contrasted how the parties approached issues of concern to Hispanics in recent debates and warned of more trouble ahead.
"While GOP candidates debated the urgency of erecting a fence from California to Texas along the Mexican border, Democrats debated in Spanish on Univision," it said.
"Tone matters in politics," it added, noting Latino support for the California GOP skidded when Gov. Pete Wilson sought to deny education and health care benefits to the children of illegal aliens.
...Last week, Univision, the leading Spanish-language television network, canceled a GOP debate aimed at Hispanic voters when only Mr. McCain accepted.
A Sept. 9 Democratic debate on Univision drew the full field and more than 2 million viewers.
The canceled GOP debate, which sponsors say they hope to reschedule, was the third time in three months that most Republicans passed up a chance to discuss issues of concern to Hispanics...
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington Bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is cleubsdorf@dallasnews.com.
For complete essay click title to this post
Republicans are passing up opportunities right and left
by Carl Leubsdorf:
06:58 AM CDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007
Dallas Morning News
Nothing has more significance for America's long-term political evolution than the demographic changes that are diversifying a mostly white nation.
But you'd never know it from the Republican presidential race.
Not only is the GOP field all white and male – in a year that Democratic contenders include an African-American senator, a Hispanic governor and a woman – but its candidates seem determined to avoid many of the nation's more diverse groups.
So far, most Republicans have bypassed three chances to woo the fastest-growing, most tempting minority, Hispanics. They also turned down a chance to appear before a leading group of gays and lesbians and have avoided some unions, where Republicans poll a significant minority.
...Their actions defy warnings that their party needs to expand its share of minority votes or doom itself to minority status. After 2000, President Bush's strategists said he'd lose in 2004 unless he increased his share of the Hispanic vote to 40 percent.
He did – and he won.
Last year, after most leading Republicans denounced his immigration plan providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, the party's share of the Hispanic vote dropped sharply.
Just last week, The Wall Street Journal, a pillar of conservatism, contrasted how the parties approached issues of concern to Hispanics in recent debates and warned of more trouble ahead.
"While GOP candidates debated the urgency of erecting a fence from California to Texas along the Mexican border, Democrats debated in Spanish on Univision," it said.
"Tone matters in politics," it added, noting Latino support for the California GOP skidded when Gov. Pete Wilson sought to deny education and health care benefits to the children of illegal aliens.
...Last week, Univision, the leading Spanish-language television network, canceled a GOP debate aimed at Hispanic voters when only Mr. McCain accepted.
A Sept. 9 Democratic debate on Univision drew the full field and more than 2 million viewers.
The canceled GOP debate, which sponsors say they hope to reschedule, was the third time in three months that most Republicans passed up a chance to discuss issues of concern to Hispanics...
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington Bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is cleubsdorf@dallasnews.com.
For complete essay click title to this post
Miami Herald Endorses DREAM ACT
Encouraging move for two brothers
OUR OPINION: SENATE SHOULD PASS DREAM ACT FOR BROADER BENEFIT
Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
Miami Herald
A private bill filed by Sen. Chris Dodd this week will allow Juan and Alex Gomez to sleep easy by preventing their deportation for more than a year. This is a relief for their many supporters. It also is an encouraging sign that reason might yet prevail in Congress in at least one small area of immigration reform: allowing promising youths like the Gomez brothers to earn their legal status and give back to the country that nurtured them.
This is what the Dream Act would do, and the Senate should seize the chance to approve this broader measure quickly.
Excellent students
The Gomez brothers were ages 2 and 3 when they were brought to this country by their parents, who overstayed their visas. Juan, 18, excelled academically at Killian High School. Alex, 19, was better at sports. Their popularity is a testament to the brothers' assimilation and good character.
Credit Juan's friends for organizing an Internet campaign, lobbying Congress and shining a spotlight on the Gomez's plight. The effort gained national attention and sympathy, not only for the brothers but also for the Dream Act.
The private bill by Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., filed earlier in the House by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, would allow the Gomez brothers to legalize. But the issue is much bigger. Other worthy undocumented teenagers face the same predicament nationwide. Some excelled in ROTC in high school, only to find out they can't join the U.S. military. Others won science and math awards, yet can't qualify for college financial aid.
The Dream Act would offer residency to youths who arrived here before age 16, graduate from high school, keep a clean record and complete two years of college or military service. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., plans to attach the Dream Act to a defense funding bill that is being debated this week. We hope he succeeds.
Some critics say that's an inappropriate move. But there is a valid nexus given the Dream Act's potential to boost military recruiting. For years legal immigrants have been able to speed their naturalization by joining the military. That's one reason a disproportionately higher number of immigrants have honorably served in our armed forces.
Bipartisan support
Other critics exaggerate the impact saying the Dream Act would legalize one million illegal immigrants. But a nonpartisan group estimates no more than 280,000 youths to be eligible now.
The divisive defeat of comprehensive reform in April has polarized the immigration debate. The broad bipartisan and national support for the Dream Act is more reflective of its merit. Lawmakers such as Messrs. Diaz-Balart, Dobbs and Durbin should be commended for sponsoring good legislation.
For link to Miami Herald editorial click title of this post
OUR OPINION: SENATE SHOULD PASS DREAM ACT FOR BROADER BENEFIT
Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
Miami Herald
A private bill filed by Sen. Chris Dodd this week will allow Juan and Alex Gomez to sleep easy by preventing their deportation for more than a year. This is a relief for their many supporters. It also is an encouraging sign that reason might yet prevail in Congress in at least one small area of immigration reform: allowing promising youths like the Gomez brothers to earn their legal status and give back to the country that nurtured them.
This is what the Dream Act would do, and the Senate should seize the chance to approve this broader measure quickly.
Excellent students
The Gomez brothers were ages 2 and 3 when they were brought to this country by their parents, who overstayed their visas. Juan, 18, excelled academically at Killian High School. Alex, 19, was better at sports. Their popularity is a testament to the brothers' assimilation and good character.
Credit Juan's friends for organizing an Internet campaign, lobbying Congress and shining a spotlight on the Gomez's plight. The effort gained national attention and sympathy, not only for the brothers but also for the Dream Act.
The private bill by Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., filed earlier in the House by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, would allow the Gomez brothers to legalize. But the issue is much bigger. Other worthy undocumented teenagers face the same predicament nationwide. Some excelled in ROTC in high school, only to find out they can't join the U.S. military. Others won science and math awards, yet can't qualify for college financial aid.
The Dream Act would offer residency to youths who arrived here before age 16, graduate from high school, keep a clean record and complete two years of college or military service. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., plans to attach the Dream Act to a defense funding bill that is being debated this week. We hope he succeeds.
Some critics say that's an inappropriate move. But there is a valid nexus given the Dream Act's potential to boost military recruiting. For years legal immigrants have been able to speed their naturalization by joining the military. That's one reason a disproportionately higher number of immigrants have honorably served in our armed forces.
Bipartisan support
Other critics exaggerate the impact saying the Dream Act would legalize one million illegal immigrants. But a nonpartisan group estimates no more than 280,000 youths to be eligible now.
The divisive defeat of comprehensive reform in April has polarized the immigration debate. The broad bipartisan and national support for the Dream Act is more reflective of its merit. Lawmakers such as Messrs. Diaz-Balart, Dobbs and Durbin should be commended for sponsoring good legislation.
For link to Miami Herald editorial click title of this post
More from the NYT
September 20, 2007
Measure Would Offer Legal Status to Illegal Immigrant Students
New York Times
By JULIA PRESTON
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — A bill to offer legal status to illegal immigrant students who have graduated from high school was revived this week in the Senate, the first effort to advance a piece of broad immigration legislation that failed in June.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who is an author of the student measure, said Wednesday that he would try this week to offer it as an amendment to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate. The measure would provide a path to permanent legal status for illegal immigrant students who came to the United States before they were 16 years old, graduated from high school in good standing and agreed to serve in the military or attend college for at least two years.
Both supporters and opponents of the measure said it would serve as a test on whether legislation giving legal status to illegal immigrants can pass Congress this year, in light of the strong opposition from conservative voters who defeated the larger bill. Opponents rejected that bill as an amnesty that would reward immigrants who broke the law.
Mr. Durbin, speaking Tuesday on the Senate floor, described his measure as “narrowly tailored” and said it would help resolve “a very serious recruitment crisis” for the military.
Supporters, who called the measure the Dream Act, said it could pass the Senate because it is intended to benefit young people who grow up in the United States and are illegal immigrants as a result of decisions by their parents. But Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site whose members mobilized against the June bill, sent out an alert last week calling the student measure a “blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed.”
In coordinated action, high school and college students who support the Senate measure staged “teach-ins” and visited lawmakers’ offices today in Florida, Idaho, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. Twenty illegal immigrant students from California came to Washington to lobby for the bill, dressed in white coats and business suits to signify the medical and legal careers they hope to pursue. They held a news conference offering only their first names.
One high school graduate who said he was encouraged by the Senate debate to publicize his situation this week was a 20-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela named Carlos. In telephone interviews in recent days, from Miami, where he lives, Carlos said his parents brought him to the United States when he was 2, originally entering on legal visas.
Although his father had inherited property in the United States, Carlos said, his father’s attempts to gain legal residence had failed. Carlos asked that his last name not be published after his lawyers told him he could face deportation. Carlos said he first approached military recruiters while he was a student at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School in Miami. Later, he learned from military Web sites that being a legal United States resident was a requirement for enlistment.
Carlos said his life stalled after he graduated from high school in 2005. He could not apply for scholarships or admission to Florida colleges at tuition rates for state residents. Although he has skills in basic engineering, Carlos said, he has difficulty applying for jobs because he does not have a Social Security number and cannot get a driver’s license.
Frustrated, Carlos said he started again to look for ways to enlist, setting his sights on the Air Force, which he hoped might help him finish his college education in engineering.
“I’m the ideal guy you want for the military,” Carlos said. “I know the dangers, but I would actually like to do it.”
Although Mr. Durbin in his speech cited several other cases of immigrant students hoping to join the armed forces, most of the illegal immigrant students who were in Washington yesterday said that if the measure passed, they hoped to finish their college education, not join the military.
Another illegal immigrant student, Juan Sebastian Gomez, received an indefinite delay of his deportation this week as a result of a private bill on his behalf introduced in the Senate by Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.
For link to the NYT article click title of this post
Measure Would Offer Legal Status to Illegal Immigrant Students
New York Times
By JULIA PRESTON
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — A bill to offer legal status to illegal immigrant students who have graduated from high school was revived this week in the Senate, the first effort to advance a piece of broad immigration legislation that failed in June.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who is an author of the student measure, said Wednesday that he would try this week to offer it as an amendment to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate. The measure would provide a path to permanent legal status for illegal immigrant students who came to the United States before they were 16 years old, graduated from high school in good standing and agreed to serve in the military or attend college for at least two years.
Both supporters and opponents of the measure said it would serve as a test on whether legislation giving legal status to illegal immigrants can pass Congress this year, in light of the strong opposition from conservative voters who defeated the larger bill. Opponents rejected that bill as an amnesty that would reward immigrants who broke the law.
Mr. Durbin, speaking Tuesday on the Senate floor, described his measure as “narrowly tailored” and said it would help resolve “a very serious recruitment crisis” for the military.
Supporters, who called the measure the Dream Act, said it could pass the Senate because it is intended to benefit young people who grow up in the United States and are illegal immigrants as a result of decisions by their parents. But Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site whose members mobilized against the June bill, sent out an alert last week calling the student measure a “blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed.”
In coordinated action, high school and college students who support the Senate measure staged “teach-ins” and visited lawmakers’ offices today in Florida, Idaho, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. Twenty illegal immigrant students from California came to Washington to lobby for the bill, dressed in white coats and business suits to signify the medical and legal careers they hope to pursue. They held a news conference offering only their first names.
One high school graduate who said he was encouraged by the Senate debate to publicize his situation this week was a 20-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela named Carlos. In telephone interviews in recent days, from Miami, where he lives, Carlos said his parents brought him to the United States when he was 2, originally entering on legal visas.
Although his father had inherited property in the United States, Carlos said, his father’s attempts to gain legal residence had failed. Carlos asked that his last name not be published after his lawyers told him he could face deportation. Carlos said he first approached military recruiters while he was a student at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School in Miami. Later, he learned from military Web sites that being a legal United States resident was a requirement for enlistment.
Carlos said his life stalled after he graduated from high school in 2005. He could not apply for scholarships or admission to Florida colleges at tuition rates for state residents. Although he has skills in basic engineering, Carlos said, he has difficulty applying for jobs because he does not have a Social Security number and cannot get a driver’s license.
Frustrated, Carlos said he started again to look for ways to enlist, setting his sights on the Air Force, which he hoped might help him finish his college education in engineering.
“I’m the ideal guy you want for the military,” Carlos said. “I know the dangers, but I would actually like to do it.”
Although Mr. Durbin in his speech cited several other cases of immigrant students hoping to join the armed forces, most of the illegal immigrant students who were in Washington yesterday said that if the measure passed, they hoped to finish their college education, not join the military.
Another illegal immigrant student, Juan Sebastian Gomez, received an indefinite delay of his deportation this week as a result of a private bill on his behalf introduced in the Senate by Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.
For link to the NYT article click title of this post
New York Times Endorses DREAM ACT
Thank you NYT!! Maybe this editorial should be forwarded to all the senators.
_____
Editorial
Pass the Dream Act
New York Times
Published: September 20, 2007
A small but worthy step toward immigration reform is returning as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. As the Senate debates that fat holiday wish book for the Pentagon, it should rescue this sliver of bipartisan good sense from the wreckage of last summer’s failed immigration debate.
It’s called the Dream Act, and it offers a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants’ children after they graduate from high school and complete two years of military service or college. Its Senate sponsors, including Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Richard Lugar of Indiana, have championed it as a way to open a future to talented children whose opportunities are closed because of their parents’ decision to immigrate here illegally. They also see it as giving a needed boost to the military by opening a new stream of high-quality recruits.
The idea is modest and smart, but modest and smart usually don’t get very far these days. The anti-immigrant forces that buried the Senate’s comprehensive reforms under a wave of faxes and phone calls are at it again over the revival of this small part of that much bigger bill. They are convinced that giving a break to blameless young men and women — maybe about a million — who want to earn a college degree or serve in the military weakens the country instead of strengthening it. Their hostility to nurturing a new cohort of American citizens, their reflexive “no” even to this limited attempt at immigration decency, lays bare the bankruptcy of their self-defeating passions.
Passing the Dream Act would do more than give deserving young people a path beyond dead-end jobs and lives in the shadows. It would honor the thousands of immigrant soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lengthening list of those who have given their lives includes Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcántara, a 22-year-old New Yorker who was born in the Dominican Republic. The official date that he became an American was Aug. 6, the same day that a bomb killed him and three fellow soldiers in Baquba, north of Baghdad. He was the 103rd immigrant to become a citizen posthumously in this war.
Passage would also give encouragement to the budding activists on college campuses around the country who have rallied behind the Dream Act for themselves and their schoolmates. And it would give a small dose of hope to those who watched in dismay as Congress’s attempts at serious immigration reform last year and this year were demonized, disfigured and finally killed. It would show that the country has not entirely lost its ability to recognize, with grace and gratitude, the great potential in the immigrants among us.
For NYT link, click the title of this post
photo; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/The_new_york_times_building_in_new_york_city.jpg/450px-The_new_york_times_building_in_new_york_city.jpg
The FOUR
Photos:
1 - Kay Bailey Hutchison
2 - John Cornyn
3 - Chuck Grassley
4 - Orrin Hatch
Although we can't confirm this - these four senators are said to be against the DREAM ACT. No word if Mel Martinez has changed his mind.
The Terminator Speaks
California | Local News
Schwarzenegger touts healthcare plan, takes GOP to task again
Los Angeles Times
September 20, 2007
...Asked whether voter anger about illegal immigrants, which led to the repeal of a 2003 law to let them obtain drivers' licenses, might be used by opponents of his healthcare plan to doom it, Schwarzenegger said: "Those are Mickey Mouse things compared to immigration reform.
"The real big elephant in the room is that for years and years and years the people have been angry and the federal government hasn't been doing anything about it," he said.
Schwarzenegger said his plan would not give illegal immigrants any new healthcare opportunities but would allow counties to shift all the money they spend caring for the uninsured now -- often in emergency rooms -- to less expensive clinics. The outline of the plan the governor released in January estimated that counties would receive about $1 billion a year that could be used to treat about 750,000 undocumented immigrants who lacked coverage from employers.
The governor employed an obesity metaphor to explain his tough-love speech to the state Republican Party earlier this month.
At its semiannual convention, Schwarzenegger said the GOP is losing voter support because it remains too ideologically rigid on issues such as healthcare and global warming -- subjects on which he says polls show that a majority of the state's Republicans favor substantial government action. Many party leaders took umbrage at the suggestion that they should sacrifice principles for political success.
For link to complete article click title of this post
Schwarzenegger touts healthcare plan, takes GOP to task again
Los Angeles Times
September 20, 2007
...Asked whether voter anger about illegal immigrants, which led to the repeal of a 2003 law to let them obtain drivers' licenses, might be used by opponents of his healthcare plan to doom it, Schwarzenegger said: "Those are Mickey Mouse things compared to immigration reform.
"The real big elephant in the room is that for years and years and years the people have been angry and the federal government hasn't been doing anything about it," he said.
Schwarzenegger said his plan would not give illegal immigrants any new healthcare opportunities but would allow counties to shift all the money they spend caring for the uninsured now -- often in emergency rooms -- to less expensive clinics. The outline of the plan the governor released in January estimated that counties would receive about $1 billion a year that could be used to treat about 750,000 undocumented immigrants who lacked coverage from employers.
The governor employed an obesity metaphor to explain his tough-love speech to the state Republican Party earlier this month.
At its semiannual convention, Schwarzenegger said the GOP is losing voter support because it remains too ideologically rigid on issues such as healthcare and global warming -- subjects on which he says polls show that a majority of the state's Republicans favor substantial government action. Many party leaders took umbrage at the suggestion that they should sacrifice principles for political success.
For link to complete article click title of this post
Junot Díaz - Could Have Been a DREAM ACT Kid
Photo by Tom Larrabee. Junot Díaz at Pennsylvania State University
He came with his family from the Dominican Republic when he was 6. He didn't speak much English for several years... but he could read...
He is now a professor at MIT (Massechussetts Institute of Techonology).
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The Outsider Is In: An Immigrant's Stories
In Life as in His Acclaimed Work, Author Junot Díaz Unites Two Selves
By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2007; Page C01
NEW YORK
Understanding the immigration experience may be impossible if you haven't been through it. But it helps to hear Junot D¿az talk about classified ads.
Díaz is the author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," a novel published early this month to immediate acclaim. He's sitting in the lobby of the venerable Algonquin Hotel trying to describe how it felt to be a 6-year-old kid from the Dominican Republic plunked down in New Jersey in 1974, at "the end of one world, the beginning of another."
He didn't speak much English for years -- out of stubborn-mindedness, perhaps, or a child's sensitivity to ridicule -- but he started reading it pretty much right away. By the time he was 9, he was compulsively consuming newspaper classified pages. They were, he says, "a window into a world I had no access to."
One day that window opened just a crack.
Someone had placed an ad offering free books. Díaz called and reached an elderly woman who lived maybe four miles from his house. "I have 500 books and I don't want to throw them away," she told him. "If you can get over here and get them, you can have them."
No adult in his life would have cared that he wanted those books, so being driven to pick them up was out. But he realized that if he took a shopping cart and made three or four trips, he could get them all...
For link to complete WP article, click title to this post
Photo: From the Daily Collegian, Pennsylvania State University. http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/02/02-13-07tdc/02-13-07dnews-02b.jpg
There's a Lot Your Can Learn From the Other Side
Opposition to the DREAM ACT
I just woke up and decided to search around for any new articles on the DREAM ACT. I found an editorial from the Washington Times. It looks like a very right wing paper. Probably is solidly behind family values and honesty. In fact the editorial mentions that Homeland Security is alarmed at the fraud that will occur if the amendment passes. Then I see something right next to the editorial that catches my eye. Something about hotel rooms. Oh, I think, this must be a hotel advertisement. Well...when I look further I am surprised.... it said "Asia Room Service - find your perfect hotel room now." That doesn't sound like an advertisement for hotel rooms, it sounds like a call service. So much for good, clean American values.
The editorial is a diatribe on the supposed horrors of the DREAM ACT, and as expected a call to arms for anti-immigrationists. Towards the end, I found this:
"But as things stand right now, Mr. Durbin's DREAM Act measure has the support of a majority of senators, and foes of the bill, led by Sen. Jeff Sessions, will likely seek to filibuster Mr. Durbin's proposal when he tries to attach it to the defense bill. But according to Numbers USA, which closely monitors immigration-related legislation, as of yesterday afternoon, only 17 senators were confirmed to be opposed to the DREAM measure; the senators who had yet to take a position include Republicans Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Tom Coburn and John Ensign.
The Bush administration has not taken an official position, but Defense Department officials are quietly urging members to support the bill."
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Editorial
No Dream at All
Washington Times
September 19, 2007
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The article was so difficult to read I couldn't get myself to take a closer look. It's really nasty. I really don't want anything so awful posted on this blog (from either side). So therefore, I'm not listing the web page. If you really want to see it, you'll need to find it yourself.
p.s. I think the photo says it all.
Photo: From Amadeo Sogni's blog. http://static.flickr.com/108/291533347_4d3ece4431.jpg
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
University of California System - For the DREAM ACT
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR PASSAGE OF THE DREAM ACT
On September 19, the University of California sent letters to California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer urging their continued support and leadership for passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The DREAM Act may be attached to H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 which is currently pending before the US Senate.
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September 19, 2007
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
The Honorable Barbara Boxer
United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer:
Thank you for your continued support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which will help thousands of children, who—through no fault of their own—find that their education and employment options are severely limited once they graduate from high school. At the University of California alone, if the DREAM Act were enacted, we estimate that up to 630 high-achieving students would benefit by becoming eligible for federal loans and work-study to help pay for their education.
The University of California strongly supports efforts to provide more affordable educational access to these students, who excel in elementary and secondary school and who live and work in our communities. We urge your continued leadership in helping to bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor for a vote as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill.
We applaud your work in trying to secure a path to legal status for these students who have been in our country for a long time. We remain hopeful that your Senate colleagues will support the DREAM Act to expand educational opportunity to hardworking students from across the nation, encourage the academic and creative contributions these students offer, and contribute to our state and nation through increased economic benefits.
Sincerely,
A. Scott Sudduth Assistant Vice President University of California Federal Governmental Relations
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
Not Everything is Bad in Virginia
It must have seemed like lightening struck when the Arlington County Board "rebuked" the recent anti-immigrant ordinances being established in northern Virginia.How About Human Dignity and Respect?
Arlington County Stands Apart
While Prince William County and others in Virginia are showing us that many people in the state wish immigrants would disappear. Arlington County is taking a different approach. I wonder if the Arlington County Board being all Democrats has anything to do with it? If that is true, does that mean that only Democrats can be reasonable regarding controversial issues? I hope not. I would like to think that Republicans are really nice people and want the best for our country. But as I watch the U.S. Senate this week, I am not so sure. With the Republicans basically blocking almost all of the amendments -- it obvious something is wrong.
When the vote for the DREAM ACT comes up, I hope they are able to retain some of their desire for justice and fairness. Let's hope.
P.S. Its a nice thing to learn that Arlington County has had a record low crime rate as immigration has increased. I hope someone notices.
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Arlington Condemns Region's Immigrant Crackdown
By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page B04
The Arlington County Board yesterday strongly rebuked elected officials elsewhere in Northern Virginia who are clamping down on illegal immigrants, saying such efforts are "politically inspired," "irresponsible" and "punitive."
The five board members, all Democrats, unanimously backed a resolution calling on elected officials elsewhere to "promote the integration of immigrants" instead of enacting rules they said would be divisive.
...They said the county will continue to prosecute illegal immigrants who commit crimes and report them to federal officials, but in a way that treats "all of its residents . . . with human dignity and respect."
The Arlington officials said the county will take no actions that might discourage immigrants from reporting crimes to the police, such as requiring officers to check the immigration status of every person with whom they come into contact. They also said the county will not cut public health services for immigrants, which officials said could cause disease to spread. They said they will not restrict education programs because children of illegal immigrants are likely to remain in the United States and it therefore makes better sense to help them be able to earn a good living.
...The regionwide debate over illegal immigration came to Arlington early this month. At a Saturday board meeting, local Republican officials posed pointed questions to the board about the extent of crime being committed by illegal immigrants and whether officials were requiring the police to report such crime to federal immigration officials. They also questioned whether it is appropriate for Arlington's day-laborer center to serve workers who are in the country illegally.
Board members responded by saying that the county's crime rate has reached a record low even as the community has become more diverse.
In some areas, politicians have been swept to victory by attacking their opponents as lenient toward illegal immigrants in giving them health services, education or employment assistance. In Herndon, for example, supporters of a day-laborer center were defeated last year, and the center was shut down last week.
In Prince William County, a proposed police policy would require officers to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for traffic violations, shoplifting or other misdemeanors. Manassas Park recently canceled a Latino festival that had cost $30,000, some of which had come from city money.
After many years in which relaxed immigration policies were favored by Republicans and Democrats, taking a stand in favor of immigrants now requires some political courage. Tejada is facing reelection, and Paul Ferguson, the board's chairman, is hoping to be elected clerk of the court. Both have challengers in the Nov. 6 election...
For complete article click on title of this post
photo: http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection/images/51/5185.jpg
Post on Politico.com regarding the DREAM ACT
The last part of this article is clearly against the DREAM ACT, saying it is amnesty. Perhaps the writer doesn't know the details of the amendment.
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Senate Poised to Debate DREAM Act This Week
Politico.com
September 18, 2007
Numerous Capitol Hill sources are reporting that the Senate will likely consider the DREAM Act of 2007 as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill for FY2008 (H.R. 1585). The DREAM Act, short for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, grants amnesty to illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and have either (1) enrolled in primary or secondary school or (2) received a high school degree or been admitted to an institution of higher education. It also provides that illegal aliens who have entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and have completed two years of college or finished two years in the uniformed services are eligible to be put on a path to citizenship. Finally, the DREAM Act allows states to offer illegal aliens in-state tuition at state colleges and universities while charging more to U.S. citizens who are not state residents.
The DREAM Act was originally introduced in March by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). In July, Senator Durbin took the bill's language and filed it as an amendment to the DOD Authorization bill, but it was never considered because the DOD Authorization bill was removed from the legislative calendar. The amendment, which has sixteen co-sponsors, has worried some lawmakers that the DOD authorization bill will turn into another fever-pitch battle on immigration.
Political observers suggest that this latest turn in the immigration debate is proof that amnesty supporters are now trying to do piecemeal what they could not accomplish this summer with the massive Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill (S.1639). In addition to movement on the DREAM Act, there is already talk on Capitol Hill that the AgJOBS legislation—which grants amnesty to at least 1.5 million illegal alien farm workers plus their families—will be offered as an amendment to the Farm Bill when the Senate takes it up later this month. Last Wednesday, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) held a press conference alerting the Capitol press corps to the growing possibility that the DREAM Act and AgJOBS would be resurrected. Calling the bills "amnesty," he said, "We may be headed for another immigration battle..."
for complete text click title of this post
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Senate Poised to Debate DREAM Act This Week
Politico.com
September 18, 2007
Numerous Capitol Hill sources are reporting that the Senate will likely consider the DREAM Act of 2007 as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill for FY2008 (H.R. 1585). The DREAM Act, short for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, grants amnesty to illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and have either (1) enrolled in primary or secondary school or (2) received a high school degree or been admitted to an institution of higher education. It also provides that illegal aliens who have entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and have completed two years of college or finished two years in the uniformed services are eligible to be put on a path to citizenship. Finally, the DREAM Act allows states to offer illegal aliens in-state tuition at state colleges and universities while charging more to U.S. citizens who are not state residents.
The DREAM Act was originally introduced in March by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). In July, Senator Durbin took the bill's language and filed it as an amendment to the DOD Authorization bill, but it was never considered because the DOD Authorization bill was removed from the legislative calendar. The amendment, which has sixteen co-sponsors, has worried some lawmakers that the DOD authorization bill will turn into another fever-pitch battle on immigration.
Political observers suggest that this latest turn in the immigration debate is proof that amnesty supporters are now trying to do piecemeal what they could not accomplish this summer with the massive Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill (S.1639). In addition to movement on the DREAM Act, there is already talk on Capitol Hill that the AgJOBS legislation—which grants amnesty to at least 1.5 million illegal alien farm workers plus their families—will be offered as an amendment to the Farm Bill when the Senate takes it up later this month. Last Wednesday, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) held a press conference alerting the Capitol press corps to the growing possibility that the DREAM Act and AgJOBS would be resurrected. Calling the bills "amnesty," he said, "We may be headed for another immigration battle..."
for complete text click title of this post
Senator Chris Dodd -Thank You For Your Help: Please Speak to Your Colleagues!
Photo: Senator Dodd and Jonathan, the "go green man"IMMIGRATION
Bill might buy time for brothers facing deportation
A struggling Democratic presidential contender, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, has inserted himself into a South Florida immigration battle.
WASHINGTON --
Juan and Alex Gomez, the Kendall brothers who have been battling deportation orders, may be able to stay in the United States until 2009 under legislation filed by U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, their attorney said Tuesday.
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who is running for president, filed a bill on the Colombian-born students' behalf late Monday, said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.
''This is the news we've been waiting for,'' Little said. ``Finally, Juan and Alex can have some semblance of a normal life, though we still have our work cut out for us.''
In most cases, a bill like the one filed by Dodd brings deportation proceedings to a halt for the rest of the congressional term. The current term ends in 2009, giving attorneys a chance to pursue the family's legal appeal.
Little said extra time will also allow immigration advocates to lobby for the DREAM Act, which would offer students who grew up in the United States -- like the Gomez boys -- a chance at legal residency.
Critics see the act as a form of amnesty and predict that it will not make headway.
''We see it as amnesty and as such would encourage more parents to put their children at risk by bringing them here illegally,'' said Caroline Espinosa, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, a nonprofit that aims to reduce immigration.
...Dodd serves as chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has met with 49 heads of state from Latin America and the Caribbean over the past two decades, according to his campaign. Like his better-known Democratic rivals for the nomination, he supports legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to earn citizenship.
...Neither of the senators from Florida -- Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez -- has become directly involved in the case. Nelson is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, while Martinez said he didn't think it was appropriate to attach immigration reform to a defense spending bill.
''We're talking about pay raises for our great men and women in uniform, and those issues really need to have center stage and not be clouded by what is a very controversial issue,'' Martinez said. ``I'm also very reticent to do any piecemeal immigration reform. I really don't think it makes much sense.''
Díaz-Balart's bill to stop the brothers' deportation has yet to be heard by a committee, as required. The congressman is planning to rally with DREAM Act supporters today in Washington.
For complete article click title of this post
photo: http://www.gogreenman.com/ns1.jpg
A Small Thing for the Senate - A Big Thing for 65,000 Students
Photo: Douglas McGrayMr. McGray, the most you can do for DREAM ACT students is to call the Senators (or their staff) that you know and remind them that the DREAM ACT is good for the U.S.
The DREAM ACT needs 60 Senators to vote yes....
Douglas McGray, at the New America Foundation has written a great essay on the DREAM ACT. Perhaps he heard Durbin's speech yesterday.
-----
A uniquely American DREAM
With a small act of immigration reform, Congress can help deserving kids.
By Douglas McGray
Los Angeles Times
September 19, 2007
Thoughtful people will disagree about immigration policy -- how many foreigners to let in, for what purpose, and what to do about the 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country. That's why sweeping immigration reform has failed again and again. This fall, Congress should think smaller, and figure out what it can agree on, before another year passes with no progress.
...The DREAM Act has gotten tangled up in the push for comprehensive immigration reform, tacked onto one complicated bill after another. Each one collapsed over more controversial ideas. Now, for the first time, the bill is expected to see a vote separate from sweeping immigration proposals. It is an easy piece of immigration reform, with a fundamentally American solution: an opportunity for good kids to prove themselves and earn their place here.
Douglas McGray is a fellow at the New America Foundation.
For complete article click the title of this post.
AFL-CIO Statement on DREAM ACT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
12:00 PM
CONTACT: AFL-CIO
Lauren Mendoza
(202) 637-5018
Statement of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in Support of the DREAM Act
September 18 - Every year, thousands of our nation’s brightest and best students graduating from high school find that the path to decent jobs and the doors of higher education and the military are essentially shut tight against them for one reason alone: They lack legal immigration status because as young children, they were brought to this country by their parents.
Today, Senator Richard Durbin is offering the bipartisan DREAM Act, co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar, as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. It will go a long in way in remedying the injustices that these hard-working and law-abiding children face. We strongly support passage of the DREAM Act and congratulate Senator Durbin for his leadership in protecting the interests of our children, our communities and our future workforce.
Students who qualify for the DREAM Act are graduating at the top of their class: they are honor roll students, star athletes and valedictorians. They have lived in the United States most of their lives; this is the only country they know. These children are as committed to their communities and to this country as their American-born classmates. Yet, because they lack legal status, they do not have the same opportunities to education or to a decent job.
Instead of being allowed to continue to excel in college as they have in high school, these promising children will be forced into a job where they will either have to lie about their status, or work off the books. Neither outcome is just, nor is it good for our society.
The DREAM Act will provide these hard-working immigrant students the chance to obtain conditional legal status, along with an opportunity to go to college, serve in our military, and become the productive, tax-paying citizens they have worked so hard to become.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
12:00 PM
CONTACT: AFL-CIO
Lauren Mendoza
(202) 637-5018
Statement of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in Support of the DREAM Act
September 18 - Every year, thousands of our nation’s brightest and best students graduating from high school find that the path to decent jobs and the doors of higher education and the military are essentially shut tight against them for one reason alone: They lack legal immigration status because as young children, they were brought to this country by their parents.
Today, Senator Richard Durbin is offering the bipartisan DREAM Act, co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar, as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. It will go a long in way in remedying the injustices that these hard-working and law-abiding children face. We strongly support passage of the DREAM Act and congratulate Senator Durbin for his leadership in protecting the interests of our children, our communities and our future workforce.
Students who qualify for the DREAM Act are graduating at the top of their class: they are honor roll students, star athletes and valedictorians. They have lived in the United States most of their lives; this is the only country they know. These children are as committed to their communities and to this country as their American-born classmates. Yet, because they lack legal status, they do not have the same opportunities to education or to a decent job.
Instead of being allowed to continue to excel in college as they have in high school, these promising children will be forced into a job where they will either have to lie about their status, or work off the books. Neither outcome is just, nor is it good for our society.
The DREAM Act will provide these hard-working immigrant students the chance to obtain conditional legal status, along with an opportunity to go to college, serve in our military, and become the productive, tax-paying citizens they have worked so hard to become.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
GOP Attack on Immigrants Means Losing Critical Votes
My mother used to say you can get more with honey than with vinegar. Apparently the Republican Party has never heard that advice.
_____
Division Problem
The GOP's Ruinous Immigration Stance
By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A23
Immigration used to be a debate among Republicans. Now the issue survives mainly as a weapon.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney-- who once commented on illegal immigrants, "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country" -- attacks Rudy Giuliani for not rounding up enough illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York. Giuliani -- who once said, "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city" -- criticizes Romney for tolerating "sanctuary cities" in Massachusetts.
...It is a strange spectacle. Conservatives are intent on building a more appealing, post-Bush Republican Party. But their most obvious change so far is to reverse remarkable Republican gains among one of the fastest-growing groups of American voters. The renovators seem more like the wrecking crew.
...The political effects of conservative opposition to immigration reform have been swift as well. Latino support for GOP candidates dropped back to 30 percent in 2006. According to one poll, Latinos under age 30 now prefer a generic Democrat over a Republican for president by 42 points. A harsh, Tancredo-like image of Republicans has solidified in the mainstream Hispanic media. And all of this regression will be even more obvious in the next few months, because more than half of the Hispanic voters in America live in states that are part of the new lineup of early primaries.
I have never seen an issue where the short-term interests of Republican presidential candidates in the primaries were more starkly at odds with the long-term interests of the party itself. At least five swing states that Bush carried in 2004 are rich in Hispanic voters -- Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Bush won Nevada by just over 20,000 votes. A substantial shift of Hispanic voters toward the Democrats in these states could make the national political map unwinnable for Republicans.
There is a moral hazard as well. Surfing on a wave of voter resentment is easier than rowing on the calmer waters of inclusion and charity. But the heroes of America are generally heroes of reconciliation, not division.
In politics, some acts are so emblematic and potent that they cannot be undone for decades -- as when Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Goldwater was no racist; his constitutional objections were sincere. Members of the Republican Party actually voted for the Civil Rights Act in higher percentages than Democrats. But all of this was overwhelmed by the symbolism of the moment. In his autobiography, Colin Powell says that after the Goldwater vote, he went to his car and affixed a Lyndon Johnson bumper sticker, as did many other African Americans. Now Republicans seem to be repeating history with Hispanic Americans. Some in the party seem pleased. They should be terrified.
michaelgerson@cfr.org
for complete article click the title of this post
_____
Division Problem
The GOP's Ruinous Immigration Stance
By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A23
Immigration used to be a debate among Republicans. Now the issue survives mainly as a weapon.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney-- who once commented on illegal immigrants, "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country" -- attacks Rudy Giuliani for not rounding up enough illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York. Giuliani -- who once said, "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city" -- criticizes Romney for tolerating "sanctuary cities" in Massachusetts.
...It is a strange spectacle. Conservatives are intent on building a more appealing, post-Bush Republican Party. But their most obvious change so far is to reverse remarkable Republican gains among one of the fastest-growing groups of American voters. The renovators seem more like the wrecking crew.
...The political effects of conservative opposition to immigration reform have been swift as well. Latino support for GOP candidates dropped back to 30 percent in 2006. According to one poll, Latinos under age 30 now prefer a generic Democrat over a Republican for president by 42 points. A harsh, Tancredo-like image of Republicans has solidified in the mainstream Hispanic media. And all of this regression will be even more obvious in the next few months, because more than half of the Hispanic voters in America live in states that are part of the new lineup of early primaries.
I have never seen an issue where the short-term interests of Republican presidential candidates in the primaries were more starkly at odds with the long-term interests of the party itself. At least five swing states that Bush carried in 2004 are rich in Hispanic voters -- Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Bush won Nevada by just over 20,000 votes. A substantial shift of Hispanic voters toward the Democrats in these states could make the national political map unwinnable for Republicans.
There is a moral hazard as well. Surfing on a wave of voter resentment is easier than rowing on the calmer waters of inclusion and charity. But the heroes of America are generally heroes of reconciliation, not division.
In politics, some acts are so emblematic and potent that they cannot be undone for decades -- as when Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Goldwater was no racist; his constitutional objections were sincere. Members of the Republican Party actually voted for the Civil Rights Act in higher percentages than Democrats. But all of this was overwhelmed by the symbolism of the moment. In his autobiography, Colin Powell says that after the Goldwater vote, he went to his car and affixed a Lyndon Johnson bumper sticker, as did many other African Americans. Now Republicans seem to be repeating history with Hispanic Americans. Some in the party seem pleased. They should be terrified.
michaelgerson@cfr.org
for complete article click the title of this post
If you Want the DREAM ACT - CALL YOUR SENATOR
For those of you that really want the DREAM ACT to pass. PLEASE call your senators... You can also call senators from other states. This is extremely important.
thank you to DREAM Act Portal for this post:
U.S. Senators Phone Numbers
Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN) (202) 224-4944
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO) (202) 224-5941
Barrasso, John- (R - WY) (202) 224-6441
Baucus, Max- (D - MT) (202) 224-2651
Bennett, Robert F.- (R - UT) (202) 224-5444
Bond, Christopher S.- (R - MO) (202) 224-5721
Bunning, Jim- (R - KY)(202) 224-4343
Burr, Richard- (R - NC) (202) 224-3154
Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV) (202) 224-3954
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)(202) 224-3521
Coburn, Tom- (R - OK) (202) 224-5754
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS) (202) 224-505
Corker, Bob- (R - TN) (202) 224-3344
Cornyn, John- (R - TX) (202) 224-2934
DeMint, Jim- (R - SC) (202) 224-6121
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC) (202) 224-6342
Domenici, Pete V.- (R - NM) (202) 224-6621
Dorgan, Byron L.- (D - ND)(202) 224-2551
Ensign, John- (R - NV) (202) 224-6244
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)(202) 224-3424
Gregg Judd - (202) 224-3324
Hutchison, Kay Bailey- (R - TX) (202) 224-5922
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)(202) 224-4721
Isakson, Johnny- (R - GA) (202) 224-3643
Kyl, Jon- (R - AZ)(202) 224-4521
Lott, Trent- (R - MS)(202) 224-6253
Martinez, Mell- (R-FL) (202) 224-3041
McCaskill, Claire- (D - MO) (202) 224-6154
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)(202) 224-2541
Murkowski, Lisa- (R - AK) (202) 224-6665
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS) (202) 224-4774
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV)(202) 224-6472
Sanders, Bernard- (I - VT)(202) 224-5141
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)(202) 224-3753
Snowe, Olympia (202)224-5344
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK) (202) 224-3004
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH (202) 224-2841
Tester, Jon- (D - MT) (202) 224-2644
Thune, John- (R - SD)(202) 224-2321
Voinovich, George V.- (R - OH) (202) 224-3353
Warner, John- (R - VA) (202) 224-2023
Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] - (202) 224-6521
Sen Coleman, Norm [MN] - (202) 224-5641
Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - (202) 224-2523
Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] - (202) 224-3744
Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] - (202) 224-5824
Sen Nelson, E. Benjamin [NE] - (202) 224-6551
Sen Pryor, Mark L. [AR] - (202) 224-2353
Sen. Graham, Lindsay (R-SC) (202) 224-5972
thank you to DREAM Act Portal for this post:
U.S. Senators Phone Numbers
Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN) (202) 224-4944
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO) (202) 224-5941
Barrasso, John- (R - WY) (202) 224-6441
Baucus, Max- (D - MT) (202) 224-2651
Bennett, Robert F.- (R - UT) (202) 224-5444
Bond, Christopher S.- (R - MO) (202) 224-5721
Bunning, Jim- (R - KY)(202) 224-4343
Burr, Richard- (R - NC) (202) 224-3154
Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV) (202) 224-3954
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)(202) 224-3521
Coburn, Tom- (R - OK) (202) 224-5754
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS) (202) 224-505
Corker, Bob- (R - TN) (202) 224-3344
Cornyn, John- (R - TX) (202) 224-2934
DeMint, Jim- (R - SC) (202) 224-6121
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC) (202) 224-6342
Domenici, Pete V.- (R - NM) (202) 224-6621
Dorgan, Byron L.- (D - ND)(202) 224-2551
Ensign, John- (R - NV) (202) 224-6244
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)(202) 224-3424
Gregg Judd - (202) 224-3324
Hutchison, Kay Bailey- (R - TX) (202) 224-5922
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)(202) 224-4721
Isakson, Johnny- (R - GA) (202) 224-3643
Kyl, Jon- (R - AZ)(202) 224-4521
Lott, Trent- (R - MS)(202) 224-6253
Martinez, Mell- (R-FL) (202) 224-3041
McCaskill, Claire- (D - MO) (202) 224-6154
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)(202) 224-2541
Murkowski, Lisa- (R - AK) (202) 224-6665
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS) (202) 224-4774
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV)(202) 224-6472
Sanders, Bernard- (I - VT)(202) 224-5141
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)(202) 224-3753
Snowe, Olympia (202)224-5344
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK) (202) 224-3004
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH (202) 224-2841
Tester, Jon- (D - MT) (202) 224-2644
Thune, John- (R - SD)(202) 224-2321
Voinovich, George V.- (R - OH) (202) 224-3353
Warner, John- (R - VA) (202) 224-2023
Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] - (202) 224-6521
Sen Coleman, Norm [MN] - (202) 224-5641
Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - (202) 224-2523
Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] - (202) 224-3744
Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] - (202) 224-5824
Sen Nelson, E. Benjamin [NE] - (202) 224-6551
Sen Pryor, Mark L. [AR] - (202) 224-2353
Sen. Graham, Lindsay (R-SC) (202) 224-5972
The Senate and the DREAM ACT
Our Senators - Tues. September 18
They continued to argue about habeas corpus. Apparently some senators believe that it was never part of U.S. policy.
Finally in mid afternoon, Durbin presented the DREAM ACT which he did very eloquently. Afterwards there was more discussion on habeas corpus. They didn't have enough votes for habeas corpus.
Then Senator Sessions came up. He began with habeas corpus but ended with the DREAM ACT.
He says the DREAM ACT is controversial. He says that the Senate already decided there would be no immigration bill.
He reminds me a little of George Wallace, for those of you who remember.
The question now is will 60 Senators vote for the DREAM ACT? Habeas Corpus is a big thing... if they couldn't get the 60 for that, its going to truly be a challenge.
As NILC has said a number of times, send faxes and make phone calls to your senator, and other senators. Don't be embarrassed or shy. For those of you who are DREAM ACT students, it is your future. Every time you send a fax you are doing something for yourself.
Be bold, go to the Washington Post website and respond to an article. They are one of the better newspapers for readers comments, and believe me lots of people read the WP.
Some of the senators even have a "my space"... send the site a post (I know that Bill Richardson has one).
Although faxes and calls are preferrable - Send emails if you need to. You can send the address of this blog to them, so they can have lots of information on the DREAM ACT and DREAM ACT Students.
Post EVERYWHERE you can. The internet is much more powerful than anyone realizes.
If any DREAM ACT student wants to write something for this blog, send an email to dreamacttexas@gmail.com. We can arrange to have it posted so everyone can read it.
Think positive.
They continued to argue about habeas corpus. Apparently some senators believe that it was never part of U.S. policy.
Finally in mid afternoon, Durbin presented the DREAM ACT which he did very eloquently. Afterwards there was more discussion on habeas corpus. They didn't have enough votes for habeas corpus.
Then Senator Sessions came up. He began with habeas corpus but ended with the DREAM ACT.
He says the DREAM ACT is controversial. He says that the Senate already decided there would be no immigration bill.
He reminds me a little of George Wallace, for those of you who remember.
The question now is will 60 Senators vote for the DREAM ACT? Habeas Corpus is a big thing... if they couldn't get the 60 for that, its going to truly be a challenge.
As NILC has said a number of times, send faxes and make phone calls to your senator, and other senators. Don't be embarrassed or shy. For those of you who are DREAM ACT students, it is your future. Every time you send a fax you are doing something for yourself.
Be bold, go to the Washington Post website and respond to an article. They are one of the better newspapers for readers comments, and believe me lots of people read the WP.
Some of the senators even have a "my space"... send the site a post (I know that Bill Richardson has one).
Although faxes and calls are preferrable - Send emails if you need to. You can send the address of this blog to them, so they can have lots of information on the DREAM ACT and DREAM ACT Students.
Post EVERYWHERE you can. The internet is much more powerful than anyone realizes.
If any DREAM ACT student wants to write something for this blog, send an email to dreamacttexas@gmail.com. We can arrange to have it posted so everyone can read it.
Think positive.
Sessions Responds
Jeff Sessions spoke at about 6:30 pm eastern time.
One of Session's comments to the Senate:
"There is no numerical limit to the number of parents a citizen can immigrate into the United States."
He started with
"let me talk about this DREAM Act
I have objected to it before. ... This bill gives amnesty, a full canopy of rights for quite a number of illegal aliens putting them on a direct path to citizenship. 1.3 eligible will be eligible for amnesty.
Lets don't reward people who are here illegally by giving a discount rate of tuition. How much more simple is it than that.
...they may have come when they were younger...There are a limited number of persons who you can provide Pell Grants or subsidized loans to. I suggest they be given to those who are lawfuly here, not those who are unlawfully here. If you are in a hole, I suggest you stop digging.
Stop subsidizing illegal behavior by giving discount tuition.
..there is nothing in the DREAM ACT to keep them from bringing family members. .. they can bring their spouses and chidlren. Citizens can immigrant their parents as a matter of right.
There is no numerical limit to the number of parents a citizen can immigrate into the United States. I think its a flaw in our current law.
...I would conclude by saying reasons why we ought not to pass DREAM ACT itself, that is matter of debate we've had several different times now.
We don't need to be talking about the DREAM act, ..hate crimes... and habeas benefits to unlawful combatants.
We should not be distracted with amendments that will be politically controversial and can only make it more difficult for us to do our duty as a Congress."
One of Session's comments to the Senate:
"There is no numerical limit to the number of parents a citizen can immigrate into the United States."
He started with
"let me talk about this DREAM Act
I have objected to it before. ... This bill gives amnesty, a full canopy of rights for quite a number of illegal aliens putting them on a direct path to citizenship. 1.3 eligible will be eligible for amnesty.
Lets don't reward people who are here illegally by giving a discount rate of tuition. How much more simple is it than that.
...they may have come when they were younger...There are a limited number of persons who you can provide Pell Grants or subsidized loans to. I suggest they be given to those who are lawfuly here, not those who are unlawfully here. If you are in a hole, I suggest you stop digging.
Stop subsidizing illegal behavior by giving discount tuition.
..there is nothing in the DREAM ACT to keep them from bringing family members. .. they can bring their spouses and chidlren. Citizens can immigrant their parents as a matter of right.
There is no numerical limit to the number of parents a citizen can immigrate into the United States. I think its a flaw in our current law.
...I would conclude by saying reasons why we ought not to pass DREAM ACT itself, that is matter of debate we've had several different times now.
We don't need to be talking about the DREAM act, ..hate crimes... and habeas benefits to unlawful combatants.
We should not be distracted with amendments that will be politically controversial and can only make it more difficult for us to do our duty as a Congress."
Durbin Speaks
Durbin's appearance was a surprise to me. I was pretty much thinking nothing would happen today. But this afternoon was a chance for the Senators to speak regarding certain amendments. There are so many pending, only a few could be discussed.
He spoke for about 20 minutes and talked about the determination committment, and significant contributions of DREAM ACT students.
He said they would be America's future soldiers,nurses, doctors, teachers, senators and congressman.
He spoke of Oscar Vasquez, one of the kids from the robot team that won the award in Canada. His team was stopped while coming back to the U.S. and detained. Because Oscar is undocumented, now that he completed high school his job is to hang sheetrock.
He talked about a U.S. Marine named Jesus, from Chicago. He met Jesus in Iraq. When they spoke, Jesus asked him for a favor. He said he was glad to have become a marine. Jesus said "one of the things I'd really like to do someday is vote."I'm not a citizen, I'm hoping you can help me become a U.S. citizen."
Durbin mentioned Senator Jeff Sessions in particular, who on a regular basis critizes the DREAM ACT and calls it amnesty.. Durbin asked "do you think that those who would volunteer for the military and risk lives for the U.S. going to so they can get amnesty. They are a gift to America....to say the DREAM ACT is amnesty is to denigrate the fantastic sacrifice these young people would make to become citizens."
Between the recruitment issue, he mentioned college a couple of times. I wish he would have said more, but guess he knows what he has to do. Its an uphill battle with the anti-immigration senators.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.
He spoke for about 20 minutes and talked about the determination committment, and significant contributions of DREAM ACT students.
He said they would be America's future soldiers,nurses, doctors, teachers, senators and congressman.
He spoke of Oscar Vasquez, one of the kids from the robot team that won the award in Canada. His team was stopped while coming back to the U.S. and detained. Because Oscar is undocumented, now that he completed high school his job is to hang sheetrock.
He talked about a U.S. Marine named Jesus, from Chicago. He met Jesus in Iraq. When they spoke, Jesus asked him for a favor. He said he was glad to have become a marine. Jesus said "one of the things I'd really like to do someday is vote."I'm not a citizen, I'm hoping you can help me become a U.S. citizen."
Durbin mentioned Senator Jeff Sessions in particular, who on a regular basis critizes the DREAM ACT and calls it amnesty.. Durbin asked "do you think that those who would volunteer for the military and risk lives for the U.S. going to so they can get amnesty. They are a gift to America....to say the DREAM ACT is amnesty is to denigrate the fantastic sacrifice these young people would make to become citizens."
Between the recruitment issue, he mentioned college a couple of times. I wish he would have said more, but guess he knows what he has to do. Its an uphill battle with the anti-immigration senators.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.
360,000 Undocumented H.S. Graduates for the Military
U.S. Army recruiters must be sitting at the edge of their chairs. If the DREAM ACT passes, they will have another 360,000 potential recruits. Never mind that most of the country wants to bring the soldiers back home from Iraq. Maybe they want the ones who would be the hardest workers to be there the day of the big pullout.
People used to say that the military was a great place to grow up. Maybe so, but not in the jungles of Vietnam or the dust of Iraq.
For the DREAM ACT students, it will be a tough choice.
-----
A military route to citizenship
Plan for undocumented youths stirs debate
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 17, 2007 12:00 AM
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented-immigrant youths could become eligible to join the military to offset shortages of qualified recruits under a bill pending in Congress.
...The proposal still has a strong chance of passing if backers in Congress are successful in attaching it to the annual defense-authorization bill this fall.
The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would allow undocumented high-school graduates to gain citizenship if they either attend college for two years or serve two years in the military.
Undocumented immigrants now are not permitted to serve.
Military analysts say the DREAM Act would help the armed forces find qualified recruits, whose numbers have dwindled because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some immigrant groups, however, say the DREAM Act amounts to a "de facto draft."
Using immigrants to boost the ranks of the military is not new.
With the demands in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States began offering legal immigrants a chance to expedite citizenship applications for themselves and relatives if they enlisted.
Roughly 70,000 immigrants serve in the military, and about 40,000 are non-citizens. Immigrants make up about 5 percent of the total 1.4 million men and women on active duty.
..."The DREAM Act would address a very serious recruitment crisis that faces our military," Sen. Dick Durbin, the bill's author, said on the Senate floor in July while trying to muster support for the DREAM Act to be attached to the annual defense-authorization bill.
Durbin wasn't successful, but Sandra Abrevaya, a Durbin spokeswoman, said that the Illinois Democrat will try again, possibly as early as this month.
The DREAM Act has broad bipartisan support in Congress.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, is a co-sponsor of the bill in the House. He said the legislation has a better chance now that the military aspect is being played up.
...Poor educational conditions and inadequate schooling make military enlistment the only option for many undocumented youths, the group says.
"We are afraid that it's going to cause a de facto military draft for our undocumented youth," coordinator Jose Lara said. "We fully support the college part of it, but the reality is Latino college rates are low, so the majority will pick the military part of it."
Luis Avila, 25, a student at Arizona State University, organized a weeklong hunger strike at the end of July to raise public support for the DREAM Act in Arizona. He said he is troubled by the increased emphasis on the bill's military provision.
"The DREAM Act is not really for them to join the Army, it's for them to get their education," Avila said.
Still, many undocumented immigrants he spoke with during the fast said they would prefer to join the military.
"I told them they should go to college and then join the military so they can enter as an officer rather than be put on the front lines," Avila said.
If it passes, the DREAM Act would create a substantial pool of potential recruits. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., estimates about 360,000 undocumented high-school graduates in the United States are of military age, between 18 and 24.
Another 715,000 undocumented youths are between the ages of 5 and 17, according to the institute.
Military analyst Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer from Anchorage, Alaska, teaches at West Point about immigrants in the military. She said fears that the DREAM Act would turn into a "back-door draft" are unfounded.
That's because the military would need only a fraction of the undocumented immigrants made available by the DREAM Act to help offset shortages of qualified recruits.
Stock said the DREAM Act would help the military "a great deal..."
"The modern military needs a lot of smart, successful people, and a lot of the DREAM Act kids are like that," she said.
For complete article click the title of this post
People used to say that the military was a great place to grow up. Maybe so, but not in the jungles of Vietnam or the dust of Iraq.
For the DREAM ACT students, it will be a tough choice.
-----
A military route to citizenship
Plan for undocumented youths stirs debate
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 17, 2007 12:00 AM
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented-immigrant youths could become eligible to join the military to offset shortages of qualified recruits under a bill pending in Congress.
...The proposal still has a strong chance of passing if backers in Congress are successful in attaching it to the annual defense-authorization bill this fall.
The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would allow undocumented high-school graduates to gain citizenship if they either attend college for two years or serve two years in the military.
Undocumented immigrants now are not permitted to serve.
Military analysts say the DREAM Act would help the armed forces find qualified recruits, whose numbers have dwindled because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some immigrant groups, however, say the DREAM Act amounts to a "de facto draft."
Using immigrants to boost the ranks of the military is not new.
With the demands in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States began offering legal immigrants a chance to expedite citizenship applications for themselves and relatives if they enlisted.
Roughly 70,000 immigrants serve in the military, and about 40,000 are non-citizens. Immigrants make up about 5 percent of the total 1.4 million men and women on active duty.
..."The DREAM Act would address a very serious recruitment crisis that faces our military," Sen. Dick Durbin, the bill's author, said on the Senate floor in July while trying to muster support for the DREAM Act to be attached to the annual defense-authorization bill.
Durbin wasn't successful, but Sandra Abrevaya, a Durbin spokeswoman, said that the Illinois Democrat will try again, possibly as early as this month.
The DREAM Act has broad bipartisan support in Congress.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, is a co-sponsor of the bill in the House. He said the legislation has a better chance now that the military aspect is being played up.
...Poor educational conditions and inadequate schooling make military enlistment the only option for many undocumented youths, the group says.
"We are afraid that it's going to cause a de facto military draft for our undocumented youth," coordinator Jose Lara said. "We fully support the college part of it, but the reality is Latino college rates are low, so the majority will pick the military part of it."
Luis Avila, 25, a student at Arizona State University, organized a weeklong hunger strike at the end of July to raise public support for the DREAM Act in Arizona. He said he is troubled by the increased emphasis on the bill's military provision.
"The DREAM Act is not really for them to join the Army, it's for them to get their education," Avila said.
Still, many undocumented immigrants he spoke with during the fast said they would prefer to join the military.
"I told them they should go to college and then join the military so they can enter as an officer rather than be put on the front lines," Avila said.
If it passes, the DREAM Act would create a substantial pool of potential recruits. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., estimates about 360,000 undocumented high-school graduates in the United States are of military age, between 18 and 24.
Another 715,000 undocumented youths are between the ages of 5 and 17, according to the institute.
Military analyst Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer from Anchorage, Alaska, teaches at West Point about immigrants in the military. She said fears that the DREAM Act would turn into a "back-door draft" are unfounded.
That's because the military would need only a fraction of the undocumented immigrants made available by the DREAM Act to help offset shortages of qualified recruits.
Stock said the DREAM Act would help the military "a great deal..."
"The modern military needs a lot of smart, successful people, and a lot of the DREAM Act kids are like that," she said.
For complete article click the title of this post
Senate Schedule 9 18 07
Today the Senate will focus on representation in the District of Columbia. No sign of DREAM ACT yet.
-----
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2007
10:00 a.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.
Thereafter, begin consideration of H.R. 1124, A bill to extend the District of Columbia College Access Act of 1999.
-----
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2007
10:00 a.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.
Thereafter, begin consideration of H.R. 1124, A bill to extend the District of Columbia College Access Act of 1999.
Who Is the Kingmaker Now that Bubba Has Stepped Down?
The Salon.com article below could be described as somewhat raw. Calling southern white male voters "Bubba" won't help the Democratic cause. But the fact is, demographics are changing the electorate. Maybe all the anti-immmigration hysteria is really about tryiing to keep potential (Democratic) voters out of the U.S.
Well...as long as people like Senator Jeff Sessions and Gov. Mitt Romney keep insulting immigrants and other U.S. Latinos, the Republicans don't stand a chance. This time, Bubba won't save anyone. And Latinos voters will remember those insults when they go to the polls.
_____
So long, white boy
Could 2008 be the year that Democrats finally admit an old sweetheart is never coming back, and stop pandering to the white male voter?
By Thomas F. Schaller
Salon.com
Sept. 17, 2007
| Those who have been closely following the politics of the Democratic primaries may have noticed that someone is missing -- and I'm not referring to Bob Shrum, the Rev. Al Sharpton or an as-yet-undiscovered "Gravel Girl."
I'm talking about the white male voter, or at least a certain long-coveted variety thereof. He is variously known as "NASCAR dad" -- that shirt-sleeved, straight-talkin', these-colors-don't-run fella who votes his cultural values above all else -- or "Bubba," as Steve Jarding and Dave "Mudcat" Saunders affectionately call him in their book, "Foxes in the Henhouse." Start looking on milk cartons for Bubba because he has vanished, and not a moment too soon: The Democratic obsession with the down-home, blue-collar, white male voter, that heartbreaker who crossed the aisle to the Republicans many decades ago, may finally be coming to a merciful end.
...[T]he underlying reason may be demographics. In 1952, according to calculations performed by Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz for Salon, white males were nearly half the American electorate. Thanks to the recent growth in the Latino population, however, the white male share is now dropping about a percentage point a year, accelerating a decline that began with the increased enfranchisement of African-Americans in the civil rights era. In next year's election, white males may account for fewer than one out of three voters. Bubba is no longer a kingmaker.
...In 2004, according to New York Times exit polls, Democrat Kerry won 38 percent of the total white male vote, confirming a familiar pattern. Kerry's share was basically the same that every Democratic presidential candidate has received since Michael Dukakis. In the four elections between 1988 and 2000, in fact, using New York Times exit poll results, the Democratic nominee won 36 percent, 37 percent, 38 percent and 36 percent, respectively, of votes cast by white men. Because white men cast between 33 and 36 percent of all votes in 2004, that means a mere 12 to 13 percentage points of Kerry's 48 percent nationally came from white men -- about one vote in four. Nevertheless, and despite running against an incumbent in the first post-Sept. 11 presidential election, Kerry still came within one state of winning the Electoral College. Four years earlier, Al Gore also came within one state of reaching the magical 270 electors, and actually won the popular vote nationally -- while, like Kerry, receiving only about one-fourth of his support from white men.
For complete article click title of this post
cartoon: http://www.caglecartoons.com/images/preview/%7BC7187282-E073-415D-82FA-D24F0AE6E11D%7D.gif
Journalists Beware: How do You Use Data to Tell a Story?
Photo of Robert GreensteinWho would you believe? A journalist who has won the 1993 John Hancock Award for Best Business and Financial Columnist or the former Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the USDA?
In this case its Robert J. Samuelson who won the 1981 National Magazine Award versus Robert Greenstein, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (1996) who received the award for making the Center on Budget and Policies Priorities "a model for a non-partisan research and policy organization." (cited from CBBP website).
On September 5th, DreamActTexas posted "The Media Again: Incorrect and Inflammatory Only in Softer Tones" a commentary on Samuelson's editorial in the Washington Post regarding his belief that immigrants bring more poverty to the U.S. Robert Greenstein is countering Samuelson's assertion.
So who do we believe? Samuelson is a journalist, Greenstein is a respected policy expert. Unfortunately, its people like Samuelson who get more airtime.
After reading todays op-ed by Greenstein (who refutes 90% of what Samuelson has to say) - I wonder where Samuelson got his information? From Lou Dobbs?
_____
Taking Exception
Misreading the Poverty Data
By Robert Greenstein
Washington Post
Tuesday, September 18, 2007; Page A19
In his Sept. 5 op-ed, " Importing Poverty," Robert J. Samuelson assailed the Census Bureau, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the media for missing what he views as the core of the poverty story. When discussing the figures that the Census Bureau released Aug. 28, we all failed, he said, to explain that poverty "is increasingly a problem associated with immigration," driven by the large numbers of poor Hispanics entering the country.
But a careful look at the data does not support Samuelson's narrow view of how immigrants in general, and Hispanic immigrants in particular, affect poverty trends.
...There is debate on whether immigration lowers the wages of natives -- and the research on that subject is mixed -- but even if it does, the added effect on the poverty rate would be small. Immigrants do experience more poverty than native-born citizens, but they are not driving the nation's poverty rate.
In addition, the overall drop in the poverty rate and the rise in national median income in 2006, compared with 2005, were driven by improvement among Hispanics. Hispanic poverty fell, and the median income of Hispanic households rose. Non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, by contrast, experienced no such improvement.
Indeed, since 2001, Hispanics have made considerably more progress against poverty than the other groups. Their poverty rate is lower than it was in 2000, before the last recession -- it stands at its lowest level on record -- while poverty rates for non-Hispanic whites and blacks remain well above their pre-recession levels.
Samuelson focused on longer-term trends and, in particular, on changes in the number of poor Hispanics since 1990, using Hispanics as a proxy for immigrants. But in doing so, he told only one side of the story.
In the 1990s, the number of poor Hispanics did increase substantially even as the number of non-Hispanic poor declined. So Hispanics accounted for the entire increase in the poverty population in that decade. But that's not true since 2000. The Pew Hispanic Center has found that newly arrived Hispanic immigrant workers were better educated and much less likely to be low-wage earners in 2005 than in 1995.
...Nor was poverty the only issue on which Samuelson's focus was too narrow. He noted, correctly, that Hispanics accounted for 41 percent of the increase, since 2000, in the number of Americans who lack health insurance. That sounds alarming, until you realize that Hispanic population growth accounted for 51 percent of total U.S. population growth over this period.
In fact, Hispanics also accounted for 60 percent of the increase in the number of people with insurance. And the percentage of Hispanics who are uninsured grew more slowly than the percentage of non-Hispanics who lack insurance.
Poverty, race, ethnicity and immigration are complicated and controversial issues, and they arouse strong passions. That's all the more reason that we should be careful how we use data to tell a story. We should not oversimplify a complicated story, as the normally careful Samuelson has done here.
The writer is executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
For complete article click title of this post
Monday, September 17, 2007
The State of the SS No-Match Letter Rule
Immigration Rules Left In Limbo
It’ll be up to the courts to decide how, when or even if new worker verification rules are ever put into effect.
By Mark Willen, Senior Political Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
September 17, 2007
Immigration Rules Left in Limbo
Kiplinger Letter
Employers face more uncertainty and confusion on immigration rules -- perhaps for many months more, as federal courts grapple with complaints over the Bush administration’s plan to try to crack down on firms that hire illegals.
An unusual alliance has sued to block proposed new rules. A federal judge says the plaintiffs, comprising unions, businesses and civil liberties groups, may have a case. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1, and while the Bush administration says it’s confident it will prevail, other observers aren’t so sure the rules will survive without a major overhaul.
The Oct. 1 hearing won’t produce an instant solution. A decision will probably take some time and be subject to appeal. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has asked the administration to declare a six-month delay and conduct another review of the rules, but so far, officials have declined to do so.
Before the court-ordered stay was issued, the new regulations had been scheduled to go into effect last week. The legal move blocked the Social Security Administration from sending out 140,000 letters a week to employers with 10 or more workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match those on file in Washington.
The letters explain that the new regulations give firms 90 days to clear up any mix-ups -- typos, misspelled names or changed names that were never recorded. Any workers whose numbers can’t be matched within the 90 days must be fired or the firm will be held accountable for knowingly and willfully hiring an illegal immigrant.
At the same time, the new regs increase penalties for hiring illegals and add criminal charges if a pattern of abuse can be proved. For years, the government has sent similar letters pointing out so-called no-match employees, but the letters were mostly advisory. Firms weren’t required to fire anyone and didn’t face penalties if they ignored the letters, which many companies did.
The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the new rules, alleging that they would lead to discrimination against foreign workers and would result in the firing of thousands of innocent people. Then the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a dozen other business groups joined the suit on the grounds that the administration had violated the Regulatory Flexibility Act by concluding that the new rules would impose no new or additional costs on firms with fewer than 500 employees. Democrats, meanwhile, say the administration is stepping on its toes, using the regulatory process to change law without going through Congress.
All this leaves employers facing what could be a long period in the dark. Some firms, particularly those in service industry sectors that rely on foreign workers, say the rules will lead to major worker shortages and outsourcing wherever possible. Already there are anecdotal reports of southern California farmers renting land in Mexico to grow crops. About 8 million foreign workers are here illegally.
Other firms say they’re tired of being told to do one thing one week and then another the week after. They just want some certainty so they can plan and not worry about inadvertently running afoul of the law.
Previously posted in the Huffington Post
It’ll be up to the courts to decide how, when or even if new worker verification rules are ever put into effect.
By Mark Willen, Senior Political Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
September 17, 2007
Immigration Rules Left in Limbo
Kiplinger Letter
Employers face more uncertainty and confusion on immigration rules -- perhaps for many months more, as federal courts grapple with complaints over the Bush administration’s plan to try to crack down on firms that hire illegals.
An unusual alliance has sued to block proposed new rules. A federal judge says the plaintiffs, comprising unions, businesses and civil liberties groups, may have a case. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1, and while the Bush administration says it’s confident it will prevail, other observers aren’t so sure the rules will survive without a major overhaul.
The Oct. 1 hearing won’t produce an instant solution. A decision will probably take some time and be subject to appeal. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has asked the administration to declare a six-month delay and conduct another review of the rules, but so far, officials have declined to do so.
Before the court-ordered stay was issued, the new regulations had been scheduled to go into effect last week. The legal move blocked the Social Security Administration from sending out 140,000 letters a week to employers with 10 or more workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match those on file in Washington.
The letters explain that the new regulations give firms 90 days to clear up any mix-ups -- typos, misspelled names or changed names that were never recorded. Any workers whose numbers can’t be matched within the 90 days must be fired or the firm will be held accountable for knowingly and willfully hiring an illegal immigrant.
At the same time, the new regs increase penalties for hiring illegals and add criminal charges if a pattern of abuse can be proved. For years, the government has sent similar letters pointing out so-called no-match employees, but the letters were mostly advisory. Firms weren’t required to fire anyone and didn’t face penalties if they ignored the letters, which many companies did.
The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the new rules, alleging that they would lead to discrimination against foreign workers and would result in the firing of thousands of innocent people. Then the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a dozen other business groups joined the suit on the grounds that the administration had violated the Regulatory Flexibility Act by concluding that the new rules would impose no new or additional costs on firms with fewer than 500 employees. Democrats, meanwhile, say the administration is stepping on its toes, using the regulatory process to change law without going through Congress.
All this leaves employers facing what could be a long period in the dark. Some firms, particularly those in service industry sectors that rely on foreign workers, say the rules will lead to major worker shortages and outsourcing wherever possible. Already there are anecdotal reports of southern California farmers renting land in Mexico to grow crops. About 8 million foreign workers are here illegally.
Other firms say they’re tired of being told to do one thing one week and then another the week after. They just want some certainty so they can plan and not worry about inadvertently running afoul of the law.
Previously posted in the Huffington Post
5 pm in the Senate Chamber - September 17
While the senate is discussing the military funding bill, the DREAM ACT has not been mentioned.
After watching our senators for several hours, I am not so sure the DREAM ACT will come up today. They have been spending most of the afternoon on the question of bringing back habeas corpus. Senator Kyl seems like he has been speaking forever, saying that habeas corpus makes war more dangerous for our soldiers.
Let's hope the DREAM ACT makes it in soon. In the meantime, send emails to your Senators.
For link to C-Span Live click title of this post
After watching our senators for several hours, I am not so sure the DREAM ACT will come up today. They have been spending most of the afternoon on the question of bringing back habeas corpus. Senator Kyl seems like he has been speaking forever, saying that habeas corpus makes war more dangerous for our soldiers.
Let's hope the DREAM ACT makes it in soon. In the meantime, send emails to your Senators.
For link to C-Span Live click title of this post
What You Can Do To Help the DREAM ACT Pass
NILC:
CALL BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM
"PLEASE VOTE FOR THE DURBIN-HAGEL-LUGAR DREAM ACT AMENDMENT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL SO THAT IMMIGRANT STUDENTS BROUGHT HERE AS CHILDREN CAN REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL"
Your Senators' phone numbers are online at:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
To send an e-mail message to your Senators please go to:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/NILC/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12129
CALL BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM
"PLEASE VOTE FOR THE DURBIN-HAGEL-LUGAR DREAM ACT AMENDMENT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL SO THAT IMMIGRANT STUDENTS BROUGHT HERE AS CHILDREN CAN REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL"
Your Senators' phone numbers are online at:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
To send an e-mail message to your Senators please go to:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/NILC/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12129
Details of the DREAM ACT - Economic Benefits to the U.S.
More from NILC
The DREAM Act is narrowly tailored
It would apply only to individuals brought to the U.S. at least 5 years ago as children, who have grown up here, and who have remained in school and out of trouble. They could get a green card 6 years after graduating from high school if during that time they continue on to college or serve in the military.
The DREAM Act is not a "mini-amnesty"
At its core, amnesty is forgiveness for wrongdoing. That does not apply to DREAM Act students who were all brought here years ago as children. The DREAM Act rewards them for staying in school or serving our country.
The DREAM Act would benefit taxpayers
The DREAM Act would provide hope to immigrant students and lead many more of them to remain in school. As an example of the fiscal benefits of this, a RAND study showed that a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant woman who graduates from college will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year than if she had dropped out of high school. This amounts to an annual fiscal benefit of over $9,000 per person every year, money that can be used to pay for the education of other children. State and local taxpayers have already invested in the education of these children in elementary and secondary school and deserve to get a return on their investment
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
The DREAM Act is narrowly tailored
It would apply only to individuals brought to the U.S. at least 5 years ago as children, who have grown up here, and who have remained in school and out of trouble. They could get a green card 6 years after graduating from high school if during that time they continue on to college or serve in the military.
The DREAM Act is not a "mini-amnesty"
At its core, amnesty is forgiveness for wrongdoing. That does not apply to DREAM Act students who were all brought here years ago as children. The DREAM Act rewards them for staying in school or serving our country.
The DREAM Act would benefit taxpayers
The DREAM Act would provide hope to immigrant students and lead many more of them to remain in school. As an example of the fiscal benefits of this, a RAND study showed that a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant woman who graduates from college will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year than if she had dropped out of high school. This amounts to an annual fiscal benefit of over $9,000 per person every year, money that can be used to pay for the education of other children. State and local taxpayers have already invested in the education of these children in elementary and secondary school and deserve to get a return on their investment
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
From NILC
From National Immigration Law Center
Today, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will introduce the DREAM Act as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense authorization bill, which returns to the Senate floor for debate this morning. You may remember that the Department of Defense authorization bill was debated in mid-July but was pulled for reasons unrelated to the DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act would provide a 6-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for individuals brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented children if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.
This may be the best chance this year for the DREAM Act to become law (although most likely it will not be the last opportunity). If the amendment passes, the DREAM Act would stand an excellent chance of becoming law this year. The amendment will need 60 votes to pass.
We do not yet know when the vote will be, and it is possible that procedural obstacles could prevent one from occurring at all. But regardless, it is imperative for all DREAM Act supporters to call your Senators and click here to send an e-mail message to them today, and again tomorrow, and again every day until the vote occurs. You can find your Senators' phone numbers here.
This time, even more than the last time the amendment was set for consideration, anti-immigrant groups have come out swinging by spreading falsehoods about the DREAM Act in an attempt to inflame their base to intimidate Senators like they did in the Senate debate about immigration reform. But DREAM Act supporters are passionate too. We can and must fight back and match their intensity.
Today, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will introduce the DREAM Act as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense authorization bill, which returns to the Senate floor for debate this morning. You may remember that the Department of Defense authorization bill was debated in mid-July but was pulled for reasons unrelated to the DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act would provide a 6-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for individuals brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented children if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.
This may be the best chance this year for the DREAM Act to become law (although most likely it will not be the last opportunity). If the amendment passes, the DREAM Act would stand an excellent chance of becoming law this year. The amendment will need 60 votes to pass.
We do not yet know when the vote will be, and it is possible that procedural obstacles could prevent one from occurring at all. But regardless, it is imperative for all DREAM Act supporters to call your Senators and click here to send an e-mail message to them today, and again tomorrow, and again every day until the vote occurs. You can find your Senators' phone numbers here.
This time, even more than the last time the amendment was set for consideration, anti-immigrant groups have come out swinging by spreading falsehoods about the DREAM Act in an attempt to inflame their base to intimidate Senators like they did in the Senate debate about immigration reform. But DREAM Act supporters are passionate too. We can and must fight back and match their intensity.
Another Look at the DREAM ACT
An outside view of immigration coverage
Posted on Mon, Sep. 17, 2007
By EDWARD SCHUMACHER-MATOS
ombudsman@MiamiHerald.com
How can even the most hardened editor not go warm and fuzzy over the Gomez brothers?
The two boys were detained to be deported to their native Colombia when student friends intervened to save them, launching an online campaign, raising money and going to Congress. They won the family's release, at least for the moment. The Gomez boys, 18 and 19, were popular students, and the younger Juan was a star. He had near-perfect grades and has just entered the honor's program at Miami Dade College.
This isn't just news, it's Hollywood.
Many readers, however, see another side. The family was, after all, here illegally. As the saga unfolded over the last seven weeks, these readers complain that The Miami Herald neglected to report views critical of allowing the Gomez boys -- and thousands of illegal-immigrant students like them across the country -- to stay.
They are a cost to taxpayers, undermine respect for the law and have jumped the line on immigrants waiting to get here legally, the critics say. ''There seem to be no shortage of those with (the opposing) viewpoint on The Herald's comment boards or letter page,'' wrote Josh White, 28, a graduate student in sports marketing at Barry University, 'yet you have not put one person representing that view into the 'objective' hard-news article(s). Why?'' Good question.
So it is that this column is born. I have been asked by the editors of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald to make an independent assessment of the Gomez coverage and share it directly with you, the readers, as the first in an occasional series as an ombudsman. My job, in other words, is to represent you. Pretty pretentious.
So, who am I? I'll tell you up front, and I'll tell you my biases, for in the end what I write will necessarily be my own reasoned judgment. But I promise you it will be as fair as I can make it, never cynical, but sometimes irreverent. I strongly believe in good professional journalism, but I don't think it's Holy. You are welcome to agree, disagree or demand to kill the ump.
I have more than 30 years' experience as a journalist. This includes being a reporter for The New York Times and an editor for The Wall Street Journal, two supposed extremes on the ideological fever chart. I don't think I'm schizophrenic, but maybe masochistic. I launched my own chain of Spanish-language dailies in Texas four years ago, just as newspaper advertising began to drop. We cut the papers back to weeklies earlier this year, and I have returned to New York. I lost money. So I know the many issues newspapers face -- intimately.
Like the Gomez brothers, I am Hispanic, born in Colombia. I also was an illegal alien. My mother was naturalized, but I had failed to declare my own citizenship when I was 14, as the law required. I was 21 when an Army recruiter told me I had to leave the country. I went to court and was allowed to declare late. I joined the Army and went to Vietnam.
OK, so I didn't swim across the Rio Grande. But years later, I did sneak illegally across the border. It was at night near Tijuana with eight ''undocumented'' Mexicans and a smuggler. We ran from helicopters and crawled past the Border Patrol. I rode on a floorboard to San Diego. That was in 1977, which goes to show how long the trafficking has been going on. Three years later I went from Key West with Cuban Americans on a boat into Mariel Harbor in Cuba and returned 19 days later clinging to the gunwales with refugees persecuted under the Castro regime. We cried when we saw American soil.
No, I am not a Miamian. But I am an in-law. My wife was born in Cuba and her family lives in Miami. I was married at St. Michael's, have a daughter born at Mercy and another baptized at St. Kevin's. Still, I am mostly an outsider, which, frankly, is helpful. South Florida's politics are consuming. Everybody has an opinion about The Miami Herald.
COVERING IMMIGRANTS
If you suspect that I am sympathetic to illegal immigrants, you're right. But less for squishy reasons and more because I think the country absolutely needs the ones who are here. What I conclude about news coverage is another matter.
Reviewing the handling of the Gomez case and a related push in Congress to revive the proposed Dream Act for children like them, I find that both The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have been too one-sided in their news columns.
The fundamental question is whether children who are culturally American, and educated in U.S. schools to be American, should pay for the sins of their parents. It is a compelling and important issue, with valid arguments on many sides. But of the 25 Miami Herald stories in the paper and online since the first one on July 27, all are written from the point of view of the Gomez boys, their classmates, other undocumented youths and supporting immigrant groups.
The first was the opening story by Kathleen McGrory. It laid out how the parents, with the boys aged 1 and 2 in tow, came 17 years ago on a six-month tourist visa and stayed. They later applied for asylum, lost their case and an appeal, and were ordered five years ago to leave. They didn't.
THE DREAM BILL
As McGrory quoted an immigration official: ''It's unfortunate that parents place their children in these situations by breaking the law. But they did break the law.'' Subsequent stories brushed the issue by raising the Dream Act. Many were features about young people and their hopes, fears, sacrifice and the like, all newsworthy subjects. Still, 21 stories mention the bill, of which about a half dozen were primarily or substantially about the bill, but only one, again by McGrory, gives much shrift to opposition arguments. Most gave no opposing arguments at all.
The views of those who want to force out all illegal immigrants have been heavily covered in the Herald, especially in the debate leading up to the June failure of the Bush administration's comprehensive immigration bill. Dream provisions were part of the bill. Over the past month, some half dozen front-page stories on nonstudent immigration issues have run, many of which gave weight to opponents' arguments.
Editors and reporters everyday are faced with the quandary of how much to repeat in a running story. Think of Iraq coverage. You don't want to insult the intelligence of your readers, but you also don't know what they know. Moreover, editors working on deadline in the trenches often don't have the opportunity to stand back and see the trends in their coverage. That's one reason for this column.
Executive News Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, upon being presented with my findings on the specific Gomez-related coverage, said, ``I think it is probably fair to say that the stories could have had more context in places.''
One obstacle, he said, has been that major opposition groups and politicians have not spoken out on the Gomez case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with the case, mostly declined to comment, he said. Still, more insistent reporting could have been done.
Meanwhile, there was another fairness question peculiar to the hemispheric stew that is Miami. The attention given to two Colombians raised reader complaints that undocumented children from other nations were being ignored. A story on the front of the Metro section, however, did focus on a young woman expelled to Peru and a young man in Venezuela, and a Washington story quoted an unnamed Mexican woman. Balance doesn't mean you give equal weight to everything, and certainly not all the time. There is only so much space in the paper. But you do acknowledge legitimate arguments, using the editors' good faith and judgment, and flesh them out fully over time. It is a fallible system, but so is any human endeavor.
IN EL NUEVO HERALD
El Nuevo Herald was more one-sided. Curiously, it ran fewer stories, and shorter ones, than the English paper. Of the 13 El Nuevo stories, some original and some translated, almost no opposition position was reported after the first day. A photo box on Aug. 2 on page 3 showed Juan's classmates and went so far as to say, in Spanish: ''Congratulations to these loyal friends!'' El Nuevo Herald didn't run the Peruvian and Venezuelan story.
The Spanish paper is editorially independent of the English one, and it is an open question to what extent its readers disagree with El Nuevo Herald's immigration coverage. This raises separate questions about what in the profession is called ''community journalism,'' a subject for a future column.
.
click title of post for link
Posted on Mon, Sep. 17, 2007
By EDWARD SCHUMACHER-MATOS
ombudsman@MiamiHerald.com
How can even the most hardened editor not go warm and fuzzy over the Gomez brothers?
The two boys were detained to be deported to their native Colombia when student friends intervened to save them, launching an online campaign, raising money and going to Congress. They won the family's release, at least for the moment. The Gomez boys, 18 and 19, were popular students, and the younger Juan was a star. He had near-perfect grades and has just entered the honor's program at Miami Dade College.
This isn't just news, it's Hollywood.
Many readers, however, see another side. The family was, after all, here illegally. As the saga unfolded over the last seven weeks, these readers complain that The Miami Herald neglected to report views critical of allowing the Gomez boys -- and thousands of illegal-immigrant students like them across the country -- to stay.
They are a cost to taxpayers, undermine respect for the law and have jumped the line on immigrants waiting to get here legally, the critics say. ''There seem to be no shortage of those with (the opposing) viewpoint on The Herald's comment boards or letter page,'' wrote Josh White, 28, a graduate student in sports marketing at Barry University, 'yet you have not put one person representing that view into the 'objective' hard-news article(s). Why?'' Good question.
So it is that this column is born. I have been asked by the editors of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald to make an independent assessment of the Gomez coverage and share it directly with you, the readers, as the first in an occasional series as an ombudsman. My job, in other words, is to represent you. Pretty pretentious.
So, who am I? I'll tell you up front, and I'll tell you my biases, for in the end what I write will necessarily be my own reasoned judgment. But I promise you it will be as fair as I can make it, never cynical, but sometimes irreverent. I strongly believe in good professional journalism, but I don't think it's Holy. You are welcome to agree, disagree or demand to kill the ump.
I have more than 30 years' experience as a journalist. This includes being a reporter for The New York Times and an editor for The Wall Street Journal, two supposed extremes on the ideological fever chart. I don't think I'm schizophrenic, but maybe masochistic. I launched my own chain of Spanish-language dailies in Texas four years ago, just as newspaper advertising began to drop. We cut the papers back to weeklies earlier this year, and I have returned to New York. I lost money. So I know the many issues newspapers face -- intimately.
Like the Gomez brothers, I am Hispanic, born in Colombia. I also was an illegal alien. My mother was naturalized, but I had failed to declare my own citizenship when I was 14, as the law required. I was 21 when an Army recruiter told me I had to leave the country. I went to court and was allowed to declare late. I joined the Army and went to Vietnam.
OK, so I didn't swim across the Rio Grande. But years later, I did sneak illegally across the border. It was at night near Tijuana with eight ''undocumented'' Mexicans and a smuggler. We ran from helicopters and crawled past the Border Patrol. I rode on a floorboard to San Diego. That was in 1977, which goes to show how long the trafficking has been going on. Three years later I went from Key West with Cuban Americans on a boat into Mariel Harbor in Cuba and returned 19 days later clinging to the gunwales with refugees persecuted under the Castro regime. We cried when we saw American soil.
No, I am not a Miamian. But I am an in-law. My wife was born in Cuba and her family lives in Miami. I was married at St. Michael's, have a daughter born at Mercy and another baptized at St. Kevin's. Still, I am mostly an outsider, which, frankly, is helpful. South Florida's politics are consuming. Everybody has an opinion about The Miami Herald.
COVERING IMMIGRANTS
If you suspect that I am sympathetic to illegal immigrants, you're right. But less for squishy reasons and more because I think the country absolutely needs the ones who are here. What I conclude about news coverage is another matter.
Reviewing the handling of the Gomez case and a related push in Congress to revive the proposed Dream Act for children like them, I find that both The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have been too one-sided in their news columns.
The fundamental question is whether children who are culturally American, and educated in U.S. schools to be American, should pay for the sins of their parents. It is a compelling and important issue, with valid arguments on many sides. But of the 25 Miami Herald stories in the paper and online since the first one on July 27, all are written from the point of view of the Gomez boys, their classmates, other undocumented youths and supporting immigrant groups.
The first was the opening story by Kathleen McGrory. It laid out how the parents, with the boys aged 1 and 2 in tow, came 17 years ago on a six-month tourist visa and stayed. They later applied for asylum, lost their case and an appeal, and were ordered five years ago to leave. They didn't.
THE DREAM BILL
As McGrory quoted an immigration official: ''It's unfortunate that parents place their children in these situations by breaking the law. But they did break the law.'' Subsequent stories brushed the issue by raising the Dream Act. Many were features about young people and their hopes, fears, sacrifice and the like, all newsworthy subjects. Still, 21 stories mention the bill, of which about a half dozen were primarily or substantially about the bill, but only one, again by McGrory, gives much shrift to opposition arguments. Most gave no opposing arguments at all.
The views of those who want to force out all illegal immigrants have been heavily covered in the Herald, especially in the debate leading up to the June failure of the Bush administration's comprehensive immigration bill. Dream provisions were part of the bill. Over the past month, some half dozen front-page stories on nonstudent immigration issues have run, many of which gave weight to opponents' arguments.
Editors and reporters everyday are faced with the quandary of how much to repeat in a running story. Think of Iraq coverage. You don't want to insult the intelligence of your readers, but you also don't know what they know. Moreover, editors working on deadline in the trenches often don't have the opportunity to stand back and see the trends in their coverage. That's one reason for this column.
Executive News Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, upon being presented with my findings on the specific Gomez-related coverage, said, ``I think it is probably fair to say that the stories could have had more context in places.''
One obstacle, he said, has been that major opposition groups and politicians have not spoken out on the Gomez case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with the case, mostly declined to comment, he said. Still, more insistent reporting could have been done.
Meanwhile, there was another fairness question peculiar to the hemispheric stew that is Miami. The attention given to two Colombians raised reader complaints that undocumented children from other nations were being ignored. A story on the front of the Metro section, however, did focus on a young woman expelled to Peru and a young man in Venezuela, and a Washington story quoted an unnamed Mexican woman. Balance doesn't mean you give equal weight to everything, and certainly not all the time. There is only so much space in the paper. But you do acknowledge legitimate arguments, using the editors' good faith and judgment, and flesh them out fully over time. It is a fallible system, but so is any human endeavor.
IN EL NUEVO HERALD
El Nuevo Herald was more one-sided. Curiously, it ran fewer stories, and shorter ones, than the English paper. Of the 13 El Nuevo stories, some original and some translated, almost no opposition position was reported after the first day. A photo box on Aug. 2 on page 3 showed Juan's classmates and went so far as to say, in Spanish: ''Congratulations to these loyal friends!'' El Nuevo Herald didn't run the Peruvian and Venezuelan story.
The Spanish paper is editorially independent of the English one, and it is an open question to what extent its readers disagree with El Nuevo Herald's immigration coverage. This raises separate questions about what in the profession is called ''community journalism,'' a subject for a future column.
.
click title of post for link
U.S. Senate Schedule - Monday September 17
Monday, Sep 17, 2007
2:00 p.m. eastern time: Convene and begin a period of morning business.
Thereafter, resume consideration of H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense Authorization bill.
2:00 p.m. eastern time: Convene and begin a period of morning business.
Thereafter, resume consideration of H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense Authorization bill.
Senator Mel Martinez Against the DREAM ACT
Perhaps Senator Mel Martinez was burned too badly during the last round of the immigration debate. Or being that he is the chairman of the Republican National Committee - maybe he was told to stay out of it. Either way, he is against the DREAM ACT.
_____
Martinez balks on new immigrant measure
Posted on Mon, Sep. 17, 2007
Miami Herald
Immigration advocates hope to push a small part of the failed immigration-reform package forward, but they are unlikely to have one of the package's biggest champions in their corner.
Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who came under withering criticism from the conservative wing of his Republican Party for playing a key role in backing an immigration overhaul, said Friday he was not inclined to support the DREAM Act -- legislation that would help the children of illegal immigrants stay in the United States.
Martinez's office said the senator -- who doubles as general chairman of the Republican National Committee -- does not support ''adding immigration-related amendments'' to the defense bill. That is exactly what DREAM Act sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., plans to do.
Durbin says the Defense Department has given the legislation a thumbs-up because it would give children of illegal immigrants a shot at residency if they complete two years of college or enlist in the military.
Look for a day of lobbying Wednesday, including a likely protest at Martinez's offices in Miami. Florida's other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act.
-- LESLEY CLARK
_____
Martinez balks on new immigrant measure
Posted on Mon, Sep. 17, 2007
Miami Herald
Immigration advocates hope to push a small part of the failed immigration-reform package forward, but they are unlikely to have one of the package's biggest champions in their corner.
Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who came under withering criticism from the conservative wing of his Republican Party for playing a key role in backing an immigration overhaul, said Friday he was not inclined to support the DREAM Act -- legislation that would help the children of illegal immigrants stay in the United States.
Martinez's office said the senator -- who doubles as general chairman of the Republican National Committee -- does not support ''adding immigration-related amendments'' to the defense bill. That is exactly what DREAM Act sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., plans to do.
Durbin says the Defense Department has given the legislation a thumbs-up because it would give children of illegal immigrants a shot at residency if they complete two years of college or enlist in the military.
Look for a day of lobbying Wednesday, including a likely protest at Martinez's offices in Miami. Florida's other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act.
-- LESLEY CLARK
The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act"
Today Could be the Day
If you are near a tv with cable, check it out on C-SPAN Live
_____
Congress quietly returns to immigration
A broad overhaul failed this summer, but an array of smaller measures is under discussion, including ways to legalize certain workers.
By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Three months after Congress failed to pass a broad immigration overhaul, lawmakers are quietly returning to the hot-button issue, discussing narrower measures that address illegal immigrants and low-skilled laborers.
Already, critics are promising fireworks.
As early as this week, Democratic senators are set to introduce an amendment that would give conditional legal status to young illegal immigrants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hopes to bring up a visa program that eventually would allow farmhands to gain citizenship, whereas Republican senators are discussing a short-term guest worker program for low-skilled laborers.
Republicans also are considering a bill that would overhaul visas for high-skilled foreigners.
In the House, Republicans have been steadily introducing initiatives aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants could not gain access to federal benefits.
"We may be heading for another immigration battle," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of the measures headed for the Senate floor.
"Hopefully it can be avoided."
...Some of the measures now in the works don't have much bipartisan support, limiting their chances of success. And some lawmakers express doubts that it is possible to restructure the immigration system through separate bills rather than sweeping legislation.
"I'm personally very skeptical of a piecemeal approach," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a member of the bipartisan coalition that tried to pass the overhaul earlier this year. "The hardest thing to do . . . is take care of" the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. "The minute we start doing the easy things, like taking care of agribusiness interests because they need the workers, . . . then we're leaving the hard things" unaddressed.
The central conflict that tripped up the comprehensive bill remains the question of whether illegal immigrants should be given the chance to earn legal status. That question will be an issue in at least two of the measures headed for the Senate.
The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act," a bill championed by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) that would give conditional legal status to immigrants brought to the U.S. at a young age.
To qualify under it, they must have been in the country for at least five years, have a high school diploma and meet other requirements. Over the next six years, they would have to spend two years in college or the military, after which they could become legal permanent residents, a step toward citizenship.
Durbin plans to attach the bill as an amendment to a defense funding measure scheduled to come before the Senate today, his staff said.
The bill has broad support, prompting immigration restrictionist groups to send alerts warning that the Senate was planning "to pass an amnesty act by hiding language in the defense authorization bill."
If you are near a tv with cable, check it out on C-SPAN Live
_____
Congress quietly returns to immigration
A broad overhaul failed this summer, but an array of smaller measures is under discussion, including ways to legalize certain workers.
By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Three months after Congress failed to pass a broad immigration overhaul, lawmakers are quietly returning to the hot-button issue, discussing narrower measures that address illegal immigrants and low-skilled laborers.
Already, critics are promising fireworks.
As early as this week, Democratic senators are set to introduce an amendment that would give conditional legal status to young illegal immigrants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hopes to bring up a visa program that eventually would allow farmhands to gain citizenship, whereas Republican senators are discussing a short-term guest worker program for low-skilled laborers.
Republicans also are considering a bill that would overhaul visas for high-skilled foreigners.
In the House, Republicans have been steadily introducing initiatives aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants could not gain access to federal benefits.
"We may be heading for another immigration battle," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of the measures headed for the Senate floor.
"Hopefully it can be avoided."
...Some of the measures now in the works don't have much bipartisan support, limiting their chances of success. And some lawmakers express doubts that it is possible to restructure the immigration system through separate bills rather than sweeping legislation.
"I'm personally very skeptical of a piecemeal approach," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a member of the bipartisan coalition that tried to pass the overhaul earlier this year. "The hardest thing to do . . . is take care of" the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. "The minute we start doing the easy things, like taking care of agribusiness interests because they need the workers, . . . then we're leaving the hard things" unaddressed.
The central conflict that tripped up the comprehensive bill remains the question of whether illegal immigrants should be given the chance to earn legal status. That question will be an issue in at least two of the measures headed for the Senate.
The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act," a bill championed by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) that would give conditional legal status to immigrants brought to the U.S. at a young age.
To qualify under it, they must have been in the country for at least five years, have a high school diploma and meet other requirements. Over the next six years, they would have to spend two years in college or the military, after which they could become legal permanent residents, a step toward citizenship.
Durbin plans to attach the bill as an amendment to a defense funding measure scheduled to come before the Senate today, his staff said.
The bill has broad support, prompting immigration restrictionist groups to send alerts warning that the Senate was planning "to pass an amnesty act by hiding language in the defense authorization bill."
Confrontation Over Woman in Sanctuary
A woman named Liliana and her infant are staying at a church in Simi Valley as part of the New Sanctuary Movement. The anti-immigrant group (Save Our State) was actually going to try an make a citizen's arrest. Is this even legal?
Someone was using chemical spray - which injured a pro-immigrant protester.
Sounds like "Save Our State" is going beyond civility. Remember this is Simi Valley where the officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted. Maybe I need to post an article I found from the 1880s that talks about the South and the "barbaric" actions of the Southerners...
-----
Groups Clash Over Immigration at Church
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Monday, September 17, 2007; 8:14 AM
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Dozens of activists on both sides of the illegal immigration debate faced off outside a church where an illegal immigrant is being sheltered with her U.S.-born infant son.
One immigrant-rights advocate was injured with a chemical spray during Sunday's confrontation at the United Church of Christ, and police were investigating allegations that an opposing protester was responsible, police Capt. John McGinty said.
Members of the anti-illegal immigration group Save Our State, which organized the rally that drew about 120 protesters and counter-protesters, said they had hoped to make a citizen's arrest of the woman, who has identified herself only as Liliana.
The woman has been living in the church's former parsonage as part of the New Sanctuary Movement, which arranges church accommodations for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Group members shouted for Liliana, who lived in Oxnard before taking shelter at the church, to give herself up.
"I'm here because I'm for the movement for the illegals to go home," protester Dee Barrow said.
Daniel Smallwood, one of the counter-protesters, accused the anti-illegal immigration activists of racism and said members of his group joined the rally because they didn't want their ideological opponents "to get all the attention."
click title of post for link to original article
Someone was using chemical spray - which injured a pro-immigrant protester.
Sounds like "Save Our State" is going beyond civility. Remember this is Simi Valley where the officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted. Maybe I need to post an article I found from the 1880s that talks about the South and the "barbaric" actions of the Southerners...
-----
Groups Clash Over Immigration at Church
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Monday, September 17, 2007; 8:14 AM
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Dozens of activists on both sides of the illegal immigration debate faced off outside a church where an illegal immigrant is being sheltered with her U.S.-born infant son.
One immigrant-rights advocate was injured with a chemical spray during Sunday's confrontation at the United Church of Christ, and police were investigating allegations that an opposing protester was responsible, police Capt. John McGinty said.
Members of the anti-illegal immigration group Save Our State, which organized the rally that drew about 120 protesters and counter-protesters, said they had hoped to make a citizen's arrest of the woman, who has identified herself only as Liliana.
The woman has been living in the church's former parsonage as part of the New Sanctuary Movement, which arranges church accommodations for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Group members shouted for Liliana, who lived in Oxnard before taking shelter at the church, to give herself up.
"I'm here because I'm for the movement for the illegals to go home," protester Dee Barrow said.
Daniel Smallwood, one of the counter-protesters, accused the anti-illegal immigration activists of racism and said members of his group joined the rally because they didn't want their ideological opponents "to get all the attention."
click title of post for link to original article
Sunday, September 16, 2007
ICE Raid in Iowa
-----
Iowa: Immigration raid nets 51
The Associated Press
September 14, 2007, 10:13AM ET
More from BusinessWeek
DES MOINES, Iowa
Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County, where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years, federal officials said Thursday.
The workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere, said Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Neb., Counts said.
Federal agents conducted the 2 1/2-hour raid Wednesday. Some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearings, Counts said...
click title of post for link
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
Iowa: Immigration raid nets 51
The Associated Press
September 14, 2007, 10:13AM ET
More from BusinessWeek
DES MOINES, Iowa
Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County, where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years, federal officials said Thursday.
The workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere, said Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Neb., Counts said.
Federal agents conducted the 2 1/2-hour raid Wednesday. Some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearings, Counts said...
click title of post for link
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
ICE Picks Up Children at School in Chaparral Raid
11 children were removed from Chaparral schools Monday by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents.
There is really no comment to make about this.
___
28 Deported After Raid on Chaparral Schools
El Paso Times
September 15, 2007
Louie Gilot
Some Chaparral residents reportedly are staying home and not sending their children to school after a raid Monday by the Otero County (N.M.) Sheriff's Department ended with parents and children being deported to Mexico.
The Sheriff's Department conducted a federally funded enforcement operation Sept. 10 that resulted in the detention of 28 undocumented immigrants who were turned over to the Border Patrol.
Border Patrol officials said they received 16 undocumented immigrants from Otero County deputies. The difference in the statistics might be the number of children.
Art Ruiloba, spokesman for the Gadsden Independent School District, said 11 children were removed from Chaparral schools Monday by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents. The parents or legal guardians were present. Six children were from elementary schools, four from middle school and one from high school.
"This operation has had somewhat of an impact on our schools," Ruiloba said.
"There's been some absenteeism due to that. We've had phone calls from parents who say, 'I'm not going to bring my child to school.' "
Schools do not ask for proof of citizenship when a child enrolls.
Martina Morales, an immigrant advocate with the Border Network for Human Rights, said Chaparral residents have reported an increase in what she said is police harassment during the past two months, culminating in Monday's raids. The raids and the rumors surrounding them are paralyzing the community, Morales said.
"There's a lot of fear right now," she said. "They don't go out."
Otero County sheriff's officials said the operations, funded under the 2-year-old federal Operation Stonegarden, started in May and will continue, unannounced.
Monday's activities yielded the highest number of referrals to the Border Patrol so far. Enforcement of immigration laws is a federal, not a state responsibility, but programs such as Stonegarden blur the line, critics said.
Stonegarden gives federal money to border counties for general border security operations.
Even though participating law-enforcement agencies say that finding undocumented immigrants is just a byproduct of crime fighting, Stonegarden operations regularly yield many more immigrant detentions than criminal arrests.
Monday, 12 deputies spent the day in Chaparral, patrolling and serving warrants. They detained 28 undocumented immigrants, issued 17 citations and arrested four people on warrants, including one who was an undocumented immigrant.
Morales claims that the sheriff's de puties use trickery to identify undocumented immigrants.
"They use any kind of pretext to go into people's homes," she said. "They say there were reports of loose animals or a dog barking. But that's not true. They said, 'You called 911.' In one case, a lady said she didn't call 911. She said, 'I don't even have a phone.' "
Lt. Leon Ledbetter of the Otero County Sheriff's Department denied that his officers use such tactics.
He said deputies learned the immigrants were undocumented through the course of regular police business, but added that they might have asked people about their immigration status.
"If folks don't have an ID, we'll ask them. Eventually, it may come to that, but we don't knock on doors and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' " he said.
Two Doña Ana County sheriff's de puties participated in Operation Stonegarden, Doña Ana County sheriff's officials said. The operation, consisting of traffic stops and checks on suspicious activity, will continue in Doña Ana until Nov. 29.
Chaparral, with a population of about 6,000, straddles the Otero-Doña Ana county line.
Monday's operation has caught the attention of some elected officials, such as New Mexico state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana.
"My concern is that I don't want any children to be terrorized or separated from their families," she said.
Officials of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso said they were still trying Friday to figure out what to do with five siblings who stayed in Chaparral after their parents were deported to Mexico on Monday. Some of the children are U.S. citizens because they were born in the United States.
Some law enforcement officials, such as El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles, have said they would do everything not to appear to be enforcing immigration laws.
Undocumented immigrants could become fearful of the police, and that would makes them less likely to call the police when they are in danger and less likely to cooperate with the police when they have information about a crime.
But Ledbetter of Otero County predicted that the panic ignited by Monday's operation would taper off and that "everything will be back to normal in the next week."
"I would hope that if a person needs us, they can call us and we'll help," he said. "If it's a call for service, we don't ask for citizenship. We can even take them to Alamogordo for court if they are witnesses, bypassing the Border Patrol checkpoints so we don't have to deal with the whole immigration issue. We do that for witnesses and victims."
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.
Thanks to Michael Olivas for passing this on.
There is really no comment to make about this.
___
28 Deported After Raid on Chaparral Schools
El Paso Times
September 15, 2007
Louie Gilot
Some Chaparral residents reportedly are staying home and not sending their children to school after a raid Monday by the Otero County (N.M.) Sheriff's Department ended with parents and children being deported to Mexico.
The Sheriff's Department conducted a federally funded enforcement operation Sept. 10 that resulted in the detention of 28 undocumented immigrants who were turned over to the Border Patrol.
Border Patrol officials said they received 16 undocumented immigrants from Otero County deputies. The difference in the statistics might be the number of children.
Art Ruiloba, spokesman for the Gadsden Independent School District, said 11 children were removed from Chaparral schools Monday by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents. The parents or legal guardians were present. Six children were from elementary schools, four from middle school and one from high school.
"This operation has had somewhat of an impact on our schools," Ruiloba said.
"There's been some absenteeism due to that. We've had phone calls from parents who say, 'I'm not going to bring my child to school.' "
Schools do not ask for proof of citizenship when a child enrolls.
Martina Morales, an immigrant advocate with the Border Network for Human Rights, said Chaparral residents have reported an increase in what she said is police harassment during the past two months, culminating in Monday's raids. The raids and the rumors surrounding them are paralyzing the community, Morales said.
"There's a lot of fear right now," she said. "They don't go out."
Otero County sheriff's officials said the operations, funded under the 2-year-old federal Operation Stonegarden, started in May and will continue, unannounced.
Monday's activities yielded the highest number of referrals to the Border Patrol so far. Enforcement of immigration laws is a federal, not a state responsibility, but programs such as Stonegarden blur the line, critics said.
Stonegarden gives federal money to border counties for general border security operations.
Even though participating law-enforcement agencies say that finding undocumented immigrants is just a byproduct of crime fighting, Stonegarden operations regularly yield many more immigrant detentions than criminal arrests.
Monday, 12 deputies spent the day in Chaparral, patrolling and serving warrants. They detained 28 undocumented immigrants, issued 17 citations and arrested four people on warrants, including one who was an undocumented immigrant.
Morales claims that the sheriff's de puties use trickery to identify undocumented immigrants.
"They use any kind of pretext to go into people's homes," she said. "They say there were reports of loose animals or a dog barking. But that's not true. They said, 'You called 911.' In one case, a lady said she didn't call 911. She said, 'I don't even have a phone.' "
Lt. Leon Ledbetter of the Otero County Sheriff's Department denied that his officers use such tactics.
He said deputies learned the immigrants were undocumented through the course of regular police business, but added that they might have asked people about their immigration status.
"If folks don't have an ID, we'll ask them. Eventually, it may come to that, but we don't knock on doors and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' " he said.
Two Doña Ana County sheriff's de puties participated in Operation Stonegarden, Doña Ana County sheriff's officials said. The operation, consisting of traffic stops and checks on suspicious activity, will continue in Doña Ana until Nov. 29.
Chaparral, with a population of about 6,000, straddles the Otero-Doña Ana county line.
Monday's operation has caught the attention of some elected officials, such as New Mexico state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana.
"My concern is that I don't want any children to be terrorized or separated from their families," she said.
Officials of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso said they were still trying Friday to figure out what to do with five siblings who stayed in Chaparral after their parents were deported to Mexico on Monday. Some of the children are U.S. citizens because they were born in the United States.
Some law enforcement officials, such as El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles, have said they would do everything not to appear to be enforcing immigration laws.
Undocumented immigrants could become fearful of the police, and that would makes them less likely to call the police when they are in danger and less likely to cooperate with the police when they have information about a crime.
But Ledbetter of Otero County predicted that the panic ignited by Monday's operation would taper off and that "everything will be back to normal in the next week."
"I would hope that if a person needs us, they can call us and we'll help," he said. "If it's a call for service, we don't ask for citizenship. We can even take them to Alamogordo for court if they are witnesses, bypassing the Border Patrol checkpoints so we don't have to deal with the whole immigration issue. We do that for witnesses and victims."
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.
Thanks to Michael Olivas for passing this on.
Juan Sebastian Gomez and Janet Reno
-----
Reno: U.S. must educate all its kids
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said education should be offered to every U.S. child -- including undocumented ones.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007
BY YOLANNE ALMANZAR
yalmanzar@MiamiHerald.com
Janet Reno told fellow Democrats Tuesday that one of the highest priorities for candidates in the upcoming presidential election -- ''one of the most important in American history'' -- should be providing educational opportunities for all children.
''We're going to have to make sure that from early childhood and on, all children of America have the opportunity to get the best education they can,'' Reno, the nation's former top law enforcement officer, told about 80 people who attended a Democratic POWER club meeting.
Among the attendees was Juan Gomez, 18, a Killian High graduate who has garnered national media coverage in his efforts to keep his family from being deported back to their native Colombia.
The Gomez family was ordered deported in July because of their illegal immigration status, but an intensive lobbying effort by Juan's friends caught the attention of the media and legislators. U.S. Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen are sponsoring a private bill on behalf of Juan and his brother, Alex, that could block deportation proceedings until 2009. Immigration officials also granted the family an extension until Oct. 14.
''This is a nation of immigrants and it has a tradition of rewarding hard work,'' said Reno, the former U.S. attorney general and Miami-Dade state attorney. ``We cannot educate a segment of our population, we've got a responsibility to educate all of our children.''
Reno also cited state-mandated budget cuts in education as an ``an example when we must get together and say we cannot afford this.''
Gov. Charlie Crist has recommended the cuts in an effort to balance a $1 billion budget shortfall attributed to Florida's housing slump. In the meantime, Reno advised local districts to demonstrate that they can ''spend education money wisely'' before demanding more.
''Be concerned about the reduction, but also be concerned with what you do with the money once you get it,'' she told the crowd gathered at the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 SW 76th Ave.
Gomez also spoke, advocating for the DREAM Act, which would grant U.S. permanent residency to undocumented immigrants who complete two years of college or military service.
''The fact that thousands of students like me can graduate high school with honors without an opportunity for future success speaks volumes about our unique self-motivation,'' he said. ``Just imagine what we could accomplish with a legal status.''
He asked for the club's support to ''stop the daily deportation of great minds,'' saying that ``the United States of America will benefit greatly from our accomplishments and achievements in the future.''
After the speeches, Reno and most of the attendees signed petitions in support of the DREAM Act that will be distributed to members of Congress.
''[Juan and his friends are a] splendid example of what American schools can do,'' Reno said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/pinecrest/story/238539.html
Reno: U.S. must educate all its kids
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said education should be offered to every U.S. child -- including undocumented ones.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007
BY YOLANNE ALMANZAR
yalmanzar@MiamiHerald.com
Janet Reno told fellow Democrats Tuesday that one of the highest priorities for candidates in the upcoming presidential election -- ''one of the most important in American history'' -- should be providing educational opportunities for all children.
''We're going to have to make sure that from early childhood and on, all children of America have the opportunity to get the best education they can,'' Reno, the nation's former top law enforcement officer, told about 80 people who attended a Democratic POWER club meeting.
Among the attendees was Juan Gomez, 18, a Killian High graduate who has garnered national media coverage in his efforts to keep his family from being deported back to their native Colombia.
The Gomez family was ordered deported in July because of their illegal immigration status, but an intensive lobbying effort by Juan's friends caught the attention of the media and legislators. U.S. Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen are sponsoring a private bill on behalf of Juan and his brother, Alex, that could block deportation proceedings until 2009. Immigration officials also granted the family an extension until Oct. 14.
''This is a nation of immigrants and it has a tradition of rewarding hard work,'' said Reno, the former U.S. attorney general and Miami-Dade state attorney. ``We cannot educate a segment of our population, we've got a responsibility to educate all of our children.''
Reno also cited state-mandated budget cuts in education as an ``an example when we must get together and say we cannot afford this.''
Gov. Charlie Crist has recommended the cuts in an effort to balance a $1 billion budget shortfall attributed to Florida's housing slump. In the meantime, Reno advised local districts to demonstrate that they can ''spend education money wisely'' before demanding more.
''Be concerned about the reduction, but also be concerned with what you do with the money once you get it,'' she told the crowd gathered at the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 SW 76th Ave.
Gomez also spoke, advocating for the DREAM Act, which would grant U.S. permanent residency to undocumented immigrants who complete two years of college or military service.
''The fact that thousands of students like me can graduate high school with honors without an opportunity for future success speaks volumes about our unique self-motivation,'' he said. ``Just imagine what we could accomplish with a legal status.''
He asked for the club's support to ''stop the daily deportation of great minds,'' saying that ``the United States of America will benefit greatly from our accomplishments and achievements in the future.''
After the speeches, Reno and most of the attendees signed petitions in support of the DREAM Act that will be distributed to members of Congress.
''[Juan and his friends are a] splendid example of what American schools can do,'' Reno said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/pinecrest/story/238539.html
Contradictions in the History of U.S. Immigration
Looking around the Common Dreams website I found this article from 2006. Seems totally relevent in 2007.
-----
Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 by the Chicago Sun-Times
Let's Deport Immigration Myths
by Jesse Jackson
...Until 1918, the United States didn't even require passports -- the term "illegal immigrant" had no meaning. New arrivals merely had to provide their identity and find a friend to vouch for them. Customs officials tried to weed out the lunatic or those infected with disease or "anarchism." The Mexican-U.S. border was then unguarded and crossed freely. When finally passed, immigrant quotas exempted northern Europeans and Mexicans.
And all the same fears that exist now existed then. There was a huge backlash against German, Irish, and Italian immigrants. White Protestant reformers warned that they weren't learning English, that they were drunks, dissolute, lazy. Commentators warned of the "mongrelization" of the "white race." Conservatives warned that immigrants were importing European class warfare into America.
All those fears turned out to be unfounded. The immigrants by and large were immensely hardworking. They learned English and assimilated. Their energy helped fuel America's rise in the 20th century. And the fears this time are likely to be similarly unfounded. The children of today's immigrants are learning English. The newcomers are by and large hardworking. If they are competing at low wages now, they are also at the center of drives to raise the minimum wage and to organize low-paid workers.
We ignore the many contradictions of our immigration policy. Cuban immigrants are invited into America, welcomed and subsidized. Immigrants from neighboring Haiti are locked out and shipped back.
Vigilantes hunt immigrants coming over the Mexican border. But the Canadian border is basically unguarded, and undocumented immigrants from Canada raise no interest and are never called "illegals." Yet, so far as we know, the terrorists coming over the border have come through Canada, not Mexico.
Even as the vigilantes organize to keep undocumented workers out, employers organize to bring them in. They lobby for guest-worker programs, for seasonal exemptions for farm workers, for exemptions for high-tech workers. Or they just routinely hire undocumented workers as a source of cheap labor. But it is also true of liberal, upper-middle-class professionals, happy to have nonunion undocumented workers take care of their lawns, their children or their dogs.
The U.S. military provides an accelerated path to citizenship for legal permanent residents who can present a green card at enlistment. There are some 37,500 foreign nationals from 200 countries in the active-duty and reserve forces. Seventy-one have died in Iraq, three in Afghanistan. Non-citizens perform well; they also tend to serve longer than citizens do.
Undocumented immigrants are not allowed in the military in peacetime. But Section 329 of the Immigration Nationality Act says that an "alien" who "has served honorably" in the armed forces during a period of conflict "may be naturalized" whether or not he or she "has been lawfully admitted to the United States." This is an old tradition. In the Civil War, some 20 percent of the Union forces were not citizens; many were signed up directly off the boat. The second U.S. soldier who died under fire in the Iraq war had entered the United States illegally. With the Army and Marines having difficulty meeting their recruitment goals, more conservatives call for letting undocumented immigrants gain citizenship by agreeing to serve.
-----
Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 by the Chicago Sun-Times
Let's Deport Immigration Myths
by Jesse Jackson
...Until 1918, the United States didn't even require passports -- the term "illegal immigrant" had no meaning. New arrivals merely had to provide their identity and find a friend to vouch for them. Customs officials tried to weed out the lunatic or those infected with disease or "anarchism." The Mexican-U.S. border was then unguarded and crossed freely. When finally passed, immigrant quotas exempted northern Europeans and Mexicans.
And all the same fears that exist now existed then. There was a huge backlash against German, Irish, and Italian immigrants. White Protestant reformers warned that they weren't learning English, that they were drunks, dissolute, lazy. Commentators warned of the "mongrelization" of the "white race." Conservatives warned that immigrants were importing European class warfare into America.
All those fears turned out to be unfounded. The immigrants by and large were immensely hardworking. They learned English and assimilated. Their energy helped fuel America's rise in the 20th century. And the fears this time are likely to be similarly unfounded. The children of today's immigrants are learning English. The newcomers are by and large hardworking. If they are competing at low wages now, they are also at the center of drives to raise the minimum wage and to organize low-paid workers.
We ignore the many contradictions of our immigration policy. Cuban immigrants are invited into America, welcomed and subsidized. Immigrants from neighboring Haiti are locked out and shipped back.
Vigilantes hunt immigrants coming over the Mexican border. But the Canadian border is basically unguarded, and undocumented immigrants from Canada raise no interest and are never called "illegals." Yet, so far as we know, the terrorists coming over the border have come through Canada, not Mexico.
Even as the vigilantes organize to keep undocumented workers out, employers organize to bring them in. They lobby for guest-worker programs, for seasonal exemptions for farm workers, for exemptions for high-tech workers. Or they just routinely hire undocumented workers as a source of cheap labor. But it is also true of liberal, upper-middle-class professionals, happy to have nonunion undocumented workers take care of their lawns, their children or their dogs.
The U.S. military provides an accelerated path to citizenship for legal permanent residents who can present a green card at enlistment. There are some 37,500 foreign nationals from 200 countries in the active-duty and reserve forces. Seventy-one have died in Iraq, three in Afghanistan. Non-citizens perform well; they also tend to serve longer than citizens do.
Undocumented immigrants are not allowed in the military in peacetime. But Section 329 of the Immigration Nationality Act says that an "alien" who "has served honorably" in the armed forces during a period of conflict "may be naturalized" whether or not he or she "has been lawfully admitted to the United States." This is an old tradition. In the Civil War, some 20 percent of the Union forces were not citizens; many were signed up directly off the boat. The second U.S. soldier who died under fire in the Iraq war had entered the United States illegally. With the Army and Marines having difficulty meeting their recruitment goals, more conservatives call for letting undocumented immigrants gain citizenship by agreeing to serve.
An Image of the KKK -
From Harper's Weekly -- Drawing by Frank Bellew
This drawing reminds me of ICE entering a home without a warrant.
Drawing: http://law.jrank.org/article_images/gat_0000_0001_0_img0042.jpg
The Reality of the KKK in Virginia
"To deny the connection of the immigration resolution and the KKK appearance is to deny reality."
The KKK in Washington D.C.
Below is a letter to the editor from a woman in Prince William County. There are a number of ways this could be received - yes she uses the word "illegal" - yes she is affluent, has enough resources to stay home with her children. But the main thing about the letter is her comment on the presence of the KKK.
This is serious stuff. I suggest that if you ever have the opportunity, try to watch the DVDs of "Eyes on the Prize" - that will tell you plenty about the Klan.
The KKK in Washington D.C.
Below is a letter to the editor from a woman in Prince William County. There are a number of ways this could be received - yes she uses the word "illegal" - yes she is affluent, has enough resources to stay home with her children. But the main thing about the letter is her comment on the presence of the KKK.
This is serious stuff. I suggest that if you ever have the opportunity, try to watch the DVDs of "Eyes on the Prize" - that will tell you plenty about the Klan.
_____
Letters To the Editor
Sunday, September 16, 2007; Page PW02
Washington Post
Don't Turn a Blind Eye To Immigration Backlash
As a former middle school counselor in the Baileys Crossroads area, I am very familiar with the challenges that immigrant families -- legal and illegal -- and especially their children face in adapting to life in the United States. By and large, like all immigrants before them, the vast majority want nothing more than to achieve and contribute to the American dream
I am a mother raising two young children in Prince William County, blessed to be a stay-at-home mom. I find myself greatly concerned about how the local political reaction to illegal immigration is affecting the environment in which my children are growing up.
Recently, several members of the Board of County Supervisors sponsored a controversial resolution to combat illegal immigration in the area. Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr. (R-Gainesville) and Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) are entitled to their opinions about illegal immigration, but they are not entitled to turn a blind eye to the actions that certain hate organizations are taking in conjunction with their opinions, specifically the Ku Klux Klan.
Recently, there have been reports on activity by the Klan in some neighborhoods, distributing anti-immigrant material. Instead of perhaps moderating their position on illegal immigration, the supervisors instead denied there was any connection between the two issues.
"I'm really disturbed that he would try to make such a stupid connection," Stewart said about one news story.
"There's a lot of things that happen in life, that may happen in the same time frame that may not necessarily be related to each other," Stirrup said. "I don't really think that there's a relationship between the two."
To deny the connection of the immigration resolution and the KKK appearance is to deny reality.
"If any one single issue or trend can be credited with reenergizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America," said Deborah M. Lauter, civil rights director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported the following: "Energized by the rancorous national debate on immigration and increasingly successful at penetrating mainstream political discourse, hate groups in America continued to grow in number in 2006, rising 5% over the year before to 844 groups.
"That increase translated into a 40% jump in the number of groups since 2000, when there were 602 hate groups operating in America, according to research [by the center's Intelligence Project]. Much of the expansion has been driven by hate groups' exploitation of the issue of illegal immigration, which many Americans see as a pressing concern."
What disappoints me most is the direction my board of supervisors is taking this county, a direction that leads to nowhere but increased hate and division. What we need are voices of innovation, of new ideas, solutions that can take into account the totality of the illegal immigration dilemma before this county and country.
If we do not begin to solve this problem in a realistic and humane way, we will continue to see an upsurge of hate while not addressing the issue of illegal immigration in a comprehensive manner.
Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel
Haymarket
Letter to the editor: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402564.html
photo: http://brotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/klan-members.jpg
Letters To the Editor
Sunday, September 16, 2007; Page PW02
Washington Post
Don't Turn a Blind Eye To Immigration Backlash
As a former middle school counselor in the Baileys Crossroads area, I am very familiar with the challenges that immigrant families -- legal and illegal -- and especially their children face in adapting to life in the United States. By and large, like all immigrants before them, the vast majority want nothing more than to achieve and contribute to the American dream
I am a mother raising two young children in Prince William County, blessed to be a stay-at-home mom. I find myself greatly concerned about how the local political reaction to illegal immigration is affecting the environment in which my children are growing up.
Recently, several members of the Board of County Supervisors sponsored a controversial resolution to combat illegal immigration in the area. Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr. (R-Gainesville) and Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) are entitled to their opinions about illegal immigration, but they are not entitled to turn a blind eye to the actions that certain hate organizations are taking in conjunction with their opinions, specifically the Ku Klux Klan.
Recently, there have been reports on activity by the Klan in some neighborhoods, distributing anti-immigrant material. Instead of perhaps moderating their position on illegal immigration, the supervisors instead denied there was any connection between the two issues.
"I'm really disturbed that he would try to make such a stupid connection," Stewart said about one news story.
"There's a lot of things that happen in life, that may happen in the same time frame that may not necessarily be related to each other," Stirrup said. "I don't really think that there's a relationship between the two."
To deny the connection of the immigration resolution and the KKK appearance is to deny reality.
"If any one single issue or trend can be credited with reenergizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America," said Deborah M. Lauter, civil rights director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported the following: "Energized by the rancorous national debate on immigration and increasingly successful at penetrating mainstream political discourse, hate groups in America continued to grow in number in 2006, rising 5% over the year before to 844 groups.
"That increase translated into a 40% jump in the number of groups since 2000, when there were 602 hate groups operating in America, according to research [by the center's Intelligence Project]. Much of the expansion has been driven by hate groups' exploitation of the issue of illegal immigration, which many Americans see as a pressing concern."
What disappoints me most is the direction my board of supervisors is taking this county, a direction that leads to nowhere but increased hate and division. What we need are voices of innovation, of new ideas, solutions that can take into account the totality of the illegal immigration dilemma before this county and country.
If we do not begin to solve this problem in a realistic and humane way, we will continue to see an upsurge of hate while not addressing the issue of illegal immigration in a comprehensive manner.
Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel
Haymarket
Letter to the editor: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402564.html
photo: http://brotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/klan-members.jpg
Saturday, September 15, 2007
What Kind of Information Do Lawmakers Get Besides Lou Dobbs?
Aside from radio and television news/entertainment, Congressmen and Senators have limited access to what is really going on with DREAM ACT Students. CRS Reports are one way people in Washington, D.C. get information. Below is an excerpt on the DREAM ACT.
If you want to read the whole thing, a link is posted below. Can you imagine how Senators make decisions that affect people's lives this way, and all they have are some hysterical newscasters and a 10 page CRS Report for Congress?
-----
Below is the "Pro and Con" section of a Congressional Report from January 2007 titled:
Unauthorized Alien Students: Issues and "DREAM Act" Legislation
CRS Report for Congress RLS 33863
"For the DREAM ACT
Those who favor DREAM Act proposals to repeal §505 and grant LPR status to unauthorized alien students offer a variety of arguments. They maintain that it is both fair and in the U.S. national interest to enable unauthorized alien students who graduate from high school to continue their education. And they emphasize that large numbers will be unable to do so unless they are eligible for in-state tuition rates at colleges in their states of residence.
Advocates for unauthorized alien students argue that many of them were brought into the United States at a very young age and should not be held responsible for the decision to enter the country illegally. According to these advocates, may of the students have spent most of their lives in the United States and have few, if any, ties to their countries of origin. They argue that these special circumstances demand that the students be granted humanitarian relief in the form of LPR status.
Against the DREAM ACT
Those who oppose making unauthorized alien students eligible for in-state tuition or legal status emphasize that the students and their families are in the United States illegally and should be removed from the country. They object to using U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize the education of individuals (through the granting of in-state tuition rates) who are in the United States in violation of the law. They maintain that funding the education of these students should be the responsibility of their parents or their home countries. They further argue that it is unfair to charge unauthorized alien students in-state tuition, while charging some U.S. citizens higher out-of-state rates.
More broadly, these opponents argue that granting benefits to unauthorized alien students rewards lawbreakers and, thereby, undermines the U.S. immigration system. In their view, the availability of benefits, especially LPR status, will encourage more illegal immigration into the country."
For the entire report: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1606.pdf
If you want to read the whole thing, a link is posted below. Can you imagine how Senators make decisions that affect people's lives this way, and all they have are some hysterical newscasters and a 10 page CRS Report for Congress?
-----
Below is the "Pro and Con" section of a Congressional Report from January 2007 titled:
Unauthorized Alien Students: Issues and "DREAM Act" Legislation
CRS Report for Congress RLS 33863
"For the DREAM ACT
Those who favor DREAM Act proposals to repeal §505 and grant LPR status to unauthorized alien students offer a variety of arguments. They maintain that it is both fair and in the U.S. national interest to enable unauthorized alien students who graduate from high school to continue their education. And they emphasize that large numbers will be unable to do so unless they are eligible for in-state tuition rates at colleges in their states of residence.
Advocates for unauthorized alien students argue that many of them were brought into the United States at a very young age and should not be held responsible for the decision to enter the country illegally. According to these advocates, may of the students have spent most of their lives in the United States and have few, if any, ties to their countries of origin. They argue that these special circumstances demand that the students be granted humanitarian relief in the form of LPR status.
Against the DREAM ACT
Those who oppose making unauthorized alien students eligible for in-state tuition or legal status emphasize that the students and their families are in the United States illegally and should be removed from the country. They object to using U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize the education of individuals (through the granting of in-state tuition rates) who are in the United States in violation of the law. They maintain that funding the education of these students should be the responsibility of their parents or their home countries. They further argue that it is unfair to charge unauthorized alien students in-state tuition, while charging some U.S. citizens higher out-of-state rates.
More broadly, these opponents argue that granting benefits to unauthorized alien students rewards lawbreakers and, thereby, undermines the U.S. immigration system. In their view, the availability of benefits, especially LPR status, will encourage more illegal immigration into the country."
For the entire report: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1606.pdf
Information is Everything: More Info. on the DREAM ACT
I write an introduction to this post because a DREAM ACT student told me they found this posting offensive. These statements are specifically for people who need to be convinced that the DREAM ACT is a good thing. The mere fact of stating the obvious about immigrant families -could be construed as somewhat of an insult. OF course immigrant families have good family values. OF course they are 99% of the time, good honest people. Those of us that believe in the DREAM ACT know these things. But many people out there have ideas about undocumented immigrants being bad, or dishonest, or with low morals. Even though most know that none of this is true, these things still need to be discussed.
Many Americans have the idea that undocumented immigrants are criminals - that they have broken the rule of law- that DREAM ACT kids are not responsible for the parents choices. It hurts to write these words. If you want to look at the letter of the law this is true. But if you look at how the law has been informally interpreted - its a different thing. The kids did not have a choice in crossing into the U.S. But at the same time, remember that the U.S. is changing the rules in mid-stream. The government has looked the other way for 20 years. Now someone has decided this unspoken rule has to change. How can you judge someone who made a decision to immigrate when they are desperate to make a living for their family - and 60% of their home village or town has already left?
When you blame the parents of the DREAM ACT students for breaking immigration rules -- think of what a mother would do for her kid... Its empathy that brings understanding.
I apologize if anyone is offended by this post. However, I think this is what is needed now to help get the DREAM ACT passed.
More later on this topic:
_____
Information is Everything: More Info. on the
DREAM ACT
Being that these few days are very crucial to passing the DREAM ACT
Bill, it would be a good thing to list what the DREAM ACT could do
for the U.S.
1. There is constant talk about how the U.S. is short of techinal
professionals. There are thousands of DREAM ACT students that are
majoring (or have graduated) in engineering and technical fields. Why
import engineers from other countries when the U.S. has them right
here?
2. In Houston for example, the public school district spends hundreds
of thousands of dollars to recruit bi-lingual spanish speaking teachers.
They go to Mexico, Latin American countries and even Spain. Besides
giving a few H.I.S.D. staff a chance to travel internationally, this
amounts to a significant loss of funds. There are thousands of qualified
amounts to a significant loss of funds. There are thousands of qualified
DREAM ACT college graduates who would love to become teachers.
3. The complaints about immigrants not assimilating can be addressed
with thousands of DREAM ACT college graduates. What a better way
to adjust to U.S. Culture? An American college education is a great
indoctrinator of American values.
4. Even though politicians in Virginia are saying that immigrants (i.e.
undocumented immigrants from Spanish Speaking countries) could
not or would not adapt to Virginia values, nothing could be further
from the truth. If the lawmakers are talking about family values,
education, hard work, and patriotism - they can't beat immigrants
from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
-Patriotism: A huge number of immigrant families are seeing their
children enlist for the military - that has been a century old pattern.
-Work Ethic: Since the early 1900's it was common knowledge that
Mexican immigrant laborers were just about the hardest working of all
imported labor.
-Motivated Students: Ask any college professor who has immigrant
students and he/she will tell you that the immigrant students are
much more interested, reliable, respectful, and appreciative of their
education.
-Commitment to Family: It has been a proven fact for a number of
years that Latino babies have a lower mortality rate than Anglo/white
babies. Could this be about closer supervision? More attention and
affection? Fewer kids in day care centers? The divorce rate of
immigrants is lower. Fewer senior citizens move into nursing homes.
5. Concerns about people not learning English. Its is impossible to
obtain a college education in the U.S. without having an excellent
command of English.
6. Passing the DREAM ACT will not start an avalanche of what people are calling amnesty
DREAM ACT students are only 3% of the undocumented
immigrant population. It is a miniscule number. If you think that
family members will request visas through the students, don't worry.
ICE is so slow, family members might not get their documents for
another 12 years.
7. If you think that countries such as Mexico should get their economic
act together so immigration to the U.S. will stop or at least slow down.
Many immigrants are collaborating on community projects back home.
Just read "The Mayas of Morgantown" to see what a group of
Guatemalan immigrants in North Carolina did for their villages back
home.
8. Law abiding future citizens. Contrary to what Dobbs and Sessions
might say, numerous scholarly and government reports indicate
immigrants have a significantly lower crime rate. If you doubt this,
look up "Debunking the Myth of Immigrant Criminality," by Rubén G.
Rumbaut, et. al. University of California, Irvine.
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=403 If
you still doubt, there are many other sources available that prove this.
one more thing. If you really want to do something, write to your
senator and send them the link to this page. Many Senators receive
little or no information on bills they have to vote on. In this case they
are recieving minimal info. and lots of complaints (and misinformation)
from the Lou Dobbs types. If you recall I posted a few
days ago that a journalist who interviewed a number of congressman
was surprised with the lawmakers told him they got most of their info.
about the Ramos - Compean case from Lou Dobbs. see "The Power of
Mis-Information in the Media" that quotes Salon.com Alex
Koppleman.
Koppleman's quote:
""Some members of Congress freely acknowledge that their
information on the [Ramos and Compean] case comes from Dobbs"
If you don't want to give them this web page address, feel free to copy
anything written on these pages. This web site is not about making
money, or getting popular. It is about getting the DREAM ACT passed.
Many Americans have the idea that undocumented immigrants are criminals - that they have broken the rule of law- that DREAM ACT kids are not responsible for the parents choices. It hurts to write these words. If you want to look at the letter of the law this is true. But if you look at how the law has been informally interpreted - its a different thing. The kids did not have a choice in crossing into the U.S. But at the same time, remember that the U.S. is changing the rules in mid-stream. The government has looked the other way for 20 years. Now someone has decided this unspoken rule has to change. How can you judge someone who made a decision to immigrate when they are desperate to make a living for their family - and 60% of their home village or town has already left?
When you blame the parents of the DREAM ACT students for breaking immigration rules -- think of what a mother would do for her kid... Its empathy that brings understanding.
I apologize if anyone is offended by this post. However, I think this is what is needed now to help get the DREAM ACT passed.
More later on this topic:
_____
Information is Everything: More Info. on the
DREAM ACT
Being that these few days are very crucial to passing the DREAM ACT
Bill, it would be a good thing to list what the DREAM ACT could do
for the U.S.
1. There is constant talk about how the U.S. is short of techinal
professionals. There are thousands of DREAM ACT students that are
majoring (or have graduated) in engineering and technical fields. Why
import engineers from other countries when the U.S. has them right
here?
2. In Houston for example, the public school district spends hundreds
of thousands of dollars to recruit bi-lingual spanish speaking teachers.
They go to Mexico, Latin American countries and even Spain. Besides
giving a few H.I.S.D. staff a chance to travel internationally, this
amounts to a significant loss of funds. There are thousands of qualified
amounts to a significant loss of funds. There are thousands of qualified
DREAM ACT college graduates who would love to become teachers.
3. The complaints about immigrants not assimilating can be addressed
with thousands of DREAM ACT college graduates. What a better way
to adjust to U.S. Culture? An American college education is a great
indoctrinator of American values.
4. Even though politicians in Virginia are saying that immigrants (i.e.
undocumented immigrants from Spanish Speaking countries) could
not or would not adapt to Virginia values, nothing could be further
from the truth. If the lawmakers are talking about family values,
education, hard work, and patriotism - they can't beat immigrants
from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
-Patriotism: A huge number of immigrant families are seeing their
children enlist for the military - that has been a century old pattern.
-Work Ethic: Since the early 1900's it was common knowledge that
Mexican immigrant laborers were just about the hardest working of all
imported labor.
-Motivated Students: Ask any college professor who has immigrant
students and he/she will tell you that the immigrant students are
much more interested, reliable, respectful, and appreciative of their
education.
-Commitment to Family: It has been a proven fact for a number of
years that Latino babies have a lower mortality rate than Anglo/white
babies. Could this be about closer supervision? More attention and
affection? Fewer kids in day care centers? The divorce rate of
immigrants is lower. Fewer senior citizens move into nursing homes.
5. Concerns about people not learning English. Its is impossible to
obtain a college education in the U.S. without having an excellent
command of English.
6. Passing the DREAM ACT will not start an avalanche of what people are calling amnesty
DREAM ACT students are only 3% of the undocumented
immigrant population. It is a miniscule number. If you think that
family members will request visas through the students, don't worry.
ICE is so slow, family members might not get their documents for
another 12 years.
7. If you think that countries such as Mexico should get their economic
act together so immigration to the U.S. will stop or at least slow down.
Many immigrants are collaborating on community projects back home.
Just read "The Mayas of Morgantown" to see what a group of
Guatemalan immigrants in North Carolina did for their villages back
home.
8. Law abiding future citizens. Contrary to what Dobbs and Sessions
might say, numerous scholarly and government reports indicate
immigrants have a significantly lower crime rate. If you doubt this,
look up "Debunking the Myth of Immigrant Criminality," by Rubén G.
Rumbaut, et. al. University of California, Irvine.
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=403 If
you still doubt, there are many other sources available that prove this.
one more thing. If you really want to do something, write to your
senator and send them the link to this page. Many Senators receive
little or no information on bills they have to vote on. In this case they
are recieving minimal info. and lots of complaints (and misinformation)
from the Lou Dobbs types. If you recall I posted a few
days ago that a journalist who interviewed a number of congressman
was surprised with the lawmakers told him they got most of their info.
about the Ramos - Compean case from Lou Dobbs. see "The Power of
Mis-Information in the Media" that quotes Salon.com Alex
Koppleman.
Koppleman's quote:
""Some members of Congress freely acknowledge that their
information on the [Ramos and Compean] case comes from Dobbs"
If you don't want to give them this web page address, feel free to copy
anything written on these pages. This web site is not about making
money, or getting popular. It is about getting the DREAM ACT passed.
Senator Sessions Continues to Speak Loudly Against DREAM ACT
Senator Jeff Sessions with Congressman Filner and VA Secretary Togo.Its Time To Work Together For the DREAM ACT
The Senate line-up for the DREAM ACT vote, that will possibly be next week, is not totally clear. Sessions, as usual is screaming inflamatory figures that are incorrect. There are currently app. 65,000 DREAM ACT students in the U.S. - but Sessions says it will give amnesty to 1/3 of the undocumented population (which would be over 3.5 million people).
This is the time for everyone supporting the DREAM ACT to contact their Senators - and remind them that undocumented people have many connections with voters... - and the choice a Senator makes regarding his/her DREAM ACT vote will be remembered by future DREAM ACT U.S. citizens who will certainly be active voters..
_____
Foes line up to oppose DREAM Act
Lawmakers hope to push bits of the DREAM Act immigration bill forward, including a measure that would benefit undocumented immigrant children.
Posted on Sat, Sep. 15, 2007
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
Months after the collapse of a sweeping immigration overhaul, a top Senate Democrat plans to push for a smaller measure that could give tens of thousands of undocumented high school and college students a shot at legalization.
The legislation, known as the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, could give students who were brought to the United States before they were 16 a chance for residency if they graduate from high school, stay out of trouble and complete two years of college or enlist in the military.
Immigration advocates say the legislation, which Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., hopes to introduce as soon as next week, is the best chance for students like brothers Juan and Alex Gomez, who came to the United States as infants, were educated in Miami-Dade public schools and are now fighting orders of deportation to Colombia.
But opponents already are gearing up, hoping to torpedo the measure, which they consider ``piecemeal amnesty.''
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who helped derail the immigration bill, this week sent out a letter to his colleagues, warning that ''a conservative estimate suggests that at least one million illegal aliens will qualify'' for the provision.
Though Sessions' opposition is not unexpected, it represents one of the considerable hurdles the legislation has faced since it was introduced in 2001. The climate for passage may be particularly tough this year, with anti-immigration advocates emboldened by the defeat of the larger immigration bill, which had the backing of President Bush and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Pro-DREAM Act groups are unlikely to have Martinez's support this time around. Durbin plans to offer it as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill. A spokesman for Martinez said Friday that the senator doesn't support ''adding immigration-related amendments'' to the defense bill.
Durbin acknowledges the uphill battle but said he has bipartisan backing and is working both sides to garner more support.
''Thousands of young people are counting on this effort,'' said Durbin, who argued on the Senate floor that ``we can allow a generation of immigrant students with great potential and ambitions to contribute more fully to our society and national security, or we can relegate them to a future in the shadows.''
Durbin suggested the act could boost military recruiting efforts and is hoping interest from the Defense Department will persuade some of the bill's critics to take a second look.
Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, told representatives of veterans' group in June that the measure -- which was then part of the immigration bill -- could ``boost military recruiting.''
A Defense Department's news agency article quoted Carr as saying that because the provision applies to the ''cream of the crop'' of students, it would be ''very appealing'' to the military.
...''They've done everything right, studied hard, worked hard. Why wouldn't we take advantage of that?'' she said. ``It's counterintuitive to be deporting success stories.''
But groups that favor stricter caps on immigration argue that the law doesn't make exceptions.
''I'm somewhat sympathetic, but in the eyes of the law they are illegal, regardless of age or however gifted they are as students,'' said John Keeley of the Center for Immigration Studies. Keeley acknowledged the bill would affect a small percentage of immigrants, ``but to the extent it's passed and signed into law, it creates momentum for more of its kind.''
Sessions argues in his letter to his Senate colleagues that the DREAM Act and a separate immigration measure that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is pursuing ``would provide amnesty to approximately four million illegal aliens [roughly one third of the current illegal alien population].''
Feinstein's AgJOBS bill would allow agricultural workers to obtain legal status.
Among Sessions' complaints: It would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students.
The act, he says, would ``allow future illegal aliens to qualify for in-state tuition even when it is not offered to citizens and legal permanent resident students living just across state lines.''
And Sessions argues that the act ''is not just for children and young adults.'' It requires only that immigrants' illegal entry occur before they were 16 years old.
For complete article: http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/238390.html
Photo: http://www.bavf.org/images/flagweek_2000/bob_filner_jeff_sessions_togo_west.jpg
Knocks and Talk
Photo: by Greg Lundeen
Dark Clouds Over Chaparral New Mexico
Operation Stonegarden Should Be Called Operation Stone Age
Officer calls knocking on doors of private homes "knocks and talk."
_____
ACLU: Immigrant operation a matter of trust
By Jason Gibbs/Sun-News reporter
Las Cruces Sun-News
Article Launched: 09/15/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
LAS CRUCES — The detention this week of several undocumented immigrants in the Chaparral and Vado areas has a national advocacy group on alert and local law enforcement agencies defending their role in Operation Stonegarden.
Monday, the U.S. Border Patrol, along with sheriff's departments from Doña Ana and Otero counties, conducted a 12-hour operation during which 28 undocumented immigrants were detained and turned over to the Border Patrol. The program is funded under the auspices of Operation Stonegarden, a federal homeland security program that funnels funds to local law enforcement agencies for border security.
Otero County devoted nine deputies and three county reserve deputies. Doña Ana County had two deputies on routine patrol in the area as well.
The communities overlap between the Otero and Doña Ana county line, and the two sheriff's departments patrol the area.
Doña Ana sheriff's investigator Bo Nevarez said the federally funded procedure entails officers alerting federal officials if they encounter a lawbreaker and then discover they are not in the United States legally. But it's not a sweep that specifically looks for undocumented immigrants, Nevarez said.
"It is not the policy of the Doña Ana County
Sheriff's Office to go knocking on doors to ascertain the immigration status of anyone," Nevarez said. "However, if through the course of the investigation we discover they are undocumented, we contact the proper authority and make them aware, then turn it over to them."
Nevarez was quick to point out the person turned over must first be a lawbreaker. For instance, if a person is the victim of a crime and calls on officers, they will be treated with the full rights of a U.S. citizen and their citizenship won't be a factor, Nevarez said.
"We do not conduct "knock and talks,'" Nevarez said. "We don't go to a person's residence, unless we have evidence" of criminal activity.
..."We get a lot of calls from the community," he said. "But in regard to Operation Stonegarden, it's a sprinkling of calls. Sometimes it's related to Stonegarden. Sometimes it's other agencies."
Otero County Undersheriff Norbert Sanchez told the Alamogordo Daily-News that sheriff's deputies worked increased patrols in the area. If officers found a violation for something such as a loose dog or traffic offense, they then checked on the immigration status of the offender.
...The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday issued a condemnation of the 12-hour operation, saying local agencies should not be assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. A news release issued by the ACLU alleges officers were knocking on doors and checking identification in neighborhoods with a significant immigrant population.
Nevarez said that was not the case for the two Doña Ana deputies who were in the area during the operation, but were only conducting normal patrols. If, during the course of those duties, they found a lawbreaker who was not in the country legally, that person would be turned over to Border Patrol officials. That, Nevarez said, is standard procedure at all times.
...The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff's departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies. The ACLU maintains immigrants in these communities will be reluctant to call on police in times of need as a result of what Maria Nape, director of the ACLU's Border Rights Office, called "irresponsible policing."
"Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff's deputies, even if they are the victims," Nape said. "When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend."
Operation Stonegarden is a federal initiative that funnels additional money to participating law enforcement agencies to step-up border security efforts...
Jason Gibbs can be reached at jgibbs@lcsun-news.com
LINK to ACLU Request for Open Records: http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site557/2007/0914/20070914_114216_ACLU.0terorequest.pdf
For complete article: http://www.lcsun-news.com/fastsearchresults/ci_6900543
Photo: http://www.srh.weather.gov/elp/swww/v8n1/Chaparral%20Supercell%202.JPG
More ICE Problems in New Mexico
'Serious events' had ICE pull its jail inmates in Albuquerque
By Kate Nash (Contact)
Albuquerque Tribune
Thursday, September 13, 2007
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials pulled all their detainees from a privately run jail in Downtown Albuquerque because of critical concerns about management, a federal official says.
...Mead declined to give specifics about the events, saying they are still under investigation.
"We have serious doubts about their (Cornell's) ability to provide the safe and humane environment we want for our detainees. That's the reason we are not there," Mead said in an interview Wednesday.
...Mead said he's met several times with Cornell officials since June 25, including a meeting at the jail at Fourth Street and Roma Avenue Northwest.
Mead said the immigration agency had concerns about the jail before Chief U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez of Albuquerque sent a letter to Cornell's chief executive officer. Mead said Vazquez's letter in late June only intensified his agency's attention to complaints about conditions at the lockup.
"The Cornell officials basically told us that many of the judge's concerns were unfounded, or were corrected or were in the process of being corrected," Mead said. "They told us not to worry; they were in full control of the facility."
But, he said, "There have been a number of incidents at the facility that caused us to seriously question Cornell's ability to safely and humanely detain our (undocumented immigrants) there."
In her letter, [Chief U.S. District Judge Martha] Vazquez said she was worried about medical care, physical conditions and nutrition at the lockup. She recounted stories inmates told her during visits this summer to the jail about missing property, and allegations of sexual misconduct and of inmates who were punished for speaking out.
Federal authorities are also investigating the death of a Korean woman who died at an Albuquerque hospital while in the jail's custody last year. The woman's repeated requests for medical attention were ignored, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Cornell spokesman Charles Seigel said the company has worked to address the agency's concerns and would like to know what it can still do to appease the immigration agency.
"We hear from them all the time about the past history they don't like," he said. "All we would like to hear is a specific list of things to do to make them happy, because all we hear about is past history. What we don't hear from that is what we need to do to resolve their concerns and make it a facility they can bring people back to."
As for the serious incidents Mead mentioned, Seigel also refused to give details.
"There are things that have happened in the past that we have addressed with ICE. We've been told everything is fine, and we've dealt with ICE," he said.
[Cornell spokesman Charles] Seigel said Cornell is more than willing to do what it takes to have ICE as a client again. At the same time, the company is looking for other inmates to fill the jail.
"First of all, we know they are the customer, and what their perception is is what matters. There's no point in going back and forth about whether we agree with their concerns. If that's their perception, that's their perception and we'll address it."
Before it removed all of its detainees, the immigration agency pulled about half in the hope that Cornell could do a better job with fewer people, Mead said.
...ICE, which has about 30,000 detainees at 300 to 350 facilities around the country, only rarely has pulled inmates, Mead said.
...Cornell has run the former Bernalillo County Detention Center since 2003. The facility is still owned by the county, which receives about $1.5 million a year in rent from Cornell.
Without ICE as a tenant, Cornell earlier this week cut 82 of 185 employee positions at the jail...
For complete article:
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/sep/13/serious-events-had-ice-pull-its-jail-inmates-albuq/
By Kate Nash (Contact)
Albuquerque Tribune
Thursday, September 13, 2007
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials pulled all their detainees from a privately run jail in Downtown Albuquerque because of critical concerns about management, a federal official says.
...Mead declined to give specifics about the events, saying they are still under investigation.
"We have serious doubts about their (Cornell's) ability to provide the safe and humane environment we want for our detainees. That's the reason we are not there," Mead said in an interview Wednesday.
...Mead said he's met several times with Cornell officials since June 25, including a meeting at the jail at Fourth Street and Roma Avenue Northwest.
Mead said the immigration agency had concerns about the jail before Chief U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez of Albuquerque sent a letter to Cornell's chief executive officer. Mead said Vazquez's letter in late June only intensified his agency's attention to complaints about conditions at the lockup.
"The Cornell officials basically told us that many of the judge's concerns were unfounded, or were corrected or were in the process of being corrected," Mead said. "They told us not to worry; they were in full control of the facility."
But, he said, "There have been a number of incidents at the facility that caused us to seriously question Cornell's ability to safely and humanely detain our (undocumented immigrants) there."
In her letter, [Chief U.S. District Judge Martha] Vazquez said she was worried about medical care, physical conditions and nutrition at the lockup. She recounted stories inmates told her during visits this summer to the jail about missing property, and allegations of sexual misconduct and of inmates who were punished for speaking out.
Federal authorities are also investigating the death of a Korean woman who died at an Albuquerque hospital while in the jail's custody last year. The woman's repeated requests for medical attention were ignored, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Cornell spokesman Charles Seigel said the company has worked to address the agency's concerns and would like to know what it can still do to appease the immigration agency.
"We hear from them all the time about the past history they don't like," he said. "All we would like to hear is a specific list of things to do to make them happy, because all we hear about is past history. What we don't hear from that is what we need to do to resolve their concerns and make it a facility they can bring people back to."
As for the serious incidents Mead mentioned, Seigel also refused to give details.
"There are things that have happened in the past that we have addressed with ICE. We've been told everything is fine, and we've dealt with ICE," he said.
[Cornell spokesman Charles] Seigel said Cornell is more than willing to do what it takes to have ICE as a client again. At the same time, the company is looking for other inmates to fill the jail.
"First of all, we know they are the customer, and what their perception is is what matters. There's no point in going back and forth about whether we agree with their concerns. If that's their perception, that's their perception and we'll address it."
Before it removed all of its detainees, the immigration agency pulled about half in the hope that Cornell could do a better job with fewer people, Mead said.
...ICE, which has about 30,000 detainees at 300 to 350 facilities around the country, only rarely has pulled inmates, Mead said.
...Cornell has run the former Bernalillo County Detention Center since 2003. The facility is still owned by the county, which receives about $1.5 million a year in rent from Cornell.
Without ICE as a tenant, Cornell earlier this week cut 82 of 185 employee positions at the jail...
For complete article:
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/sep/13/serious-events-had-ice-pull-its-jail-inmates-albuq/
Illegal Entry - ICE in New Mexico
ICE does not believe in following federal laws about illegal entry- now that they have easily entered the homes of people in Chaparral and Vado, New Mexico. The Sheriff's deputies of these counties are cooperating with ICE - New Mexico made $1.6 million for cooperating.
Where is Governer Richardson now? This is a great opportunity for him to intervene if he really means what he says about undocumented immigrants.
ICE is rewriting federal law to suit itself. Why doesn't any of this come up in the conformation hearings of ICE Director this past week?
_____
ACLU Criticizes Border Raids
LAS CRUCES, NM—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned recent immigration raids by Otero and Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies in the border towns of Chaparral and Vado today. The local police agencies are assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to conduct sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, knocking on doors and checking identification. Authorities also are stopping motorists and entering private businesses.
The ACLU is investigating multiple reports that sheriff's deputies retrieved children from schools and entered homes without consent or warrants. The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff’s departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies.
“This is irresponsible policing,” said Maria Nape, Director of the ACLU's Border Rights office. “Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff’s deputies, even if they are the victims. When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend. It’s not just immigrants that are affected.”
The raids stem from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program called “Operation Stonegarden” which gave New Mexico roughly $1.6 million in support of local law enforcement participation in immigration enforcement along the border. In total, the four Southwest border states received $12 million in grant awards.
“These raids are symptomatic of the same reactionary policies that have failed to address nationwide concerns about immigration for decades,” Nape said. “Do we want to live in a country that makes life so intolerable for hundreds of thousands of families who live and work here that they leave? Or would we rather live in an America that brings immigrants out of the shadows of society and enables them to be taxpaying, contributing citizens?
Whitney Potter
Communications Manager
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
PO BOX 566, Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 ext 1003 | Fax: (505) 266-5916 | Email: wpotter@aclu-nm.org | Web: aclu-nm.org
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog
Where is Governer Richardson now? This is a great opportunity for him to intervene if he really means what he says about undocumented immigrants.
ICE is rewriting federal law to suit itself. Why doesn't any of this come up in the conformation hearings of ICE Director this past week?
_____
ACLU Criticizes Border Raids
LAS CRUCES, NM—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned recent immigration raids by Otero and Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies in the border towns of Chaparral and Vado today. The local police agencies are assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to conduct sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, knocking on doors and checking identification. Authorities also are stopping motorists and entering private businesses.
The ACLU is investigating multiple reports that sheriff's deputies retrieved children from schools and entered homes without consent or warrants. The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff’s departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies.
“This is irresponsible policing,” said Maria Nape, Director of the ACLU's Border Rights office. “Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff’s deputies, even if they are the victims. When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend. It’s not just immigrants that are affected.”
The raids stem from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program called “Operation Stonegarden” which gave New Mexico roughly $1.6 million in support of local law enforcement participation in immigration enforcement along the border. In total, the four Southwest border states received $12 million in grant awards.
“These raids are symptomatic of the same reactionary policies that have failed to address nationwide concerns about immigration for decades,” Nape said. “Do we want to live in a country that makes life so intolerable for hundreds of thousands of families who live and work here that they leave? Or would we rather live in an America that brings immigrants out of the shadows of society and enables them to be taxpaying, contributing citizens?
Whitney Potter
Communications Manager
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
PO BOX 566, Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 ext 1003 | Fax: (505) 266-5916 | Email: wpotter@aclu-nm.org | Web: aclu-nm.org
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog