Under the Moon

The film "Under the Moon" will come to Houston in March 2008. Matamoros Food Markets will give away 12 tickets to the film in a drawing on March 4.

A story portraying the immigrant familia....

Hopefully this movie comes to Texas. When I first saw a preview a few weeks ago...I was not that excited because its has the most common plot ( la famila inmigrante sufre al venir a los EEUU, la unidad de la familia es interumpida y luego atravez de eventos imaginables se reunen y se convierte en un cuento feliz) . Don't get me wrong, I truly wish that all immigrant families had a happy ending in real life. I just feel it is "refry". What matters in this story is that family is the most important aspect and the reality is moving...I'm sure that many people will go see it. We'll see if im right or wrong when I watch the movie.

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LA MISMA LUNA


In her feature debut, Patricia Riggen offers a touching tale of the way the love between a mother and child can thrive and endure despite physical separation.

In La Misma Luna (The Same Moon), Riggen gives us the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.

Unexpected circumstances drive both Rosario and Carlitos to embark on their own journeys in a desperate attempt to reunite. Along the way, mother and son face challenges and obstacles but never lose hope that they will one day be together again.

Riggen's film is not only a heartwarming family story; she also offers subtle commentary on the much-debated issue of illegal immigration.

Adeptly weaving the stories of mother and son, Riggen has created a poignant film that reminds us that the most important thing in life is the love of family. At every turn, La Misma Luna (The Same Moon) underscores the notion that geography is insignificant, for we are all under the same moon.

http://www.lamismaluna.com/

Picture from itunes.

President Bill Clinton at Mason Park

Becuase this is a country of democracy...and for those of us who are still undecided...

Meet President Bill Clinton at a
Rally for Hillary

this Sunday, March 2nd at 11:00 amat Mason Park on 75th St

Let's make this a massive rally to show our Hispanic Unity and Strength!

Education and its influence amongst young voters

TRUE. College students are voting but those without college a education are NOT. The question is, what is the government trying to do to attract those who lack knowledge on the subject.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February 28, 2008

WIRETAP contributor: Karlo Barrios Marcel0
Latest Research Reveals Huge Disparities Among Young Voters
http://www.wiretapmag.org/blogs/elections2008/43445/

College students are voting in record numbers and making their issues heard in the 2008 primary season. Young people without college experience -- who constitute close to half of the 18- to 29-year-old electorate and are more likely to be youth of color -- are notably absent.
If social science research can be sure about anything, it's the fact that education is positively correlated with many civic engagement outcomes -- including voter turnout rates. In the 2004 presidential election, 27 percentage points separated the turnout rates of the college-educated (61 percent) and youth who have no college experience (32 percent). This gap has persisted since 1972 and it continues today. New CIRCLE research found that one in four young people with at least some college experience voted in the 2008 Super Tuesday states, compared to just one in 14 non-college youth.
For the health of our democracy, it is critical that all citizens make their interests and concerns known to elected officials. When youth without college education don't vote, their interests get ignored by government, which in turn, provides inadequate resources to their schools and communities perpetuating the cycle of non-participation.
We need to address this gap now -- during this election -- and while the emphasis on the internet and online organizing is effective this year in delivering information about the voting process to college youth, it leaves out non-college youth, whose voices need the most amplification. Complicating outreach tactics even more, places that were once venues for mobilizing non-college youth, such as unions, and community organizations, are less effective today because of declining membership rates.
One way to engage non-college youth, in the long term, is to improve access to and affordability of college; but not everyone wants to attend. For those young people that do not want to attend college -- or can't afford or access it -- the focus needs to turn to high school civic education. A new CIRCLE working paper found that students in higher-income school districts are twice as likely as those from average-income districts to learn how laws are made and how Congress works. More than that, they are more than one-and-a-half times as likely to report having political debates and panel discussions.
Political campaigns know that getting votes from harder-to-reach, non-college youth is more costly, in both time and money, compared to reaching out to college-educated voters. So while politicians and today's presidential candidates need to find new ways to reach out directly to non-college youth, so do young, college-educated voters, who can leverage their growing voting power to give a platform to the issues and voices of non-college youth.
A successful democracy isn't just about voting; it also requires the full participation of all of its citizens in every aspect of civil society. And sometimes participation means standing up for those Millennials that don't have the ear of political candidates.

Looking for empathy in the mirror

On February 24, 2008, dreamacttexas published a post titled "The American Renaissance of White Racial Preservation." This post was based on a conference held in Washington DC that highlighted speakers noted for their right wing, anti-immigrant positions.

In a paradoxical way, the American Renaissance Conference reminds me of the new blog that has over 5 million hits in only six weeks. The name is stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com . Both the conference and the blog, albeit from different angles, are dealing with the same issue.

White people need to find their ethnicity too. Ever since they were forbidden to have their "white only" clubs - they have been culturally lost, spending their lives seeking the perfect coffee maker. Blacks have their clubs, so do Latinos, women too. But you hear about a white guys club and you automatically think RACIST! It might have been that way before, and probably still retains some of that need to keep out undesirables. But it is important to remember that there is another, very significant aspect of identity-making that takes place in these clubs that are limited to only one type of member. If you hang around people that look and think like you. - you usually find empathy (yes, even right wing evangelicals can be empathic with their own kind) -

Speaking of empathy; Obama is saying that the country has lost it's ability to be empathic. I agree. The American Renaissance Conferences and the stuffwhitepeoplelike blog are telling us that white people are desperate to find a solid coherent group so they can re-find their lost identity and connect with someone that "understands."


----

Guardian Diary - London
Hugh Muir
Thursday, February 28, 2008

What a swell party it was. Those lucky enough to get to the American Renaissance conference in Washington at the weekend - a yearly meeting of the nastier thought champions of the far right - had much to enjoy.

There were hot tickets like J Philippe Rushton, "the world's foremost scholar of racial differences". Also Bruno Gollnisch, the second-ranked executive of the French National Front, and Sam G Dickson, a "longtime racial activist" and lawyer to white supremacist groups. Michael Walker, once a leading light in the British National Front, was also billed to appear...

...one of the speakers to gain most attention - the after-dinner speaker in fact - was our friend Ashley Mote, the MEP for the South-East, who having served his prison sentence for benefit fraud, is finding new ways to exploit his freedom. His theme was Britain's "immigration crisis", and though some had misgivings about listening to a convicted criminal, reports suggest he went down well. Despite a pending appeal to the House of Lords, he may never be taken seriously as a politician now, so if he is mining the rich seam that is redneck cabaret, good luck to him. He did wrong, it's true. But a man's gotta eat...

diary@guardian.co.uk

for link to complete Guardian article click the title of this post

image: http://www.world-mysteries.com/illusions/sci_ill_mirror.jpg

Southeast Obama campaign to hold DREAM Act Press Conference

This is fresh from the Obama campaign media coordinators in Houston:


The Southeast Obama campaign in Houston will be holding a DREAM Act press conference where students and their families are invited to be part of this event:

WHEN: Tomorrow: February 29th @ 5pm

WHO: Obama campaign invites: Rep. Ana Hernandez, California Senators Gloria Romero and Gilberto Cedillo, author of in-sate tuition for immigrant students in California.

WHERE: 2215 South Wayside, Houston, TX 77023

For more information contact: 916 838-4456

***Students are encouraged to attend, the campaign will have materials to make signs if you wish to do so.

Aqui Estoy, Here I am- Theatre projects touch on Immigration

I was so happy to have come across this today. This is from Albany Park Theatre Project based in Chicago; this play explores the complexities of immigration, its consequences and struggles. The play seems to be out already, but it would be great to see this; this is the clip featured on PBS.

I come from the trash dumps of Honduras, the football fields of Mexico, the genocide in Guatemala, a first-grade classroom in Bogotá. I come from riding the tops of freight trains across la bestia, arriving at O'Hare airport in my mother's arms, hiding beneath clothes in a pickup truck headed for Los Angeles. I come from farming, from shoemaking, from scavenging. From busing tables and going to school. From construction, demolition, painting, gardening. I come from waiting for work at La Parada and waiting for the law to change. I come from my long-distance love for the family I left behind, my devotion to the family that came with me, my dreams for the family I created here. I come from being a citizen, refugee, resident, alien-I come from being American. Aqui Estoy. I am here. In Chicago, in Albany Park, on the stage, in the audience.
Aqui Estoy.

This reminded me of Nine Digits, a play from California that uniquely and solely talked about undocumented Students. As i continued reading i found out that one of the cast members from of Albany Park Theater Project is a DREAMER and Nine Digits was inspired by him.

Are you American if you were born in Panama?

Senator John McCain as an infant. His grandfather (in Naval officer's uniform) is holding him. McCain's father is to the left of them. Were they in Panama when the picture was taken?







My father once told me that could never run for U.S. President because he was not born in the United States - his mother had been a U.S. citizen (who lost her citizenship when she married a Mexican citizen). I was about ten years old at the time. His comment made me sad - although I knew he would never want to be President, I wanted to know that he could at least have the right to try. I remember thinking about it from time to time throughout my childhood. Now that I am an adult it seems somewhat comical - or "cutely innocent." But you know little girls often adore their fathers, and I certainly did.

As for McCain, we all know that if immigration would not be such a contentious issue these days, no one would have noticed his birthplace issue - there would not have been any question. The NYT does not say where the story came from. McCain's citizenship issue came up when there was some notice about Romney's Mexico connection. One (or more) of the major newspapers published the photo (above), but it didn't seem to go anywhere. So why now?

In a previous post I quoted ICE director Julie Myers saying that ICE wanted to send: "a strong message to those who choose to disregard our nation's laws"

Personally I hope this issue does not eliminate him from the race. But as many people are saying these days "illegal is illegal." What would the Republicans say if they were pressured to go by the letter of the law and pull McCain out for having been born in Panama? It wasn't his fault he was born there, why should he be punished for it? --- These days, its only DREAMERS that get punished for not having born here.

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February 28, 2008
New York Times

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

Ms. Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of Mr. McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.

Ms. Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.

“They ought to have the same rights,” said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. “There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what ‘natural-born citizen’ means.”

Mr. McCain’s situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare Mr. McCain goes more to the interpretation of “natural born” when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.

Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.

It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.

Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.” But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the “natural-born” phrase.

Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.

“I don’t think he has any problem whatsoever,” said Mr. Nickles, a McCain supporter. “But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win.”

Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.

In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be “unpredictable and unsatisfactory.”

“If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain,” Ms. Pryor said in a recent interview. “But it is certainly not a frivolous issue.”

for link to NYT article click the title of this post

the article was previously posted on the Huffington Post
photo: http://www.friendsofmccain.com/images/father_grandfather.jpg

Virtual Border Wall Postponed at Least 3 yrs - Thank Goodness

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'Virtual Fence' Along Border To Be Delayed
U.S. Retooling High-Tech Barrier After 28-Mile Pilot Project Fails

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 28, 2008; A01

The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday.

Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee.

Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol.

The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush in May 2006 called "the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history." The virtual fence was to be a key component of his proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration policies, which died last year in the Senate.

Investigators for the Government Accountability Office had earlier warned that the effort was beset by both expected and unplanned difficulties. But yesterday, they disclosed new troubles that will require a redesign and said the first phase will not be completed until near the end of the next president's first term.

Those problems included Boeing's use of inappropriate commercial software, designed for use by police dispatchers, to integrate data related to illicit border-crossings. Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project, and in December, the DHS gave the firm another $65 million to replace the software with military-style, battle management software.

In an interview, Gregory L. Giddens, the department's executive director for the border effort, confirmed that "we . . . have delayed our deployment as we work through the issues on Project 28. While there is clear urgency of the mission, we also want to make sure we do this right."

Boeing has said that the initial effort, while flawed, still has helped Homeland Security apprehend 2,000 illegal immigrants since September. It estimated in 2006 that it would spend $7.6 billion through 2011 to secure the entire 2,000-mile southern border, an ambition that was meant to win support from conservatives for legislation creating a guest-worker program and a path to legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants.

But officials said yesterday that they now expect to complete the first phase of the virtual fence's deployment -- roughly 100 miles near Tucson and Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Tex. -- by the end of 2011, instead of by the end of 2008. That target falls outside Boeing's initial contract, which will end in September 2009 but can be extended.

The virtual fence was to complement a physical fence that the administration now says will include 370 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers to be completed by the end of this year. The GAO said this portion of the project may also be delayed and that its total cost cannot be determined. The president's 2009 budget does not propose funds to add fencing beyond the 700 or so miles meant to be completed this year.

"The total cost is not yet known," testified Richard M. Stana, the GAO's director of homeland security issues, because DHS officials "do not yet know the type of terrain where the fencing is to be constructed, the materials to be used, or the cost to acquire the land."

The pilot virtual fence included nine mobile towers, radar, cameras, and vehicles retrofitted with laptops and satellite phones or handheld devices. They were to be linked to a near-real-time, maplike projection of the frontier that agents could use to track targets and direct law enforcement resources.

GAO investigators said that Boeing's software could not process large amounts of sensor data. The resulting delays made it hard for operators in a Tucson command center 65 miles to the north to lock cameras on targets. Radar systems were also triggered inadvertently by rain and other environmental factors. Cameras had trouble resolving images at five kilometers when they were expected to work at twice that distance, Stana said.

He added that the system was developed with "minimal input" from Border Patrol agents, resulting in an unworkable "demonstration project" instead of a operating pilot system. He blamed the DHS for acting too hastily in trying to deliver a working pilot by last June.

The effort produced "a product that did not fully meet user needs, and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future . . . development," Stana testified, adding that the DHS plans to replace most of the components. The Wall Street Journal said Saturday that Boeing's pilot project will not be replicated.

A nongovernment source familiar with the project said that the Bush administration's push to speed the project during last year's immigration debate led Boeing to deploy equipment without enough testing or consultation.

With more time, the source said, equipment and software will be tested more carefully and integrated with input from Border Patrol agents in three remote locations. "Doing it this way mitigates all kinds of risk," said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Those running the project "basically took equipment, put it on towers and put it out there without any testing as such" because of the tight deadline.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that the department will "take elements" of the pilot project and apply them elsewhere, but that it plans to expand the number of mobile ground surveillance units from a handful to 40, and to double its fleet of three unmanned aerial vehicles. Boeing has offered DHS a $2 million credit from the funds it has already received.

Technology at the border is "not necessarily going to be in the configuration of P28," Chertoff said, adding that unmanned aerial systems in particular "will play a major role" in most border areas.

Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said the company is referring all questions to the DHS.

for link to WP article, click the title of this post

Those All-American Teams That Work Together

Julie L. Myers, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

"Our teams working together across six states today sent a strong message to those who choose to disregard our nation's laws"

Can you imagine "teams" working together to cause fear and terror - work that has de-humanized their "captives." They pick up teenage girls who skipped school. They pick up people and assume they are undocumented until they find proof otherwise, which is difficult since most people don't carry around their passports. They pick up people who walked a thousand miles to find a low paying job that would at least provide enough money to feed their kids.

What can I compare this to? The Gestapo looking for people like Anne Frank in Amsterdam? The dog catcher looking for stray animals? Or a bunch of grownups who are playing a dangerous game of tag (and enjoying it - just look at how they high-five each other when they make a hit)

You know those executioners in period movies? I just saw "Anne of a Thousand Days." As I saw the man in the black mask ready to cut off her head, I wondered what happens to executioners who are reincarnated.

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30 illegal immigrants arrested in Chicago area, ICE officials say

By Antonio Olivo |Chicago Tribune reporter

February 27, 2008

More than 200 illegal immigrants who had previously been ordered out of the country were arrested in Illinois and five other states during a four-day sweep that ended Monday, federal officials announced.

In the Chicago area, federal agents arrested 30 people from Poland, Mexico, Romania and nine other countries -- part of a continued escalation of enforcement against illegal immigration that has stirred fear and anger in immigrant enclaves across the country.

"Our teams working together across six states today sent a strong message to those who choose to disregard our nation's laws," Julie L. Myers, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Tuesday. "If you ignore a judge's order of removal, ICE will find you, arrest you, and you will be returned to your home country."

About 72,000 "fugitive aliens" have been arrested since 2003, department officials said in a news release. In the Chicago area, 632 people have been arrested during such sweeps between October and last week, said Gail Montenegro, a local ICE spokeswoman.

Activists are preparing for another season of demonstrations.

Next month, a three-day conference scheduled in Pilsen will culminate in preparations for yet another march through the Loop, said Jorge Mujica, one of the chief organizers for the March 10 Coalition.

Planning also is under way for a "1,000-mile march" from St. Paul to Washington next month that will cut through Chicago.

-----------

aolivo@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

for link to Tribune article click the title of this post

photo: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/09/09/PH2007090901808.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/09/AR2007090901807.html&h=190&w=163&sz=14&hl=en&start=10&sig2=vBR1siRo-bLW90rHXCJAPg&um=1&tbnid=qdo1UOIcjxjwjM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=88&ei=KjfGR9W3E6qspwSzva0l&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2B%2522julie%2BL%2BMyers%2522%26as_st%3Dy%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

Deported for Truancy in Tyler, Texas

Two sisters are being deported to El Salvador. It seems that missing too much school and a bad attitude encouraged someone to call in ICE. Even the judge was surprised.

Justice of the Peace Mitch Shamburger:

'"The officer [who booked them] called me and said I wouldn't have to worry about them skipping school anymore because ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) placed a hold on them and was deporting them back to El Salvador," he said.'

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Tyler Morning Telegraph
February 23, 2008
Skipping School Gets 2 Sisters Deported

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

WINONA - Skipping school is usually met with fines and the threat of jail time; but, for two sisters, the punishment was much worse - they were deported.

Smith County Justice of the Peace Mitch Shamburger said he presided over truancy court last month when Brisa and Lluva Amante, both 17, snickered in his courtroom.

The John Tyler High School students were before him for skipping school and Shamburger said he fined them each for the action and told them to go to school every day and not to come back to his courtroom.

"I thought they would take it seriously and I wouldn't see them again," he said Friday.

However, the twins and a younger sister were brought before him on Feb. 14 for another charge of truancy.

"I asked them if they didn't understand and they just kind of snickered," he said.

Shamburger said he instructed the bailiff to handcuff the two sisters and hoped that would sober up their mood.

"It cut down on the giggling, but they stood against the wall and still kind of laughed," he said.

Shamburger said he called the two teens in front of his bench and told them they were both adults in the eyes of the law and he was sending them to the Smith County Jail to do time for skipping school.

"I told the deputy constable that if the twins had a come to Jesus meeting then he could turn around, but they didn't so he proceeded to the jail to book them in," he said.

What happened next took Shamburger by surprise.

"The officer called me and said I wouldn't have to worry about them skipping school anymore because ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) placed a hold on them and was deporting them back to El Salvador," he said.

Shamburger said he hoped the girls would learn a lesson from visiting the jail, but was not prepared for the news.

"In all of my years on the bench I have never had someone deported for truancy," he said.

previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog

for link to Tyler.com article, click the title of this post

DREAM Students hold voter registration campaigns

For a long time our student organization held many events that encouraged citizens to vote and we also held numerous citizenship workshops where we helped permanent residents become citizens.

At the same time i couldn't help but to feel some sort of resentment for not being able to vote and knowing a lot of things about the system; there, registering people to become citizens... how ironic.

Today i came across this article and realized how important it is for us, DREAMER's to let people know what is going on with the presidential candidates and the DREAM Act for example. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have endorsed the DREAM Act numerous times. I have always felt more trust towards Obama, i have to confess that during the debate in Austin Texas on Feb. 23rd, his assurance that the DREAM Act would be a top priority made me smile.


Some of my friends who can vote but don't usually do have decided to listen to me and vote. If today i was able to go out and vote i would.

*******

SJSU students, legal and illegal, plan grass-roots voter registration campaign
By Javier Erik Olvera
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/27/2008 01:33:14 AM PST

Jose Ruiz is like many college students.

He's outspoken. He's politically active. And, most important, he wants to make sure as many people as possible hit the polls come Election Day.

Why? Because he can't. Ruiz is an illegal immigrant.

Buoyed by Super Tuesday's record Latino voter turnout, a San Jose State University student group - made up of both legal and illegal residents - is planning a widespread, grass-roots campaign to register voters, especially those who can speak for them at the polls.

"I don't need to live in the shadows anymore," said Ruiz, a 24-year-old SJSU student whose mother brought him from Mexico on a tourist visa when he was a child.

But the campaign is already sparking some controversy, with immigrant advocates applauding the students' efforts and opponents arguing their efforts could have grave consequences for U.S. citizens. No matter the reaction, though, it's another step forward for the group known as Student Advocates for Higher Education, which has challenged lawmakers to pass a bill granting certain illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship if they graduate from college.

Group members have repeatedly made headlines during the past year. First they took part in a weeklong fast last summer to draw attention to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (or DREAM) Act, prompting conservative radio host Michael Savage to suggest they starve to death. They also rallied....(more)

Image obtained here

Watching the Latino Vote in Texas

In a conversation I had more than twenty years ago with an assistant to Houston's mayor - I was told that Hispanic voters weren't taken seriously because they didn't go vote. The low voter turn out in the Latino community may still be partly true. But there should be much more incentive for people to go to the polls this time around.

Thinking back to what the mayor's assistant told me, maybe Latinos didn't vote because they thought their vote would note be taken seriously. It reminds me of when an African American girl won homecoming queen at my high school (in the late 60s). It was the first time ever. Many Anglo students and their parents were incensed and demanded a new election.

Maybe Latinos think that if they actually sway the outcome, that it will be challenged... or stolen anyway (this is a Texas tradition - think about LBJ's stolen congressional election). Or that the politician can't be trusted. About ten years ago in a class I was teaching at a local university - the students and I began talking about local Latino politicians. Almost all of the students told me they could not trust elected officials, Latino or not. They said that politicians said things they didn't mean and projected false fronts. That particular class was mostly Hispanic. Those young people would be in their early 30s now. I wonder if they still feel the same way.


Texas Observer on the Latino vote

"The question is how many of those urban Latinos can vote and will vote in the Democratic primary. Those numbers are difficult to discern — after all, voters don’t mark their ethnicity on the ballot. In an effort to understand the potential Latino impact on the primary, the Observer asked Leland Beatty, an Austin political consultant who specializes in voter identification, to analyze recent Democratic primaries and make an educated projection of Latino turnout.

Beatty qualified his analysis by saying that the 2008 primary may attract so many voters that it could be difficult to model. It’s possible the Democratic primary turnout will be double that of 2004. With so many new voters flooding the polling stations, predicting how many will be Latino and how many will be African-American is tough. Based on past primaries, Beatty’s computer models projected that Latinos would comprise 31 percent of the vote. The largest group lives in South Texas, where the more than 183,000 Latino voters make up more than 75 percent of the electorate."

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Texas Observer

Voto por Voto

Will Latino voters stand and be counted?

by David Mann

| February 22, 2008 |

It seems every election in Texas is accompanied by big talk from political pundits that, at long last, the slumbering Latino vote will become a decisive force at the ballot box. So far, it’s been more promise than reality.

But this year may finally be different. No, really. The campaigns for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have streamed into Texas ahead of the state’s critical primary on March 4. Both campaigns are convinced that the Latino vote, which will likely comprise a third of the Democratic primary electorate, will be the key to Texas.

For Clinton, the calculus is simple. The Latino vote has been an indispensable segment of her coalition. She carried that vote in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. In California on February 5, Latinos probably saved Clinton’s candidacy by delivering a critical win in the nation’s largest state. Despite polls showing Obama surging ahead there, Clinton secured an impressive 10-point victory. Latinos made up 30 percent of the vote, a record turnout, and 67 percent went for Clinton, according to exit polls.

The Clinton campaign hopes to duplicate that scenario in Texas. Much of the credit for the Latino turnout in California went to Clinton’s field director, Mike Trujillo, a former staffer for Los Angeles Mayor and Clinton supporter Antonio Villaraigosa. Clinton sent Trujillo to Texas to rerun the California playbook.

Moreover, the Clintons have a long history in South Texas, dating to the early 1970s, when Hillary helped register Latino voters along the border for the McGovern campaign. She and Bill are friends with some of South Texas’ best-known politicians, including former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros.

Garry Mauro, the longtime Clinton friend who’s working on her Texas campaign, has helped with the Clintons’ appeal to Latinos in the past. In fall 1992, Mauro, then-land commissioner, designed a South Texas strategy that forced George H.W. Bush to invest money in the state he called home.

Even Obama’s supporters concede that Clinton has considerable appeal among Latinos. “That Clinton name still has a lot of currency, and Bill Clinton especially is still very much well liked among Latinos in Texas,” said Rafael Anchia, a Dallas state representative who’s helping the Obama campaign reach out to Latino voters. The question is not whether Clinton will poll well with Latinos, but how well.

To have any chance of winning in Texas, Obama will probably have to keep Clinton’s share of the Latino vote under 60 percent. His camp believes he can nibble away at Clinton’s edge in the weeks before primary day. Anchia said that voters in general like Obama more as they get to know him. Obama ads have debuted on Spanish language radio and television stations.

Anchia says the campaign believes that while older Latinos may remain loyal to Clinton, the younger Latino voters in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio will flock to Obama, who’s proven popular with the youth vote. Several young Latino state representatives from urban areas have endorsed him, including Anchia, Trey Martinez Fischer (San Antonio), Norma Chavez (El Paso), Ana Hernandez (Houston), and Eddie Lucio III (Brownsville). And Anchia points out that North Texas has more Latinos than South Texas.

The question is how many of those urban Latinos can vote and will vote in the Democratic primary. Those numbers are difficult to discern — after all, voters don’t mark their ethnicity on the ballot. In an effort to understand the potential Latino impact on the primary, the Observer asked Leland Beatty, an Austin political consultant who specializes in voter identification, to analyze recent Democratic primaries and make an educated projection of Latino turnout.

Beatty qualified his analysis by saying that the 2008 primary may attract so many voters that it could be difficult to model. It’s possible the Democratic primary turnout will be double that of 2004. With so many new voters flooding the polling stations, predicting how many will be Latino and how many will be African-American is tough. Based on past primaries, Beatty’s computer models projected that Latinos would comprise 31 percent of the vote. The largest group lives in South Texas, where the more than 183,000 Latino voters make up more than 75 percent of the electorate.

The Latino vote will be the story to watch and could determine who wins the most important Texas primary in two decades.

for link to Texas Observer article click the title of this post

More on the Texas Two Step (March 4 Primary)

If you want to make the most out of the Texas Two Step - when you go vote tell the people working the polling place - that you want to return for the 7:15 pm caucus. They might try to discourage you.... but it is important that you forge ahead. Hopefully you will return for the Caucus (which could run late) and make a double difference for the presidential candidate of your choice.

You can attend the caucus if you early vote or if you wait until March 4.

Back in the Saddle

Why (and how) Texas will matter in March.

Forrest Wilder and Dave Mann | February 22, 2008 | Features

Twenty years have passed since a Texas primary played a significant role in anointing a presidential candidate. The last time was in 1988, when Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, Al Gore, and Jesse Jackson locked horns in a four-way fight. Because of the state’s March 4 primary, we matter again: Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are looking to Texas and its 228 delegates to put them within spitting distance of the tin cup.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns, volunteers, and voters are dusting off the rulebooks and learning, or relearning, the peculiar ins and outs of how Texas selects Democratic presidential candidates. Unique in the nation, Texas hosts a primary and a caucus, both of which allocate delegates. In essence, Texans get the opportunity to vote for their candidate of choice twice, and we don’t even have to be dead to do it.

This hybrid system, which the Obama camp has taken to calling the “Texas Two-Step,” is governed by a maze of jury-rigged rules, and navigating them will likely look about as graceful as a plow horse on ice skates. A total of 228 delegates are in play. Thirty-five of these are so-called superdelegates, party apparatchiks assured of seats at August’s national convention in Denver. These delegates are deemed “super” because unlike pledged delegates, who arrive at the national convention locked into their choice, the supers can support whichever candidate they choose and can change their minds, for any reason, at any time, up to and including during the convention.

Texas’ superdelegates comprise the state party’s chair and vice chair, 13 Democratic congressmen, 10 members of the Democratic National Committee, five “add-on” delegates drawn from various Democratic constituencies, and three superdelegates to be named at the state party convention in June. For the first time in recent memory, they’re poised to make all the difference.

The national party elite crafted the superdelegate rules in 1980 to wrest some control over the nomination process from the unpredictable masses. Reforms in the 1970s had moved nomination fights out from the smoky backrooms of decades past, with changes ensuring that the majority of national convention delegates were pledged to back the candidate who won their state’s primary. But that process became a little too democratic in 1980, when Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s primary challenge to sitting Democratic president Jimmy Carter bitterly divided the party.

After that debacle, party leaders decided to designate 20 percent of primary delegates as “super.” The goal was to buttress support for establishment candidates, and the maneuver worked perfectly four years later when the newly designated superdelegates helped establishment front-runner Walter Mondale fend off upstart primary challenger Gary Hart. (Mondale went on to lose 49 states, failing spectacularly to support the presumption of establishmentarian wisdom).

In the 24 years since, superdelegates have gone largely unnoticed, content to line up behind whatever Democratic candidate romped most convincingly through the early primaries. Despite that recent obscurity, the Clinton campaign has made superdelegates part of its strategy since at least last year. As the early frontrunner, Clinton scooped up endorsements from many of the nation’s 796 superdelegates.

David Holmes, a Democratic National Committee member and Texas superdelegate, told the Observer the Clinton team began wooing him last May by taking him out to dinner when they were in town, among other persuasive endearments.

“The reason Hillary has more superdelegates is because she took no one for granted,” Holmes said. “[Obama] didn’t court me.”

After Super Tuesday’s split decision, it became apparent that neither campaign would likely win enough delegates in the remaining primaries to secure the nomination. That scenario gives superdelegates a heavy hand in the nomination endgame. They may well make the difference, either by pushing the leading candidate over the top, or by pulling a trailing candidate from behind. The Obama campaign, which belatedly recognized the importance of superdelegates, has boosted its lobbying and used its perceived momentum to sway some superdelegates who had previously supported Clinton...

Another 126 garden-variety “primary-sourced” delegates will be decided March 4, but this delegate cache too is apportioned in an idiosyncratic fashion. Each of Texas’ 31 state senate districts is assigned a number of delegates based on the number of votes received by John Kerry in 2004 and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell in 2006. Senate districts that turned out the vote are rewarded with a greater number of delegates than those that sat on their duffs. At the extremes, the nearly Democrat-free Panhandle Senate District 31 has only two delegates at stake, while District 14, home to state Sen. Kirk Watson and liberal Travis County, has eight.

Adding to the confusion, an additional 67 delegates will be chosen by a three-tier caucus convention system that could alternately be described as a three-month endurance race. Of those 67, 25 slots are reserved for pledged party and elected officials who will be picked at the state convention but will vote based on the outcome of the caucuses. The remaining 42 are “at-large” slots, open to any Democrat willing to slog through the process.

Each precinct is assigned a number of delegates based on the number of votes received in that precinct for Chris Bell. Fifty percent of the 87,356 precinct-level delegates are concentrated in Harris, Dallas, Travis, Tarrant, and Bexar Counties.

The caucus action begins at the precinct level on the night of March 4, and then moves to county/senatorial district-level conventions on March 29, and then to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention in early June. Each step winnows the field of delegates until the state convention’s end, when 67 are left standing.

Caucuses tend to reward campaigns that can mobilize disciplined and highly motivated voters. Obama, in particular, has proven adept at harnessing grassroots energy to seize the levers of caucus control in state after state, winning 10 of 11 caucuses so far. For her part, Clinton may rely on union member supporters to vote for her at the caucus level.

Precinct caucuses in normal election years are relatively uneventful affairs, attended by few but the party faithful. This year, though, the system will be tested by an influx of new voters and candidates eager to lock up delegates at the precinct conventions.

Another 126 garden-variety “primary-sourced” delegates will be decided March 4, but this delegate cache too is apportioned in an idiosyncratic fashion. Each of Texas’ 31 state senate districts is assigned a number of delegates based on the number of votes received by John Kerry in 2004 and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell in 2006. Senate districts that turned out the vote are rewarded with a greater number of delegates than those that sat on their duffs. At the extremes, the nearly Democrat-free Panhandle Senate District 31 has only two delegates at stake, while District 14, home to state Sen. Kirk Watson and liberal Travis County, has eight.

Adding to the confusion, an additional 67 delegates will be chosen by a three-tier caucus convention system that could alternately be described as a three-month endurance race. Of those 67, 25 slots are reserved for pledged party and elected officials who will be picked at the state convention but will vote based on the outcome of the caucuses. The remaining 42 are “at-large” slots, open to any Democrat willing to slog through the process.

Each precinct is assigned a number of delegates based on the number of votes received in that precinct for Chris Bell. Fifty percent of the 87,356 precinct-level delegates are concentrated in Harris, Dallas, Travis, Tarrant, and Bexar Counties.

The caucus action begins at the precinct level on the night of March 4, and then moves to county/senatorial district-level conventions on March 29, and then to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention in early June. Each step winnows the field of delegates until the state convention’s end, when 67 are left standing.

Caucuses tend to reward campaigns that can mobilize disciplined and highly motivated voters. Obama, in particular, has proven adept at harnessing grassroots energy to seize the levers of caucus control in state after state, winning 10 of 11 caucuses so far. For her part, Clinton may rely on union member supporters to vote for her at the caucus level.

Precinct caucuses in normal election years are relatively uneventful affairs, attended by few but the party faithful. This year, though, the system will be tested by an influx of new voters and candidates eager to lock up delegates at the precinct conventions...

for link to complete Texas Observer article, click the title of this post

DREAMERS can't apply for Houston Rodeo's Scholarships

Tio Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman by Ricardo D. Palacios

It's been a while since the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) decided that undocumented kids could not receive any of their scholarships. I remember when I first heard about it a few years ago. It seemed so unfair and didn't make sense that DREAMERS who attended local schools, went and spent money at Houston malls, movie theaters, spoke English like most everyother Harris county teenager -- could not qualify for the HLSR's scholarships.

Now another group is saying that Latinos are not getting enough of the action as the events are planned. Maybe their clout is diminishing because organizers fear too many undocumented people will show up. I once heard a about an upscale Mexican restaurant in Houston who's owner said he didn't want "regular" Latinos as customers - they were too low class and would scare away the affluent Anglos - honest, someone who knew the restaurant owner really told me this.

No matter what the reason, the administrators of the HLSR need to be more enlightened about the burgeoning Latino population in Harris County - as I understand it, the HLSR is for all residents of Harris County. The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has no qualms about accepting money from anyone who wants to attend it's events. Interesting that they can take the money in, but are exclusive about who gets any money back.

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Feb. 26, 2008, 6:15PM
Hispanic group calls for boycott of Houston Rodeo

By ALEXIS GRANT
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

A group of Hispanic leaders called for a boycott of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, saying show officials haven't done enough to include Hispanics in the event.

Their complaints Tuesday came the same day show organizers held a kickoff event event at City Hall to proclaim Friday as Go Texan Day. The three-week show starts Monday.

Made up of representatives from the Tejano music industry, Houston-area politicians and members of other professional organizations, the newly formed group VIVE Tejano-Houston gathered at the University of Houston to protest the livestock show.

"We request our friends across the whole state of Texas not to attend the Houston Livestock Show," said former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos.

The show is disrespecting the Hispanic community by hiring non-Tejano performers to play at the show's main venue on Go Tejano Day, and not enough of the show's scholarships go to Hispanic students, said Ruben Cubillos, co-founder of the group.

He also complained that the show doesn't have enough Hispanics at the executive level.

State Sen. Mario Gallegos, who said he tried to negotiate with show officials, offered to discuss the issues with them again.

"We're open to sit down and talk, and talk for real," he said.

Leroy Shafer, the show's chief operating officer, said Go Tejano Day is about Hispanic culture, not just one type of music.

This year's Go Tejano Day on March 16 will feature Duelo, a norteño band from Roma, and Los Horoscopos de Durango, a duranguense act from Chicago.

Tejano bands are scheduled to play on smaller stages. But because the genre's popularity has waned in recent years, a Tejano act won't take center stage, Shafer said.

"If, in fact, they're asking people to stay away because they're trying to keep this genre of music on a big stage, then they're asking people to go against the very essence of what this day is," Shafer said. "They're asking them not to come out and celebrate being Hispanic."

This is not the first time Go Tejano Day lacked a traditional Tejano artist on the main stage, show organizers said. That happened in 2001 and 2002.

Responding to the group's other complaints, show organizers said nearly a third of the 927 students who attended Texas universities on show scholarships last year are Hispanic.

The Executive Committee, the show's highest level of volunteer leadership, includes 11 active members and six lifetime members, but no Hispanics. Those members are elected based on years of service and leadership, as well as economic contributions to the show.

"We have several people on track to get on that committee but they won't be short-cutted," Shafer said.

Several members of the show's Go Tejano Committee also said they didn't agree with the boycott.

"They're completely out of line," said George Hernandez, a committee volunteer. "We're not chartered by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to hear Tejano music. If they want their music heard, they should join a music association."

alexis.grant@chron.com

for link to Chronicle article click the title of this post

The Ugly Truth About Sweatshops

(Fuerza Unida:Myspace)

Increasing Number of Immigrant Workers in U.S. Will Have Little Effect on Medicare, Social Security Issues

According to Report Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

February 12, 2008

An increasingly aging U.S. population is expected to put additional strain on the costs of government-sponsored programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, even as the rising number of immigrants contributes to the total number of working-age people, according to a study released on Monday by the Pew Hispanic Center, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.

The study -- by Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer, and D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at the research center -- found that rapid growth in the number of adults ages 65 and older will result in increased costs per worker for programs that are geared to help seniors and children.While the working-adult population currently helps to cover the costs of the programs, the number of adults ages 65 and older is expected to increase to 81 million by 2050 -- more than twice the current size, according to Pew projections (Gamboa, AP/Houston Chronicle, 2/11).

Pew estimated that by 2030, there will be 29 to 36 seniors per 100 working-age adults; the current ratio is about 20 seniors per 100 working-age adults (Olivo, Chicago Tribune, 2/12). In addition, there will be 72 seniors and children per 100 working-age adults by 2050, compared with 59 in 2005, according to Pew. If immigration were halved, there would be 75 seniors and children per 100 working-age adults, and if immigration doubled, there would be 69 seniors and children per 100 working-age adults (AP/Houston Chronicle, 2/11).

Passel said the center's projections call into question previously held assumptions that the population of U.S. residents would become younger as more immigrants entered the country. He added, "The Social Security and Medicare issues are not really altered by immigration" (Chicago Tribune, 2/12).

(National Immigration Law Center: Public Benefits)

Spring, TX. Day Laborers need your help, BorderWatch still strong

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Although Border Watch has been declining in Spring for almost two months, about 17 of them made it out this past Saturday. Day laborers, local residents, and activists were able to hold the grassy area in front of the store and keep most of the racists at a distance. But the BW leader Curtis Collier announced that they would move into this area next Saturday regardless of whether we are already there.

We do not want a physical confrontation. But we can’t let BW retake the grassy area, which they used in the past to videotape and harass the day laborers. So our challenge is to get enough people out there very early Saturday morning and have such a strong presence that the BW can’t do anything about it. Accordingly, we’re asking for the broadest possible participation in the protest on Saturday.

So please join us this Saturday, March 1, at 8 am. The day laborer site is located at 16350 Stuebner Airline Drive in Spring. If you can help us set up earlier, please call us to let us know you’re coming.

Also, please note that there will be a protest against the racist Sheriff’s Lieutenant Louis Guthrie, a Constable candidate in Precinct 4 and Border Watch supporter, on Wednesday, February 27, at 4:30 pm, at the Barbara Bush Library, 6817 Cypresswood Drive, in Spring. The library is the only polling place for early voting in the area.

These demonstrations are being organized by the Latin American Organization for Immigrant Rights, Mexicanos en Accion, Progressive Workers Organizing Committee, Houston Anti-Racist Action, Los Patriotas Latinos, Irish Unity Committee, America for All, CRECEN, and International Socialist Organization. For more information, please call (832) 692-2306 or (832) 282-6997.

In Solidarity,

David and Rona
PWOC

Tens of millions of workers -are vulnerable to illegal ICE raids

At today's hearing in D.C. the president of UFCWI Union reminded the panel that workers could be detained at gunpoint - whether they are citizens or undocumented. You know that is enough for a person to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a good thing that someone is holding DHS and ICE accountable for the unconstitutional way they handle immigration raids. Efforts by lawmakers have been like a voice in the wind - Maybe it will take a few Unions to convince ICE to reign itself in.

Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and chairman of the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights [stated]: "Workers are not aware that they could be detained at gunpoint. That they could be handcuffed. . . . That they could be denied any contact with family members or legal counsel."

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Immigration Agency Accused of Illegal Searches

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; A04

A privately convened commission of labor and immigrant advocates held the first of several planned nationwide hearings yesterday to publicize allegations that U.S. immigration officials routinely violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure during workplace raids.

At the gathering at the Hay-Adams hotel in the District, witnesses and members of the 10-person panel accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of using arrest warrants for a limited number of illegal immigrants who work at a given company as a pretext to detain the entire workforce, including many U.S. citizens, while agents determine whether there are additional illegal immigrants among them.

"Tens of millions of workers in America go to work every day without . . . an awareness that at their workplaces, without any warning, they could be swept up in a massive raid conducted by heavily armed government agents," said Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and chairman of the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights. "Workers are not aware that they could be detained at gunpoint. That they could be handcuffed. . . . That they could be denied any contact with family members or legal counsel."

The commission heard testimony from two workers who are U.S. citizens who said they were detained for several hours during an ICE raid of six Swift meatpacking plants in December 2006. The union has filed a class action on their behalf.

Afterward, Pat Reilly, an ICE spokeswoman who attended the hearing as an observer, said the agency's procedures for questioning workers during raids at businesses are fair and humane and have been routinely upheld by courts.

"I would imagine that some people may be detained beyond what they feel is reasonable. But it's subjective," she said. "What we're trying to do is get to the bottom of who has the right to be here and who might be posing as a U.S. citizen."

for link to WP article click the title of this post

Jovenes Inmigrantes por un Futuro Mejor is very much alive!!

JIFM is still a very intricate part of Houston's immigrant community. I want to make it a point that the organization still exists in Houston. They are still providing immigrant students with the information and materials needed to apply for college/university and financial aid the right way. JIFM still does high school presentations, seminars, workshops and meet at Lee high school every Saturday morning.

Fortunately the Coalition of Higher Education for Immigrant Students runs an up-to-date website http://www.cheis.net/ that can answer any question you might have about Texas' in-state tuition law. JIFM's website http://www.uhjifm.org/ is under construction, but still available.

JIFM just had a very successful informational session at the Houston Hispanic Forum. A financial aid workshop was available for parents and their questions. DREAM Act information was given and a much needed TEXAS HANDBOOK for IMMIGRANT STUDENTS was given to the participants. If you have a question contact them at uhjifmcentral@gmail.com

I am thankful for the existence of this wonderful organization, as it has taught me many things and I have been able to help, educate and inspire many immigrant students. I have also met the greatest activist and supporters through JIFM and CHEIS.

Gracias.

Anti-Immigrant sentiment in Cypress Creek

As I watched the video you are about to see, it caused me great sadness, becuase no human being should be treated with disrespect, but instead with dignity. The US Border Watch has been intimidating the day labors on a weekly basis in Cypress Creek and day labor supporters have come out to protest this type of hate-group. In the video you can vividly see that hate is instilled on the banners "no more wetbacks." If you are a so-called Christian-American, why do you portray hate? Day labors have to work twice as hard to find a job, but it is racist to insinuate that day labors are undocumented! BorderWatch members should be volunteering to do GOOD things, like clean the community park, volunteer at the local hospital, but that is not positive action -- lets just intimidate the Latinos -- what better can they do...

See for yourself the type of language being used in today's close-minded hate groups.

This reminded me of the article the Professor posted below -- about the American Renaissance Conference --

http://www.startecproductions.com/DLP.htm

I Love This Country: Immigration in Ireland

George-Jordan Dimbo (photo: Kieran Dodds for The New York Times)

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February 25, 2008
New York Times

Border Crossings

Born Irish, but With Illegal Parents

By JASON DePARLE

DUBLIN — Cork-born and proud of it, George-Jordan Dimbo is top to toe the Irish lad. He studies Gaelic, eats rashers, plays hurling, prays to the saints, papers his walls with parochial school awards, and spends Saturdays at the telly watching Dustin the Turkey, a wisecracking puppet, mock the powerful.

If the Irish government has its way, he may soon be living in Africa.

George, 11, is an Irish citizen and has been since his birth when Ireland, alone in Europe, still gave citizenship to anyone born on its soil. His mother and father, Ifedinma and Ethelbert Dimbo, are illegal immigrants from Nigeria, who brought him back to Ireland three years ago, judging it the best place to raise him.

Since then, the unusual trio — the Irish schoolboy and his African parents — have shared a single room in a worn Dublin hostel while facing a prospect dreaded by children on both sides of the Atlantic, a parent’s deportation.

“Dear justice minister,” George wrote when he was 9. “I heard my Mommy and Daddy whispering about deportation. Please do not deport us.”

“Remember,” he added, “I am also an Irish child.”

Thousands of Irish children face similar risks, living in a country where one or both parents do not legally reside. Their stories find abundant parallels in the United States, where an estimated five million children — including three million American citizens — have parents who are illegal immigrants. New efforts to catch them make fear of deportation a growing factor in American life, the flip side of generous laws that make infants instant citizens.

The battle over the “I.B.C.’s” — Irish-born children — stems from a decade of head-turning change that has brought this island of red-haired Marys and blue-eyed Seans the demographic version of an extreme makeover.

For centuries, Ireland was a racially homogenous land of emigrants. Now it is a multicultural nation of immigrants, whose share of the population, 11 percent, is nearly as high as that in the United States.

Years of Irish prosperity have drawn Polish plumbers, Lithuanian nannies, Latvian farm workers, Filipino nurses, Chinese traders, and sub-Saharan asylum seekers. The town of Portlaoise, about 40 miles southwest of Dublin, has the country’s first African-born mayor. The Synge Street School, where George Dimbo says his Hail Marys beneath a plaster Virgin, is walking distance from the city’s first mosque and rents classroom space to two Chinese academies.

“I went to bed in one country and woke up in a different one,” writes the Irish novelist, Roddy Doyle, in a collection of short stories called “The Deportees” (Viking, 2007). They depict characters as diverse as an African war survivor on his first day of class, and Fat Gandhi, a gay tandoori vendor who “quickly realized that his loud embrace of Christianity was very good for business.”

The Dimbos are the kind of memorable figures who might have tumbled from Mr. Doyle’s pages. A former graduate student in Cork, Ms. Dimbo, 42, wore a Yoruba headdress to a recent parent-student event, and has just written a feminist novel about a migrant prostitute. Mr. Dimbo, 43, releases his frustrations with a daily run through the Dublin streets, and George is so unusually courteous that his sixth-grade teacher thought he was “taking the mickey”—Irish for pulling his leg.

“He’s the most mannerly child I’ve taught in years,” said the teacher, Brendan O’Boyle. “He’s very, very good, very upright, very honest.”

“He’s one of the best guys we’ve ever had,” said last year’s teacher, Gerard Mooney.

Not long after George arrived, a classmate told him that he disliked black people.

“But I’m black,” George recalls answering.

“No,” the boy said. “You’re Irish.”

So Far, Little Conflict

Ireland’s dash to diversity has so far provoked little of the conflict found elsewhere in Europe or the United States. There are no major anti-immigrant political parties and little anti-immigrant violence. When a Dublin high school student, Olukunle Elukanlo, was deported to Nigeria in 2005, his protesting classmates won his return.

Government officials here often credit Irish history for the tolerance. “There’s an emotional sense of understanding about what immigrants are going through because of our experience as immigrants,” said Conor Lenihan, the minister of integration.

But others see undercurrents of racial unease that could boil into conflict, especially if hard times return. “In Irish literature there’s a big fear of the returned immigrant who brings all sorts of chaos with him,” said Mary Gilmartin, a geographer at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. “Many people here feel threatened.”

As recently as the 1980s, young Irish were fleeing unemployment in droves, many to work illegally in the United States. By the late 1990s, an economic boom called the Celtic Tiger was luring them home, along with droves of foreign construction workers, farm hands, waitresses and nannies. A wave of asylum seekers joined them, many from Africa.

Some had escaped harrowing wars or genital mutilation. But officials grew skeptical of their claims as their numbers surged to about 12,000 in 2002 from a trickle a decade before.

Ireland not only offered citizenship to children born upon arrival; until 2003 it also allowed their illegal-immigrant parents to stay, a shortcut many asylum seekers used to win residency. Word got out: with a visa to Britain, a pregnant woman could reach Northern Ireland, take a cab across the border, and gain residency by giving birth.

Ms. Gilmartin argues that reports of abuse were exaggerated. But a 2004 referendum changed the rules, reserving citizenship for the children of longtime legal residents. It passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote.

By then, Ireland had about 18,000 mixed families of Irish children and illegal-immigrant parents. Wary of the costs of large-scale deportation, the government ran a one-time legalization program that gave residency to about 95 percent of those parents. The Dimbos were among the 1,000 or so families whose cases were rejected, and they have appealed to the Supreme Court.

Their situation, like that of millions in the United States, pits competing interests: those of children (to live in their country with their parents) against those of states (to enforce borders for the perceived common good).

Odyssey to Ireland

Ms. Dimbo first came to Ireland legally, to get a master’s degree in sociology in 1995. She was recently married, two months pregnant, and unaware, she said, that Irish law would make George a citizen. She gained legal residency through his citizenship, but they returned to Nigeria when George was 2 to join his father, who ran an import business.

With Ms. Dimbo working as a bank manager in Lagos, the family lived comfortably, but came back to Ireland twice, believing each time that George’s citizenship and their past residence gave them the right to stay. The most recent time was in 2005, to apply for the legalization program, not realizing, they said, that it only covered families who had remained in Ireland, which disqualified them.

With their savings gone, they have spent nearly three years in a government “accommodation center” — a dormitory where they share one room, line up for meals, and are barred from working.

“You feel like you’re a prisoner,” said Mr. Dimbo, a proud man dismayed by his forced dependency. “If we had known our lives would be like this, we never would have come.”

George said if his parents left, he would go with them — “every child needs his parents” — and wrote the justice minister to convey his fears. “I am very worried,” he wrote.

Gathered at another accommodation center, an hour outside Dublin in Mosney, many parents said their fears of deportation had begun to affect their children.

“My daughter knows I’m depressed,” said a single mother from Nigeria, who declined to be identified for fear of harming her case. “She goes, ‘Did I do anything wrong?’ ” Another single mother said, “I’m afraid I’m going to hurt my child.”

Other complaints come from men sneaking into Ireland, to join their children and wives who got residency through the legalization program. To avoid new waves of migration, the program gave no right to family reunification. “Unless we control the flows of people, public attitudes will turn against the whole process of immigration,” said Mr. Lenihan, the government minister.

But in denying children their fathers, the men say, the government may create the kind of immigrant underclass that plagues other parts of Europe.

“Our children are going to be growing up angry,” said one of four illegal-immigrant fathers from Nigeria who met with a reporter in Balbriggan, a Dublin suburb.

Another father blamed race. “If our kids were really Irish to them, they would not say, ‘Take the fathers away,’ ” he said.

At the same time, many of those facing deportation marvel at Ireland’s virtues, including the freedom to protest without getting shot and ambulances that come when summoned. When Lynda Onuoha joined Mosney mothers to demonstrate outside Parliament, they waved Irish flags. “We wanted people passing by to see that even though our kids are black, they are Irish by nationality, and we want to make a home here,” she said.

Even after tightening its rules, Ireland remains more generous than most of its European peers. The United States is the rare country that gives immediate citizenship to the children born inside its borders, whether their immigrant parents are legal residents or not. A 2007 bill to end the practice, which stems from the 14th Amendment, drew nearly 100 Congressional co-sponsors, though legal scholars have traditionally argued that a change would require a constitutional amendment.

Fear for U.S. Children

Deportations in the United States have been rare, but with enforcement on the rise, migrant groups warn of a new generation of American children haunted by fear. Border control advocates respond that the parents have only themselves to blame, for migrating illegally.

At times, Ms. Dimbo says the same. “To come here without papers, we are wrong,” she said. “We are cap in hand, saying for George’s sake, let us forgive and forget.” Adding her own note of Irish chauvinism, she said it was only when she got to Donegal that she appreciated the phrase “deep, blue sea.”

Mr. Dimbo added, “I love this country.”

George has spent 6 of his 11 years in Ireland, including most of his school years. What he recalls of Nigeria is mostly the heat and the corporal punishment in school. Asked if he feels more Irish or Nigerian, he answered politely in a Dublin lilt.

“I think I feel more Irish,” he said. “For one, because I am Irish.”

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