Humanity Counts, Not Citizenship - when it comes to respect, empathy and the law

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We need human rights, not citizens' rights

The government's green paper is muddled – if we are to avoid the disasters of history, human rights must never be contingent on responsibilities
o Chris Huhne
o guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 March 2009 10.00 GMT


The government is playing with Tory fire with its green paper on a bill of rights and responsibilities. The politics tell us all: this is a response to some judgments under the Human Rights Act that were criticised in the Tory tabloids, and which have shamefully led the Conservatives to suggest that they would repeal the act. The Human Rights Act merely incorporates the European convention on human rights into UK law, allowing British cases to be heard in UK courts. It is extraordinary that one of the founding nations behind the convention could become, if the Conservatives have their way, the sole signatory not to allow its own people access to its own courts to reach judgments on human rights.

As a political response to this populist nonsense from the Tories, the green paper muddles rights and responsibilities. Human rights (such as the right to a fair trial) are not and cannot be conditional, because by definition they are the minimum we should enjoy as human beings. So the idea that they might be made contingent on responsibilities mixes up the concept of human rights with citizens' rights. And this is the second element of danger: when the Tories talk about a British bill of rights, instead of human rights, do they mean more or fewer rights? I think we can reach our own conclusions from the recent words of shadow home secretary Chris Grayling, who said there should be "fewer rights, more wrongs".

Human rights matter. We should never forget why Eleanor Roosevelt and the many other doughty champions of the universal declaration of human rights in 1948 stressed human rather than citizens' rights. It was because of the history of the 1930s Germany, when the Nazis decided that Jews would no longer benefit from citizens' rights. They were beyond the pale. They were excluded from the normal protection afforded by the rule of law. Any group can suddenly be defined as undeserving of the rights of true citizens: black slaves in the United States, Jews and gays in Germany, Roma elsewhere. Only a firm commitment to human rights ensures that this can never happen again, and can never happen here.

On economic rights, the government is right to tread carefully. There is already a right to avoid destitution, but many other social and economic rights are matters of fierce political debate and inevitably involve issues of taxation and expenditure. These should be the centre of any vibrant democracy, and should not become the preserve of decisions by the judiciary. There may, of course, be a role for declaratory statements encapsulating any consensus in our society about those economic and social rights, but such a statement would ultimately be words not deeds. Asking judges to do politics would be a mistake... more

Letter to Chertoff on rights of detainees

Below is part of a letter written to Michael Chertoff, Director of Homeland Security. The letter is from 17 nationally recognized human rights organization (the list is abbreviated for this post). For a link to the complete letter click here

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May 15, 2008
Secretary Michael Chertoff
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
3801 Nebraska Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20528
Dear Secretary Chertoff:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to express our continued and serious concerns regarding the provision of medical care to immigration detainees. Based on conversations with detainees, service providers across the country and personnel in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we have identified several areas where we believe the provision of medical services must be dramatically improved.

First, we are deeply concerned that the Division of Immigration Health Services’ (DIHS) stated mission does not comport with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Standard on Medical Care and established principles of constitutional and international law. The ICE Detention Standard appropriately requires that detainees “have access to medical services that promote detainee health and general well-being.” Yet by its own terms, the DIHS Covered Services Package primarily provides health care services for emergency care, defined as “a condition that is threatening to life, limb, hearing, or sight.” The services package treats pre-existing conditions differently from those that develop during detention, and ties treatment decisions regarding conditions that cause deterioration in health or uncontrolled suffering to ICE’s ability to effectuate deportation. In addition, documents released by the Washington Post reveal that at least one DIHS medical director identifies DIHS’s mission as that of “keeping the detainee medically ready for deportation.” This view was recently reinforced by Gary Mead, Acting Director of Detention and Removal Operations, on National Public Radio, when he questioned whether additional medical care must be provided once DIHS has ensured that a detainee is “medically capable of being removed.” The position of the DIHS medical director and Gary Mead demonstrate how inconsistent DIHS’s mission is with proper standards of care and ICE’s own standards....

Signed by the following organizations:

American Civil Liberties Union
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Amnesty International USA
Asian American Justice Center
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
Human Rights Watch
National Immigration Law Center
Physicians for Human Rights
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children

cc: Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Daniel Sutherland, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Richard Skinner, Inspector General

Human Rights Violations against Migrants in Mexico

A United Nations report is stating that Mexico has one of the worst human rights records for migrants. This includes the growing number of kidnappings by police in northern and southern Mexico.

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México es uno de los países que peor trata a migrantes: ONU

En violaciones a derechos de los migrantes está entre los más altos del mundo: relator.
La Jornada - Mexico

AFP
Publicado: 15/03/2008 13:44

México, DF. México está en los primeros lugares en la lista de países que violan los derechos de los migrantes, y su expresión más dramática es el creciente nivel de secuestros en las fronteras norte y sur por parte de policías, informó el relator especial de la ONU.

"En términos de violaciones a los derechos de los migrantes México compite con los primeros lugares del mundo", dijo Jorge Bustamante, relator especial de ONU sobre los derechos humanos de los migrantes, en conferencia de prensa.

Las violaciones a los derechos de los centroamericanos registradas en México "son iguales o peores" a las que sufren los mexicanos en Estados Unidos, dijo, al término de una visita del 9 al 15 de marzo.

"Las manifestaciones más dramáticas que encontré es que los secuestros están creciendo tanto en Tijuana (noroeste) como en Tapachula (sureste), específicamente los secuestros hechos por autoridades policiales tanto Federales como estatales y municipales", apuntó.

Elementos policiacos secuestran a inmigrantes centroamericanos, y les piden el número telefónico de sus familiares para extorsionarlos, explicó.

El relator descartó dar cifras al respecto, pero en Tijuana, frontera con Estados Unidos, tuvo el testimonio de un salvadoreño que había sido secuestrado por policías locales junto a su esposa, que seguía desaparecida a 11 días del hecho.

El funcionario rechazó la posibilidad de que Estados Unidos y México lleguen a un acuerdo migratorio, y alertó sobre la deportación de unas 100 mil familias mexicanas al año, entre las que hay miles de niños nacidos estadunidenses que sufren desajustes culturales y emocionales.

El diplomático aseguró que "fracasó" la intención del gobierno de Estados Unidos de sellar la frontera con un "muro virtual" que impediría el paso de inmigrantes indocumentados porque la tecnología que se instaló no funcionará por lo menos en tres años.

for link to Jornada article click the title of this post

Homeland Security - the New Inquisition

I am sitting in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, looking through 400 year old reports on civil unrest in the Americas. Between the years of 1640 and 1650 the Inquisition in Mexico took on the role of Homeland Security. There were many political factors but the main result was that by 1649 the Jewish population in New Spain was decimated. There was a time in the first half of the 1600s that Jewish people could actually practice their faith openly in Mexico. Scholar Seymour Liebman wrote in his book on Jews in Mexico that before 1640 there were at least 10 synagogues in Mexico City.

The whole "cleansing movement" was directly related to Portugal separating from Spain in 1640. Every Portuguese person was seen as a suspicious character (sound familiar) and assumed to be Jewish. Even if you were a practicing Christian, if your grandmother had been Jewish you would be under scrutiny. There were certain religious orders that had laws again conversos (people who converted from Judaism or their descendants). If you recall from World History class, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 just after Columbus said he found America (interesting timing - just as the world was going global).

Anyway, my project has a lot to do with that time period and the history that has been produced from those stories. Someone told me that the Inquisition had nothing to do with the current nativism movement in the U.S. Well, they weren't exactly the same, but there were interesting similarities:

1. People were constantly "telling on each other." Remember the policeman who was a DREAMER - got into the police force with his cousin's I.D. - someone told on him.

2. DREAMERS are children of undocumented immigrants who are also "tainted" according to Lou Dobbs and our Senate.

3. A certain hysteria took over the population.

4. Some people made a lot of money.

5. The people in question were "different."

Well thank goodness no one is getting burned at the stake these days -- but the way we are going... what would it take to be genocide? As it is we are holding people in jail indefinitely without charges; taking nursing babies from their mothers (I understand the baby didn't eat for 3 days), keeping kids out of college (sounds like pre 60s segregation), raiding people's homes without warrants, going into malls (and fast food places) to take people... among other things.

I apologize for being so morose, but looking at these old manuscripts just reminds me that somethings don't change.

image: http://www.hungersbrides.com/images/inq_dunce_cap_left.jpg

One More Death While in Custody: A 25 yr. old has a heart attack?

He was undocumented. He came to the U.S. when he was 17. He was from Brazil and immigrated through Mexico. He spoke English.

He went into a coma shortly after being arrested on Friday and died 5 days later of a heart attack? Hopefully the ACLU or some other human rights organization checks this out.

His name was Maxsuel Madeiros.

He was a passenger in his own car; a friend was driving. They were stopped for an illegal lane change? Isn't that one of the charges that police use to have an excuse to stop someone? They said he had 2 state warrants against him, but haven't said what they are. His cousin was picked up a few months ago...but at least he is still alive.

One more thing. You know how some news programs have a list of those who died in Iraq - usually with pictures? Maybe we should ask Univision to start a list of those undocumented who died in police or ICE custody. This could be called the Immigration War.


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Man dies after falling ill in police custody
He was Brazilian immigrant; cause of death unknown
By Maria Sacchetti and Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | September 12, 2007

An immigrant from Brazil, stricken with an unknown illness while in State Police custody on Friday, died yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Essex district attorney's office reported.

Maxsuel Medeiros, 25, a roofer who lived in Framingham, was a passenger in a car State Police stopped for a lane change violation at 5:20 p.m. Friday on Interstate 495 south in Andover, according to the district attorney's office.
Police said they had varying identities for Medeiros, including Maxeel Campos and Maxwell Pires, and arrested Medeiros after determining that he had two outstanding state warrants. They brought him to the Andover barracks and placed him in a cell, said Stephen O'Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney's office. The nature of the warrants was unknown yesterday.

Later that evening, he became ill while in his cell, according to O'Connell and State Police. Police called an ambulance, which transported him to Lawrence General Hospital. He was later taken to Mass. General, where he died at 6 a.m. yesterday.
The death marks the second time in about a month a Brazilian immigrant from Massachusetts has died in the region while in police custody. On Aug. 7, Edimar Alves Araujo, 34, of Milford died shortly after Woonsocket, R.I., police stopped him on a traffic violation and turned him over to federal immigration authorities. He fell ill while in federal custody in Rhode Island, and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.



His death, under investigation by the state medical examiner in Rhode Island, sparked outrage because his sister, Irene, said she had tried to get the police to give her brother his epilepsy medicine. Police denied her account and said Araujo was fine when they turned him over to federal authorities.

Medeiros was undocumented, having entered the United States through Mexico about eight years ago, his aunt, Meire Medeiros, said yesterday, speaking in Portuguese during a telephone interview from her Framingham home. "He came here to have a better life,"she said. Medeiros lived in Framingham with another aunt, Maisa Hamel.
Medeiros immersed himself in this country's culture, relatives said. He learned English, listened to hip-hop, and played video games in his spare time. He worked for a Framingham roofing company, and planned to attend the Mexico vs. Brazil soccer match at Gillette Stadium today. He owned the red 1990 Acura Legend that police stopped Saturday. The car was being driven by a friend.

Meire Medeiros, 51, said she has another nephew, Lucas, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month in Framingham and is scheduled for deportation.

She said the family found out on Saturday that Maxsuel suffered what appeared to be a heart attack and was in a coma. Officials at Mass. General contacted Medeiros's mother, who lives in Brazil, and told her that her son was brain dead. With permission granted by his mother, Maxsuel was removed from life support. The family decided to donate his organs.
"He never had any problems with his health; he was a young man," said Meire Medeiros.

The state medical examiner's office plans to conduct an autopsy today, and the district attorney's office will investigate, O'Connell said. State Police refused to release the police report yesterday because the matter is under investigation.


Globe correspondent Eduardo A. de Oliveira contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/12/man_dies_after_falling_ill_in_police_custody/

ICE Detainees On Hunger Strike in Florence, Arizona

Hunger Strike at Florence, AZ Detention Center


from:
Raha Jorjani
University of California, Davis
School of Law Clinical Programs


Colleagues:

I received a disturbing call from an ICE detainee in Florence, Arizona this afternoon, September 7, 2007. He informed me, and I’ve confirmed, that approximately two days ago, roughly 60 men were transferred from Florence Service Processing Center to the Pinal County Jail facility with which ICE holds a new contract for detainee bed space. Over half of those men are on hunger strike as a result of the conditions they have been subject to as a result of the transfer.

According to the individual I spoke to, the detainees were promised that their transfer to the Pinal County Jail facility would not result in any loss of rights or privileges, however they encountered a thoroughly different reality upon arrival. The account has been that the new transferees have been on 23 hour lock down in 2-man cells, and that there is no outside recreation area. There have also been very serious complaints about food and water quality. Additionally, Pinal County Jail carries out family visitation in the form of video conferencing. Some who had been ordered deported had planned family visits during which they believed they would have contact visits for the last time with their loved ones. That is no longer an option as a result of this transfer. Detainees were woken up in the early hours of the morning and many were not allowed to gather their personal property. Many were forced to leave behind legal documents relating to their ongoing cases.

Many seem to feel that as a result of their detention by ICE in a non-ICE facility, they are neither subject to compliance with the ICE standards nor to privileges available to county inmates. This appears to leave detainees in a peculiar legal limbo with regards to conditions of their confinement.

As you all know, a hunger strike is a serious endeavor and an effort that would be sadly wasted without solidarity and support from advocates on the outside. I urge you to disseminate this information to advocates, groups, and communities as you see fit.

I have been in direct contact with attorneys at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Florence, Arizona, who have further confirmed these accounts.





previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/hunger-strike-a.html

Orange County ICE Raid Hotline - 714-973-7806

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/AIM/a3621~Telephone-Posters.jpg


Monday, August 6, 2007
Hot line will tell of immigration raids
Coalition wants to notify people where and when immigration raids will take place, and create a support system for deportee targets.

SANTA ANA – Responding to a refusal by city leaders to declare the city a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, more than a dozen people gathered outside City Hall on Monday night to denounce recent immigration raids, accusing federal officials of "terrorizing" immigrant communities and breaking up families.

A coalition of local immigrant rights groups, including the Orange County Alliance for Immigrants Rights and the Front Against the Raids, announced a planned program to create a hot line that will notify people where and when immigration raids will take place. The program would also coordinate a support system for the families of deportee targets.
"We want to have a more organized effort to counter these attacks," said Jaime Conteras, a 20-year-old Filipino immigrant who now lives in Santa Ana. "We cannot let people trample on our rights."

Similar to programs being put together in Los Angeles County, organizers said, the hot line – in which volunteers will track details and update callers about ICE raids - will also direct relatives of detainees and deportees to legal assistance, along with information on what to do in case of a raid.

The activists urged people to call the hot line, at 714-973-7806, to report immigration raids, detentions, missing people or any abusive power by ICE or local law enforcement.

for complete article:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/immigration-raids-people-1800111-santa-haley

thanks again to Immigration Prof Blog for noting this

Virginia Human Rights - Hotlines

Fairfax County Human Rights Commission 703-324-2953
Arlington County Human Rights Commission 703-228-3929
Prince William County Human Rights Commission 703-792-4680

http://www.ci.alexandria.va.us/human/alex-faq.html

Commentary on U.S. Immigration Reform

Below is an except from an article on immigration reform.

Treat illegal immigrants decently
By Jagdish Bhagwati
Published: July 24 2007 16:44 | Last updated: July 24 2007 16:44
Financial Times (London)


Americans should be ready to see that a way must be found to treat illegals with the decency and respect that humanity requires, while respecting equally the innate American sense that laws matter. After all, America’s identity has been formed by immigration and an ever-expanding set of human rights. Perhaps a different and more realistic approach might get us what we could not achieve with uncompromising proposals.

In particular, why not build on the unappreciated fact that the illegals are not today the underclass with few rights that they were for many years? Immigration experts Guillermina Jasso and Mark Rosenzweig have shown that, under existing laws, almost 30 per cent of the new legal immigrants have had some illegal experience. With vastly increased ethnic minority populations, especially Hispanic, the illegals enjoy a higher comfort level than at the time of the IRCA. The Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave his response in 2006 to Mr Bush’s State of the Union speech in Spanish. There are numerous non-governmental organisations, such as the National Council of La Raza and civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, that give the illegals a substantial sense of protection.

If asking for full citizenship through the amnesty is currently impossible, we can work instead to raise this comfort level to something much closer to what citizenship brings, without asking for full citizenship. Cities such as New Haven have begun to do this. It never makes sense for the best to be the enemy of the good.

The writer is a university professor of economics and law at Columbia University, and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is writing a book entitled An Unfinished Agenda: Managing International Migration