Civil Rights : Immigrants & Immigration policy |
Rights of immigrants, legal and illegal, in the United States and elsewhere and the impact of immigration policy on their welfare.
12/27/08 Rhode Island town makes a faustian bargain with the U.S. government:. Town of Central Falls, pop. 1900, landed in the 1990s the construction of the Wyatt Detention Center, designed as a facility in the war on drugs but, with the recent "crackdown" on illegal immigrants, has become a black hole of detention into which many of these immigrants are poured, including many residents of Central Falls itself. This New York Times feature article highlights a "burgeoning industry " across the country in which localities receive federal subsidies for every detainee housed in one of these facilities. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27detain.html?_r=1&hp
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Analysis & views: 12/6/08 Starvation on the Isle of Crete:. 15 Arab migrants, part of the large pool of undocumented immigrants attracted by the unofficial economy of the island, are on hunger strike to protest the lack of realistic opportunity for migrants to obtain Greek citizenship status, with high fees and long waiting periods for naturalization proceedings (Is this a harbinger for "immigration reform" in the U.S. with a supposedly enlightened "path to citizenship" offered to the undocumented?) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45006 7/31/08 Many Afghan refugees are resisting efforts of Norwegian authorities to have them return to Afghanistan, using a combinations of inducements and coercion. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43391 6/1/08 South African immigrants are failing the elbow test and paying the price. In the current wave of anti-immigration obsession sweeping the country, xenophobic street thugs are stopping "suspected" migrants from other African countries like Mozambique and demanding that they pronounce the word "elbow." If they fail to do so with a Zulu accent they are beaten or even killed. These atrocities are a legacy of the inter-ethnic rivalries fostered by the late apartheid regime and the mass poverty produced by the neo-liberalist policies of the current one. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/why-is-south-africa-being-torn-apart/ 5/31/08 Vote in Switzerland could return the country to a system of requiring secret ballot approval by people in local communities of immigrants' applications for citizenship. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7427865.stm 5/19/08 "We should be the last people to have this problem." Statement by South Africa leader, commenting on days of rioting against immigrants, many of them refugees from Zimbabwe. He comments on the irony that many of the country's leaders were themselves forced to flee to other countries during South Africa's apartheid days. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/world/africa/20safrica.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 5/7/08 Canada reports 41,000 missing illegal immigrants in the country. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080506.wauditor_main0506/BNStory/National/home 5/2/08 Denmark's political parties collide over one party's attempt to run an advertisement in Danish newspapers deriding a court decision to allow female Muslim judges to wear hard-scarves on the bench. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/106987.html 4/19/08 Consensus is seen in Danish public opinion and in Parliament that gang members who are not Danish citizens should be deported on conviction of crimes. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/106798.html 1/18/07 Reality falls far short of expectations for many Iraqi refugees in the United States http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0110/p01s01-woiq.html 1/1/08 Survey shows that Danish people are more open to liberalized work permits for immigrants than the country's restrictive laws tend to maintain. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/104977.html 12/21/07 Haitian immigrants experiencing severe discrimination in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), south of the Bahamas, a playground for the wealthy of the world. http://www.latinamericapress.org/Article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5418 12/17/07 56 Somali refugees drown in Gulf of Aden as they attempt to reach Yemen. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7147412.stm 12/14/07 Mexicana who fought deportation through sanctuary in Chicago continues back in Mexico her personal crusade for immigration reform. http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=5414 11/29/07 Denmark's two-tier welfare system, with most immigrants in the lower tier, is condemned as discriminatory by Amnesty International. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/104547.html 11/14/07 Danish voters return to office a PM whose policies included strict anti-immigration laws. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071114/twl-denmark-vote-6b0205e.html 11/13/07 Illegal immigrants are pouring into Greece, many of them refugees from poverty and war in the Middle East. http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13259&t=11&m=A14&aa=1 11//3/07 Raid on a shantytown in Rome may be an indication of rise of feelings against immigrants in Italy. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3124253.ece 10/6/07 Australians respond to the country's ban on refugee immigrants from Africa. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/africa_australia_african_refugee_ban/html/1.stm 9/20/07 UK ministers and union officials warn against the "demonisation" of immigrants suggested in a police chief's complaint about migrants and crime. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2979901.ece 9/19/07 Citing "feuds" between migrants of different nationalities and migrants' different cultural understandings of matters like the carrying of knives, a British Police Chief says she needs additional police forces to deal with these problems. 8/22/07 At Montebello summit, Canadian CEOs warn leaders of three nations that increased security at U.S./Canada border is an impediment to trans-national commerce http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070822.wmontebello22/BNStory/National/home 8/20/07 Countries around the world lay out the welcome mat for immigrants. That's assuming, of course, that they are highly educated and/or skilled; as opposed to the efforts almost everywhere to discourage immigration of the type supposedly welcomed by the Statue of Liberty. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/world/middleeast/20migrate.html?th&emc=th 8/20/07 Crisis in availability of unskilled labor in Denmark leads its PM to move to loosen country's laws on immigration restriction. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/103144.html 8/15/07 UK Guardian investigative report uncovers abuses of migrant laborers from Bulgaria employed in picking vegetables for British supermarkets. http://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/story/0,,2148876,00.html 8/5/07 Unaccompanied children are increasingly making dangerous immigration journeys from Central America across Mexico into the United States. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p06s02-woam.html 7/31/07 Mexico is struggling to contain illegal crossings at its southern border with Guatemala. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p06s01-woam.html 7/30/07 Irish Minister of State notes increasing concentration of foreign nationals in some Dublin suburbs and attributes this to the effects of the government's rent subsidy scheme http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0730/1185230139276.html 7/12/07 Denmark's immigration problems continue as a new report says the country has one of the world's "worst" records in the integration of immigrants. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/102609.html 7/6/07 As U.S. immigration system tightens, U.S. companies may join Microsoft in moving to Canadian cities like Vancouver to take advantage of Canada's more liberal immigration policy. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b55352a2-b491-4c5a-ae3e-46834a2e6d06&k=58907 7/5/07 University study shows that immigrants, mostly from Albania, Bulgaria and Poland, are having a favorable effect on the revitalization of inner city areas in Athens, Greece. http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13241&t=11&m=A14&aa=1 7/2/07 Case of Australian man wrongfully held for immigration violation over last Christmas holiday highlights growing indications of flaws in the country's system of immigration control. 6/28/07 Danish language experts say parents who have "au pair" foreign workers for their children may risk stunting the Danish linguistic development of their children. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/102342.html 6/24/07 Cape Verde called the "Galapagos" of immigration": The tiny island nation, off the coast of Senegal in Africa, recapitulates in microcosm the world story of global migration and its effects on the areas from which people migrate. Lacking a viable local economy and attracted by opportunities in Europe, people migrate or long to migrate, and the economy is heavily dependent on migrant remittances, but increasing hostility to immigration in Europe and the pains of separation in Cape Verde contribute to the national mood of "sodade" or longing. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/world/africa/24verde.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 6/4/07 Do developing nations really want to solve the crisis of immigration to their countries? According to monetary reformer, Richard C. Cook, if they do they will have to address the root cause of international migrations, which goes back to the dominance of the "Washington consensus" that has established an international economic structure in which people necessarily leave the extreme poverty generated by these policies to live in the "marginal" poverty that they find with employment in developing nations. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5862 5/25/07 France may shortly be offering payments to immigrants, especially those from Africa, as incentives to return to their countries of origin. http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/africa/article06 5/4/07 Cleaning Paris suburbs wih an industrial power hose. This suggestion by Nicolas Sarkozy, Interior Minister at the time of the 2005 riots in Paris and now the front-running candidate for President of France, is costing him votes among immigrants in those suburbs, who overwhelmingly support his Socialist rival. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302255.html?referrer=email 5/3/07 Robert Frost: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out. Reuters correspondents present a litany of tales of wall-building throughout the earth and history: Northern Ireland's "peace wall," the Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China, Israel's apartheid wall in the West Bank, security walls in Baghad, gated suburban communities, the fences and walls going up on the U.S./Mexico border etc. etc. A common theme to these wall-building exercises is their futility in containing conflict or keeping out the fearsome stranger who invariably finds ways to breach the barriers. As they try to wall out that stranger, they wall in the more mean-spirited impulses of those who live within the walls. 4/29/07 Greek government sets up stringent new rules that must be followed by non-EU immigrants seeking permission to stay in the country. http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=13231&t=11&m=A19&aa=1 4/13/07 Australian PM John Howard wants to restrict immigration of people with HIV. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6551245.stm 4/1/07 Under new Russia law, immigrants will be allowed to work in country's shops and markets but not allowed to sell products in those markets. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6515293.stm 3/25/07 Economy Ministry in Poland assesses the economic consequences, many of them negative, of increased emigration of Poles to other EU countries as a result of European integration. http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/14256 3/19/07 The immigrant wheel spins round: as Ireland today is prosperous and encouraging of immigrants while Irish in Boston experience U.S. hostility toward immigrants and stagnant economic conditions, many thousands of Irish immigrants to America are returning to Ireland; in County Kerry for example, so many have returned that sections are called Little Boston, after an earlier section of Boston was called Little Kerry because of the immigrants from there from County Kerry. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/03/19/going_full_circle/ 3/14/07 Immigration, especially to metropolitan areas, is by far the largest component of projected population growth in Canada. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070314.wcensusmain14/BNStory/National/home 2/21/07 Tougher border patrol enforcement at the Mexican border is making it more difficult for "commuter" illegals to make annual trips between their families in Mexico and their work in the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/americas/21border.html?th&emc=th 2/21/07 Adventure tourism - Mexican style: People pay $18 to attend a theme park in Hidalgo, Mexico that entails a harrowing simulated battle with American border patrols to try to emigrate to the U.S. Participants get a "thrill," critics call it training for illegal immigration. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0221/p01s04-woam.html?page=1 1/17/07 EU to try "circular migration": Like the United States, the European Union is considering the revival of a "guest worker" program for foreign nationals that is generally thought to have been discredited. The EU hopes to cement the "temporary" in temporary visas, so that immigrant-sending countries will get the benefit of remittances from their workers in EU countries, and the program will hopefully avoid further incidents of hostility between natives and immigrants. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0117/p01s04-woeu.html 1/8/07 Police indifference to a serial killing episode in an immigrant slum which is a suburb of Delhi India, shocks observers of criminal justice system in India. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/07/news/india.php 11/23/06 Immigration control, European style: Ministers of E.U. and African nations meet in Libya to try to find ways to staunch the heavy flow of African migrants into European nations; focus is on European support for African development; when have you heard any such talk about U.S., Mexico, and Mexican immigration? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6172184.stm 11/23/06 A wee touch of immigration control, U.S. style: small amount of U.S.-backed Millenium Funds to be used to help finance business operations for poor farmers in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16078826.htm 11/21/06 Many Muslim immigrants in Netherlands seek assimilation rather than militancy as a path to their adjustment to Dutch society. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6169398.stm 11/13/06 Mayors of cities on both sides of U.S./Mexico border denounce U.S. plans to build a border wall. http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/nov/13/local-briefs-las-cruces-logo-state-pays-family-bor/ 10/25/06 Britain to restrict immigration from Bulgaria and Romania for the first time as flood of immigrants is anticipated as these countries join the European Union. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/europe/25britain.html?th&emc=th 6/10/06 Mexico is working on its own version of "the wall:" a 600-mile long strip of territory along the U.S. border that would be a "nature corridor" and deter would-be immigrant smugglers from using it as a staging area for their operations. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14785316.htm 5/23/06 New center-left government in Italy struggles to provide amnesty for illegal immigrants, mostly from Africa. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5005858.stm 5/22/06 Immigration control with a European twist: Netherlands government shows prospective immigrants a video featuring a naked woman at a beach and gay men showing affection in a park---to test their acceptance of "Western values." (Values antithetical to those of Muslim countries). http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/05/22/europe_raises_bar_for_immigrants/?page=1 5/15/06 Two members of Sociologists Without Borders argue that the U.S., France and other western countries must stop dehumanizing immigrants as criminals and face up to the role of corporate globalization in producing the flow of immigration from less to more developed countries: http://counterpunch.org/golash05152006.html 4/24/06 Clouds over World Soccer Cup matches in Germany with a spate of anti-foreigner attacks by right wings groups: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/04/24/fear/ 4/23/06 Backlash hits France as anti-immigration party gains ground in aftermath of last fall's riots by immigrant youth: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/world/europe/23france.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 4/20/06 While Mexicans in U.S. plan a non-work "day without immigrants" on May 1 to protest immigration reforms, Mexicans in Mexico plan a "great American boycott" of U.S. made goods: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0420-04.htm 4/7/06 U.S. among 10 industrialized nations that have failed to ratify a UN convention for the protection of migrant workers: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0405-01.htm 3/21/06 Use of Mexico as transit for Central Americans bound for U.S. is continuing irritant in U.S. battle against illegal immigration: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14147206.htm 3/19/06 As an experiment, Russia offers legal status to 7000 illegal immigrants: http://www.sptimesrussia.com/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=17027
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Websites: ACLU: Immigration Rights: http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRightsMain.cfm AFSC: Immigrant Rights in the U.S.: http://www.afsc.org/immigrants-rights/default.htm Immigrant Solidarity Network: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/ National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights:
Analysis & views: 12/27/08 Rhode Island town makes a faustian bargain with the U.S. government:. Town of Central Falls, pop. 1900, landed in the 1990s the construction of the Wyatt Detention Center, designed as a facility in the war on drugs but, with the recent "crackdown" on illegal immigrants, has become a black hole of detention into which many of these immigrants are poured, including many residents of Central Falls itself. This New York Times feature article highlights a "burgeoning industry " across the country in which localities receive federal subsidies for every detainee housed in one of these facilities. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27detain.html?_r=1&hp 12/6/08 Iowa kosher slaughter-house pleads not guilty to charges of illegally employing undocumented immigrants. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-05-iowa-slaughterhouse_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip 12/3/08 Will the Obama Administration stay on the "road to nowhere" demarcated by "political dualism" of both political parties on the subject of immigration policy: Robert Lovato, immigrant rights activist, notes this "dualism" going back into the Clinton administration and seemingly the focus of a Washington Consensus that there must be a crackdown on "illegal" immigration as a prelude of a path to citizenship for the undocumented. Some but not other Obama appointments suggest a change from this dualism which, since the 1990s, has trapped some 12 million immigrants into a "temporary undocumented" legal status that has not led to citizenship because the "time" has not been "right" for the full legalization of their residence in the country, making for exploitation of their labor without granting of their rights to citizenship. http://www.alternet.org/immigration/109594/?page=1 10/25/08 Raid of a brothel in Baltimore uncovers a situation of widespread human trafficking as women are imported from Mexico to serve as prostitutes. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.trafficking25oct25,0,5337561.story 10/23/08 Immigrants doing work that "Americans won't do": in this instances, teaching in urban ghetto schools, which are increasingly recruiting foreign teachers as native-born ones flee elsewhere. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-10-22-foreign-teachers_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip 9/16/08 "Unfortunately, the city of Farmers Branch doesn't know when to quit." Statement by a member of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund which, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing the Dallas suburb for yet another attempt to control "illegal immigration," this time by an ordinance requiring that all renters in the city obtain "occupancy" permits, a device by which the city apparently hopes to discourage residency by undocumented immigrants. http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/discrim/36765prs20080915.html 9/2/08 Who will clean up after Gustav? In New Orleans, it may be largely the thousands of migrants who were brought into the city for Katrina clean-up work. It appears that they are largely undocumented, and that many "rode out" the storm for fear of being tagged and identified in the evacuation process. In any case, many look forward to an opportunity to find work to continue remittances to their hard-pressed relatives in Mexico or other countries of origin. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/51429.html 8/31/08 Poor translations of English direction signs make life difficult for Spanish-speaking visitors to Maryland's motor vehicle division. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.watchdog31aug31,0,1311965.story 8/29/08 Hundreds of undocumented immigrants are detained at electrical manufacturing plant in Mississippi as ICE steps up enforcement effort. http://blogs.chron.com/immigration/archives/2008/08/post_160.html 8/24/08 ICE on voluntary compliance program for illegal immigrants: 'Well, that didn't work. Let's get tough again.'. A program that allowed immigrants subject to deportation to avoid "embarassment" by arrest at home or work nets only 8 volunteers from a pool of about 450,000 "candidates" for compliance. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency pledges a renewed campaign to round up its targets. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5prhLjHvlhYqvnvbzyaGXUtL1WAD92NJNS81 8/13/08 “We treat each and every detainee in our custody with the same high level of quality, professional care possible " says Director of Nursing on behalf of a federal detention center in Rhode Island of its treatment of detainees of ICE awaiting deportation hearings. Tell that to Hiu Lui Ng, who immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 1992 but was caught up a year ago in a system of deportation detention that now has 300,000 detainees in private and publicly-operated jails. Actually, you couldn't tell that to Ng today, because this week he died after suffering severe back pain for which the "quality professional care" he received entailed his being dragged from his bed and hauled to an interrogation center to be threatened once more to give up his appeal against his deportation. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html?th&emc=th 8/11/08 Federally-funded Head Start program is started for children of migrant agricultural workers in Clackamas County, Oregon, with "no proof of citizenship" of parents required for participation. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1218421520110830.xml&coll=7&thispage=1 8/9/08 Federal immigration raids in Boston area in sweep of "international gangs" are alleged to be ensaring many innocent people, especially Cambodian immigrants. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/09/activists_protest_federal_gang_raids/ 8/4/08 Increasing number of legal U.S. immigrants being caught up in an enforcement surge that subjects them to deportation because of crimes in their past. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/04/20080804immig-deport0804.html 7/31/08 Group advocating immigration restriction publishes study showing sharp drop in illegal immigration in the U.S. and attributes it to stepped up enforcement. Critics say the degree of drop may be exaggerated and more the result of economy than of enforcement. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/us/31immig.html?th&emc=th 5/27/08 "Internal affairs" department at DHS is doing a booming business at Mexican border. With "stepped up" Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement has come an escalation in cases of Border Patrol agents working in cooperation with smugglers, many of whom operate with impunity knowing that corrupted agents will not open their car trunks to find the human cargo contained therein. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/us/27border.html?th&emc=th 5/17/08 Immigrant workers in America: Slavery or apartheid? Take our pick:. Ron Jacobs begins an essay on undocumented immigrants with the story of a group of Indian ones who walk off the job of post-Katrina reconstruction in Mississippi, an all-too-familiar story of immigrants brought in to do "jobs Americans won't do" under financial obligations to the contractors who brought them and threats of deportation by their employers that amount to slavery conditions. Other immigrant situations are more similar to apartheid South Africa, in which the suppression of native workers was based on a "pass" system, as identification failure while being in "white" areas could land them in trouble. Criminalizing employment or voting in America without "valid ID" has much the same effect on immigrants: Mexico as Soweto, U.S. as Capetown. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/go-to-work-go-to-jail/ 5/17/08 19 Texas border communities sue to stop construction of 70 miles of border fence along the U.S./Mexican border. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5785497.html 5/12/08 Being sick and being in immigration custody: Not a happy combination. Plight of a south Korean "war bride" immigrant highlights that of some of the 30,000 people being held for possible deportation in a "patch-work" of detention facilities around the country. Held for many months following her arrest for having bought some stolen jewelry a decade earlier, she shows the signs of recurrence of a cancer but is frustrated in her efforts to obtain medical assistance. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/immigration/cwc_d2p1.html 5/12/08 In apparently increasing numbers, citizens are being arrested during immigrant raids across the U.S.A 5/11/08 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sets up shop at National Cattle Congress in Iowa: The ICE, along with FEMA, has "rented" the fair grounds in Waterloo for several weeks and set up trailers and other installations. Why? Counter-terrorism or disaster response exercises? Prelude to immigration raids? Possible conversion of the grounds into an immigrant detention center? DHS (parent agency of ICE and FEMA) isn't saying, and even Iowa's Senator Grassley can't find out. One thing for sure: it is making the local Latino population very nervous. Is it safe to go out to the Latin market, even if you're "legal?" http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/05/08/news/top_story/10323641.txt 5/11/08 Sheriff in Madison WI says he will not accede to demands of protesters that he stop reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement those undocumented immigrants in Dane County's jails. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/285671 5/2/08 The sleeping giant goes back for a snooze.... In contrast to massive turnouts in past years at May Day events for those protesting anti-immigration action in the United States, yesterday's crowds were smaller and their rhetoric less intense in most cities across the country. Organizers attribute this to a combination of confusion about the "stalled" immigration reform legislation in Congress and an element of fear of people identifying themselves as undocumented in the face of repressive waves of immigration enforcement and the tightening of border security. Protesters demand that presidential candidate address immigration as a "priority" issue in their campaigns. 4/24/08 Illegal immigrants experience terror at 2 Boston live music venues, as officials are starting to question the legitimacy of their passports. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/24/bartenders_serve_up_drinks_customs_checks/ 4/5/08 What would MLK, who died 4/4/68, done after 4/1/08? The latter day was when the U.S. Director of Homeland Security suspended the rights of citizens to protest the building of a wall along the Mexican border. Texan Greg Moses has no doubt what King would have done, had he survived the Memphis assault and carried out his plan to "shut down Washington" with a march to demand implementation of his civil rights, anti-poverty and anti-imperilist agenda. He would be attempting once again to awaken the "sleeping giant" of a mass movement without which nothing seems to "move" in America. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/missing-king-the-first-forty/ 4/2/08 University of Wisconsin students protest the immigration detention of 22-year-old pharmacy student who came to the U.S. from Nigeria with her family at the age of 3. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/279772 4/2/08 South Texans are angered at Bush administration's decision to allow waiver of environmental requirements to allow construction of Mexican border fence to continue. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5667062.html 4/1/08 When Juan the person becomes Juan the paperwork:. A 16-year-old boy, brought by parents to America at age 6 and about to graduate from a Florida high school, faces deportation to Colombia and responds in a moving YouTube video. In commenting on his situation and that of other "illegal immigrants," Sally Kuhn observes that a combination of dehumanizing fear and pity has been used to scapegoat immigrants for the country's problems, and that only a controlling emotion of love can overcome the demonization of immigrants in America. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/31/8002/ 3/29/08 Local law enforcement "crackdowns" on illegal immigrants may be eroding the cooperative relation between police and immigrant communities: Across the U.S., local jurisdictions are joining the Homeland Security push against illegal immigrants, making many immigrants reluctant to report crimes or to cooperate with police investigation of them, lest they be snared in a process that could lead to deportation. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/ap_on_re_us/policing_immigrants 3/16/08 A transformative politics of black-brown alliance may be underway in Mississippi and across the "solid" South: . The influx of migrant workers brought in to help rebuild Mississippi's casinos post-Katrina is the backbone of a burgeoning alliance between black and Latino political forces that threatens the white political machine in the state; and similar developments are occurring elsewhere in the South. http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16888 3/15/08 "A man has a right to live with his wife " says a Ft. Worth photographer married to a Chinese woman. U.S. immigration officials in Texas and elsewhere do not honor this "right," nor the broader rule of international law that migrant families should not suffer separation from one another. A Special Rapporteur to the UN has just reported that some 1.6 million people in the United States are migrants forced to live away from their families, many because of the operation of mandatory detention laws that went into effect in 1996. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/03/raiding-the-family-room-in-texas/ 3/8/08 Life getting more difficult for undocumented immigrants in America, and its not just becuase of "crackdowns" implemented or threatened:. Latin American immigrants are heavily involved with work in the construction industry, which has been hardest hit by the housing construction slowdown. Many immgrants who have depended on day labor for funds to provide remittances to people back home are finding that work not available, and a severe decline in such remittances is being noted. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41505 2/24/08 Fast track for citizenship applications for U.S. soliders: George Bush promiseth, bureaucratic back log taketh away:. Facilitated citizenship application, along with amnesty for being undocumented immigrants, have been proposed or promised for veterans, partly as a recruiting inducement. Soldiers and ex-soldiers are finding, instead, that their citizenship applications are mired in months or years of delay in action on them. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/us/24vets.html?th&emc=th 2/24/08 High-powered "virtual fence" at Mexican border now online;, Can distinguish a human from a cow at 10 miles;. The Boeing-built high surveillance system is now producing results satisfying to DHS Secretary Chertoff, as numerous apprehensions are resulting. The Secretary says the actual "physical fence" of 770 miles will continue to be built, despite its unpopularity. Both Clinton and Obama, campaigning in south Texas, express approval of the "virtual fence" approach. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7260179.stm 2/22/08 "Our nation needs immigratns just as much as immigrants need employment." Wisconsin woman notes the lack of recognition of this "essential truth" in the current presidential campaign. Included in this "truth" is the way employers take advantage of the country's repressive immigration laws and the ever-present possibility of deportation if workers resist their exploitation. http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/273492 2/20/08 From Scott Fitzgerald's fictional "armory" to all-too-real John Rocker; Not that much changes in American feelings about immigrants in 90 years: \ Pierre Tristam rides subway line #7, aka the "immigrant's express," across ethnically diverse Queens and reflects on "white" Americans' reactions to immigrants that are similar between those of a Fitzgerald character and the modern-day Atlanta Braves pitcher. Tristam's own exhilaration in seeing multi-ethnicity in the flesh is not shared by Armory, Rocker and too many other Americans for whom the words "foreigner" and "stinking" are allowed to belong in the same sentence. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/19/7139/ 2/12/08 Wouldn't it be great to be the father of the first baby born in Rhode Island in 2008? Well, not so great for a man so "honored" this year, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who, days after his "recognition" occurred, was recognized by immigration authorities and deported. His plight symbolizes a new intensity of "crackdown" on illegal immigrants in a state which has prided itself on being a "state of immigrants," as a state legislator of Italian origin introduces a bill rivalling the laws in Arizona and Oklahoma for its harsh treatment of the undocumented. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/12/illegal_workers_targeted_in_ri/ 2/9/08 Hidalgo County in Texas defies the plan of DHS director Chertoff to build a 370-mile Mexican border fence by the end of this year, objecting to a fence located at a distance from the Rio Grande that would cut off river access to people on the U.S. side of the border. They secure a bizarre "compromise" in which DHS will forego the fence for several miles and enhance the river levees to 18 feet. Meanwhile the Secretary proceeds apace with his plan to seize land for fence-building in Texas towns like Eagle Pass. 2/9/08 Utah legislature considering "crack down" legislation that would deny jobs and public benefits for the undocumented. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695251644,00.html 2/8/08 "America's immigration problem is not down on the border, it's in Washington and on Wall Street":." Jim Hightower's trenchant critique of the effort to deal with the perceived "immigration crisis" by sealing borders, criminalizing employment and denying benefits to illegal immigrants. Rather than these futile measures, Hightower advocates a dual policy of helping to improve working conditions in both America and in countries of origin like Mexico. When working class Americans look for the source of their economic malaise, they should look not down on the immigrant, but up to the financial/political elite that has foisted on the workers of the world, in this and other countries, a profoundly worker-unfriendly social condition. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/76076/ 2/7/08 On Maryland's Eastern Shore, foreign workers are seen as essential to the area's economy but are also rejected as "illegals." http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.first07feb07,0,4695869.story 2/2/08 Business interests in Oklahoma file law suit in federal court challenging the state's stringent law against employment of illegal immigrants. http://newsok.com/article/3200015/1201935327 1/18/08 Move over, Mexican border landowners; we've got a deadline to meet here.... U.S. Department of Homeland Security has instituted over a hundred lawsuits to gain access to land near the border to survey and assess suitability for construction of border fences, some 600 miles of which it are under mandate from Congress to build by the end of this year. The border town of Eagle Pass, Texas is expected to relinguish control of 233 acres for this purpose. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/24897.html 12/19/07 Persecution of Hmong, already continuing in Laos in retribution for support of U.S. in Indo-China war, continues in Minneapolis, as a family is terrorized by a midnight SWAT team raid on a wrong address. http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-raid1219.artdec19,0,2198530.story 12/17/07 Omaha man married to an illegal immigrant "did the right thing" and applied for her to gain citizenship. The application process backfired and resulted in the wife being permanently barred from U.S. residence. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10211326 12/13/07 “Maybe we've just got to live with it; I mean, look around" ... says a resident of Storm Lake, Iowa, a proponent of tougher border enforcement and making English the official language in a town now called "little Mexico" but who doubts the practicality of proposed schemes for accomplishing that ideal, reflecting the ambiguity of presidential candidates on the issue http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/us/politics/13voices.html?th&emc=th 12/4/07 "I'll be back in three days" says one defiant deportee at Miami International Airport, where some 400 people a month are sent on deportation flights, many to Harlingen TX near the Mexican border. The deportees are the product of a stepped up immigration enforcement policy and they are "welcomed aboard" their deportation flights handcuffed and shackled. http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/330987.html 11/28/07 North Carolina community colleges are told they must admit students even though they are illegal immigrants if they are 18 and have high school diplomas. http://www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/796994.html 11/23/07 National Democratic Party may be preparing to "toughen its stand" on illegal immigration. http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-immig1112.artnov12,0,2534316.story 11/20/07 Border Patrol and local courts in Texas have adopted "zero tolerance" toward illegal immigrants, who will be arrested and get jail time if they are caught. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5315873.html 11/19/07 Presidential candidates' positions on thorny immigration issue is described as a "make or break" issue for some candidates, with more breaking and making so far evident. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1119/p01s02-uspo.html 11/17/07 Phillipine immigrant couple prominent in State College PA subjected to deportation proceedings after discovery that he allegedly lied about their medical status in immigration documents completed 17 years ago. 11/16/07 Bishop from Utah playing a key role in a national Catholice Bishop organization attempting to find a "humane" solution to the problem of illegal immigration. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695228187,00.html 11/14/07 New York Governor Spitzer decides to "move on" by dropping his controversial plan to provide drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants. He is expected to announce this decision today, citing his reluctant withdrawal from a plan in which he believed on "principle," but which has no chance to survive opposition from several directions; in effect, it's time to "move on" to other areas of need in New York's political agenda. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/nyregion/14spitzer.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 11/9/07 Where illegal immigrants are a community problem, what's the solution? Probably in most U.S. cities and counties, the solution is a "crackdown" or attempt to deport illegals or deny them public services. In Addison, Illinois and a number of other U.S. localities, the response is different: a focus on needed services like English language instruction to try to bring illegals into the mainstream of U.S. society. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1109/p02s04-ussc.html 10/27/07 Illegal immigrants in California were literally smoked out of their homes during the recent fires. As wealthy people evacuated the area, many illegals were left behind to work in the fields. As their lives became endangered, some fled their homes only to be arrested by immigration officials and slated for deportation. Rather than risk this fate, others stayed behind to take their chances with the fires and some were found as charred bodies in homes and vehicles. Some of those who survived the fire and the arrests line up for day labor jobs for the "clean up" that follows the fire http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/us/27illegals.html?th&emc=th 10/17/07 Prince William (Virginia) County passes illegal immigrants crackdown resolution that would provide local police "cooperation" with federal authorities and deny some public services to illegals. 10/16/07 Department of Homeland Security's plan to issue letters to employees to demand the firing of workers whose social security numbers do not match those listed for them in the social security database (90% of whom, claims DHS, are illegal immigrants) is stymied as a federal judge stops the program after a suit alleging a high rate of mistakes in these records. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1016/p03s03-uspo.html?page=1 9/26/07 In a controversial program, some U.S. cities designate themselves as "sanctuary cities" in which police are forbidden to question people about their immigration status in the course of questioning them after their reporting of crimes. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p02s01-usju.html 9/19/07 Immigration advocates (some not all) are touting the projected November release of a new video game, ICED (acronym for I Can End Deportation), produced by Games for Change, that pits illegal immigrant teenagers against immigration enforcement agencies. In the game, the player gets points for "good behaviors" like staying in school and not shop-lifting but in the end almost inevitably gets deported or otherwise suppressed. Advocates say it promotes others being able to put themselves in the shoes of immigants, critics say it portrays enforcement agents as "bullies." http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/240201.html 9/15/07 Immigration tale of two cities: Woodbridge, VA and New Haven, CT:. Reflecting national uncertainty about how to deal with illegal immigrants, Woodbridge (in William County) moves to implement enforcement regulations that threaten the lives and livelihoods of immigrants. Meantime New Haven grants special ID cards to undocumented immigrants and attempts to integrate them into the community's everyday life. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/19697.html 9/15/07 Increasing number of would-be Mexico immigrants are dying in the attempt to cross the border in Pima County, AZ. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/us/15border.html?th&emc=th 9/7/07 Social Security Administration plays the "logjam" card on illegal immigration: The agency enters a San Francisco case in which the court has produced an injunction against having them send letters to employers that they must fire workers whose social security numbers offered at the time of their employment do not match SSA records. SSA complains that 141,000 such letters have already been composed and argue (with maybe some questionable logic) that the injunction will create a "bureaucratic logjam" which will compromise their ability to process routine claims for retirement and disability benefits. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/washington/07mailing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 9/3/07 U.S. labor unions win 30 day injunction against government sending letters to employees demanding firing of illegal immigrant employees. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/01/MN3RRTFO5.DTL 8/31/07 Settlement of a suit involving abusive conditions for children at Texas immigration centers allows the center to remain open with reforms in those conditions. 8/25/07 Fast-growing immigrant population on Nantucket Island struggles to reach accommodation with the mostly rich, white Americans to whose needs the immigrants cater. 8/17/07 "Militarizing" the border: new Border Patrol uniforms make them look more like soldiers, less like police. 8/14/07 U.S. businesses starting to feel the economic pinch from "crackdowns" on employment of illegal immigrants. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p03s03-uspo.html 8/8/07 Legalization process for illegal immigrants having died in the U.S. Senate, government proceeds to the further criminalization of them: Government appeals to its conservative base by announcing "crackdown" plans to enforce regulations requiring employers to fire workers who furnish social security numbers that do not match the numbers on SSA's national database. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/washington/08immig.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 8/3/07 Bits and pieces of immigration reform legislation are beginning to be revived in U.S. Senate. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/washington/03immig.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 7/20/07 The migration that we forget to remember: The emigration of Americans to other countries. The CEO of a global marketing firm reports that fully a fifth of all Americans have migrated to another country or are seriously considering migration. He touts this emigration (mostly middle-aged rather than older Americans) as a possible solution to the country's immigration problem: migrant Americans can be thought of as "America's most foreign aid program" as their residence can help create more jobs and income in the countries into which they move, lessening the incentive for them to immigrate to America. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0719/p09s01-coop.html?page=1 7/17/07 Prince William County in Virginia joins the growing number localities in the U.S. enacting immigration control legislation in the absence of federal legislative changes. PWC deputies are now empowered to arrest people as illegal immigrants. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0717/p01s05-ussc.html 7/9/07 Seafood industry on Maryland's Eastern Shore is heavily depend on foreign labor, and migrants and industry leaders hope for a reprieve from a threatened elimination of a temporary worker program that permits their legal employment. 7/7/07 North Carolina lawyer laments with his legal immigrant clients the bitter disappointment of having U.S. government suspend the receipt of applications for permanent U.S. residency a month after announcing the opening of application process. http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/629641.html 7/4/07 Why did the immigration bil fail? E.J. Dionne cites two factors in the political atmosphere in America: (a) middle class Americans' resentment that government was attempting to address the needs of immigrants while ignoring their own pressing needs in health care, education, income improvement, etc. and (b) a prevalent mistrust of "government" to do anything competently, whether to manage hurricane relief, the war in Iraq, or a complicated immigration control system. The second of these is a "legacy" of conservative impassivity from which progressives can take little comfort as they contemplate governmental problems of social betterment (including, for example, a universal health care system that would address the first issue mentioned above.) 7/4/07 A group of 100 Haitians apprehended after an unauthorized grueling boat trip from Haiti remain in custody in south Florida awaiting approval for asylum to stay in the country. Their plight highlights an asylum-granting system that is showing a decline in applications as the futility of the applications is being experienced. The system is also sharply discriminatory by nationality (Cubans by law and Russians by usage are favored nationalities, while Haitians are among the least successful) http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0703/p03s03-ussc.html?page=1 6/29/07 "Shut down the rides, turn out the lights, the crowd goes home" is an Arizona lawmaker's summary of an "enforcement first (or only)" mode of thought about immigration that helped kill the immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate. Rather than trying to improve life for illegal immigrants, the focus should be on making their immigration so uncomfortable that the 12 million "crowd" of them will soon go home. No more, please, of the "nurturant mother" (or was it "tough love?) approach to immigrants, let's just stamp "return to sender" on their rumps and send them back to the places from which he have come. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0629/p01s05-uspo.html?page=1 6/24/07 A library which sits astride the Vermont/Canada border, a proud symbol of U.S. and Canadian comity, has been discovered by smugglers and illegal immigrants as an unguarded way to cross the border. http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/06/24/a_quiet_imperiled_on_vt_canada_line/ 6/20/07 As U.S. officials unveil route plans for 173-mile section of a Mexican border fence approved by Congress, locals complain that the proposed route would upset many south Texas routines, endanger wild life habitats, and would even cut across the campus of a University of Texas facility at Brownsville. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/us/20border.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 6/19/07 President Bush's action in putting aside the provisions of a law requiring regular rotation of Mexican border guards on grounds that it violates his "executive authority" is one of 6 instances of presidential signing statements resulting in law violations, in a study conducted by Boston Globe. 6/18/07 With opposition from state legislatures, some U.S. cities are now allowing immigrants to vote in local elections http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0618/p03s03-ussc.html 6/18/07 In FBI-land, it takes 5 years and counting to get your name checked in connection with an application for naturalization. At least that's the experience of a South Korean woman, one person in a huge backlog of naturalization applications, a situation that bodes poorly for the touted "path to citizenship" in the now-stalled immigration reform bill. Even if they reform the law, can they reform the federal bureaucracy? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601360.html?referrer=email 6/16/07 Brooks County Texas is a "graveyard" for would-be border crossers, with bodies being found on local ranches on a daily basis. Local towns complain of the strain on their budgets of morgues, autopies and burials; hunters like cronies of President Bush have their tranquillity disturbed by the Mexicans, dead or alive. The only people really happy about the situation are a local militia that maintains a "portrait gallery" of pictures of the remains of these unfortunates. http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2509 6/15/07 Hispnaic radio broadcaster: No enforcementmodel for dealing with illegal immigrants is going to work: He advises U.S. Senators to "take their family to dinner" and give up on the so-far futile attempt at immigration reform based on border security, complicated legal paths to citizenship, dead end guest worker programs and sanctions against employers of the undocumented. None of these approaches has worked or will work. What will work, if we have the political will to do it, is to transfer our "enforcement" funds into investments in working conditions that will allow would-be migrants to remain at home; and to work on dismantling the system of "free trade" arrangements that help to produce intolerable conditions in the countries of immigrant origin. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=13059 6/15/07 Democratic and Republican leaders in Senate agree to have another go at passing immigration reform bill that stalled last week. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/ap_on_go_co/bush_immigration 6/14/07 Pierre Tristam sees a great revival of American bigotry in the popular outcry over immigration reform. The "crass roots" movement that derailed the immigration bill in Congress, like the racism and xenophobism of nativist movements that preceded it, is based on a prejudiced view of the ways in which immigrants have allegedly hurt or threatened American life. Instead, it should be noted how Mexican immigrants, among others, have been the "saving grace" of the American economy, as they have enabled the economic prosperity of the last 25 years. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/Essays/opnESSAY061207.htm 6/12/07 Granny D weighs in on immigration debate. At Democracy for America meeting in New Hampshire, Doris Haddock goes to the heart of the immigration crisis, finding a pulse beat in the complicity of both parties in the U.S. and of both Mexico and the United States, in a NAFTA-induced coma in the Mexican economy to the benefit of agri-business interests in America who use their campaign finance clout to control both parties. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/11/1786/ 6/12/07 Use of military forces for border guard duty is increasingly being questioned as Texas Guardsmen are arrested for human smuggling. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4881430.html 6/11/07 Washington Post survey indicates that many of the judges appointed by the Justice Department are, contrary to law, appointed based on Republican Party loyalty, with many of them being unqualified in immigration law experience and most of the experienced ones having practiced on the side of prosecutions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001229.html?referrer=email 6/6/07 As Congress debates various approaches to dealing with the issue, it largely ignores any consideration of action to stem the tide of immigration by working to improve the structure of opportunity for would-be migrants to remain in their countries of origin, especially Mexico. One analyst has noted that this is exactly how the European Union dealt with its own immigration problem after 1986, investing in economic development in countries like Spain and Portugal that had furnished many of immigrants to other parts of Europe. Had we followed suit at that time, the Mexico/U.S. issue today might have looked very different http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/06/MIA_from_immigration_debate.html 6/5/07 Maryland crabbing industry has a big stake in immigration bill now in Congress, as owners are reluctantly but firmly involved in the employment of temporary workers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060401878.html?referrer=email 5/30/07 Another way to discourage immigration: would-be applicants for citizenship will face sticker stock on July 30 of tripled application fees that could be over $3000 for a family of four. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4846076.html 5/28/07 Guest worker program: great for business, horrible for immigrants. A key component of immigration "reform" pushed by White House and now being considered in Congress would furnish businesses with a vital supply of cheap labor with no responsibilities and costs for health, education or welfare of their workers. Nice work if you can get it, and they will get a great deal of that for which they are asking with a "bi-partisan" support base. 5/28/07 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accused of allowing a continued backlog of citizenship application processing in order to preserve its own budget dependent on application renewal fees. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/27/AR2007052701118.html?referrer=email 5/26/07 Bush would be better off losing his coveted immigration reform bill says John Podhoretz of New York Post (how many times have we ever linked his views?), noting that efforts to enact it alienate many Republicans whom he needs on his "side" come September and likely unsatisfactory progress in Iraq will give increasing impetus to Democrats' efforts to stop the war. 5/24/07 "It's like being a part of Mexico here " says an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Little Rock after walking away from a Mexican consulate office with an "identification" card that persons like himself can use to make bank and other transactions in the U.S.A. Defenders of these consulates, common throughout the country, describe them as normal diplomatic policy for a country to protect and assist its nationals abroad. Critics see them as an "end run" around American immigration laws. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/us/23consulate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 5/24/07 In Senate version of U.S. immigration reform bill, a "point" system for consideration of immigration approval is skewed sharply toward job skills: up to 47 points on a 100 point scale for employment criteria, 10 for family ties, the latter of which has been a major focus of immigration policy. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0524/p01s01-ussc.html?page=1 5/23/07 California peach gorwer speaks on immigration reform: The campaign against illegal immigrants has already decimated the farm worker force and tends to discourage labor intensive farming in favor of machine harvesting, at a sacrifice of food quality. What really needs "reform" is a change in the way we treat farm workers: their wages, working conditions and treatment as human beings, all part of the proper "social contract" between farm owners and workers. http://www.counterpunch.org/masumoto05222007.html 5/23/07 UN observer barred by US immigration officials from visiting an immigrant detention facility in Texas. After ACLU charges poor conditions at "emergency detention center" in Alice operated by KBR, an affiliate of Halliburton, a "Special Rapporteur" of UN who investigates human rights violation charges is denied access to the facility. 5/18/07 New "deal" between Republican and Democratic leaders of Senate on immigration is announced. Democrats get what they want: a (rocky) path to citizenship. Republicans get a "merit-based" system that will give precedence to those immigrants who can help the U.S. be more "competitive" (read brain drain) and put aside family unification criteria. News media gush over the deal as a great bipartisan accomplishment, citing the support of the Senate "liberal" Edward Kennedy. The measure is expected to get overwhelming approval in the Senate; House, with more polarized positions on the issue, may be the harder sell. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/washington/18immig.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 5/1/07 Immimgration rallies today expected to be far smaller than those a year ago. Protest weariness and intimidation from rising level of deportations is expected to diminish participation. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/us/01deport.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 4/26/07 T. Willard Fair, head of Urban League of Miami, speaks out against the "path to citizenship" plans for immigration reform, complaining that illegal immigrants take many jobs away from blacks. His remarks highlight an ambiguity in the relationship between the black and immigrant civil rights movements. http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/86837.html 4/19/07 Militarizing the border: A shirt-sleeved President Bush visits Yuma AZ, proclaims the dangers of immigration to U.S. society, and heaps praise on a military predator drone that is part of the array of high tech military hardware that is being diverted to border patrol as Boeing and other military contractors cash in on the border-guarding business. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=12618 4/2/07 Dallas immigrant rally much smaller in attendance than the huge one a year ago, but still "spirited" and focussed on urging Hispanics to vote, pursue citizenship and lobby Congress. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040207dnmetimmigrally.3ce44b7.html 3/27/07 Cuban-American members of Congress ask President Bush to suspend deportation of Venezuelan immigrants considered to be "refugees" from Chavez's leftist regime. http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/53947.html 3/23/07 Long delay expected in a federal judge's ruling on a lawsuit challenging Hazelton PA's anti-immigration legislation. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20070323_Ruling_awaited_in_Pa__towns_immigration_trial.html 3/20/07 Recent increase of arrests of employers for hiring illegal immigrants may be a tactic to encourage "business" interests to put pressure on members of Congress to support the proposed "guest worker" program. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0320/p01s02-usju.html?page=1 3/17/07 Anti-Defamation League of New England defines a new "mission" for itself: countering anti-immigrant bias. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/17/for_adl_another_mission/ 3/16/07 When justice and mercy collide. Stories of some of the 361 illegal immigrants rounded up last week in New Bedford Massachusetts highlight the society's ethical conflicts between the imperative to enforce its laws and to show compassion for the people involved in that enforcement. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0316/p01s02-ussc.html 3/16/07 Justice, mercy and the Bush Administration:. On his tour of Latin America, Bush was met by angry demonstrators in Guatemala, where he told the people that U.S. laws would be carried out with "respect" for those arrested, while Guatemalans, whose families and friends made up most of the arrestees in last week's "sweep" in New Bedford MA, were receiving different stories about the "respect" shown their countrymen. http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0315-31.htm 3/15/07 Local "crackdowns" on illegal immigrants may be headed to the Supreme Court. Local ordinances passed in Hazleton PA and elsewhere are being challenged in court suits that are likely to be reviewed by the high court. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0315/p03s03-usju.html?page=1 3/13/07 Congress prepares to take up again "comprehensive" immigration reform legislation including expansion of guest worker programs and opening paths to citizenship. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0313/p01s01-uspo.html 3/10/07 Immigrant rights groups supporting legislation in Congress that would repeal the prohibition on health care benefits to legal immigrants within the first five years of their U.S. entry. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4465 3/4/07 Could Colorado use those California prisoners after all? State farmers are turning to 60 cents per day inmate workers to replace the immigrants being kept away by state's tough new immigration law. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04prisoners.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 3/2/07 Globalization junk mail: "Return to Sender" anti-immigration operations treat immigrants as so much unwanted mail without any consideration of their human needs and aspirations. http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0301-29.htm 2/28/07 Guest workers of the world...oh never mind: As Congress considers expansion of the "guest worker" approach to illegal immigration, the guest worker system now in place promotes the exploitation of foreign workers who are denied the benefits they are promised and kept under constant threat of deportation if they complain. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/us/28labor.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp 2/27/07 Roadblocks on a path to citizenship: U.S. immigrants are finding their efforts to acquire English proficiency stymied by the short supply of instructional facilities and political resistance to teaching them. Arizona has even passed legislation to forbid public assistance to those seeking to learn English. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/education/27esl.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 2/23/07 Divide and subjugate: Anti-immigration movement and mainstream media have cooperated to create a "conflict story line" of the relation between immigrants and African-Americans that has obscured the actual identity of political interest of the two communities. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=12176 2/22/07 Beefed-up security along U.S./Mexican border creates severe shortages of farm workers for lettuce harvest and other agricultural work. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p02s01-usec.html 2/22/07 Mr. Anti-Immigrant hysteric, meet your cousin Ms. Anti-Abortion propagandist: New Years' flap over the citizenship status of a baby born to an undocumented Chinese immigrant highlights the intersection between the anti-choice and anti-immigrant movements in America. The alleged fertility of immigrant women and the alleged drain of their children on social services feeds a nativist paranoia of being demographically displaced and economically bankrupted by foreigners, leading to efforts to deport or discourage immigation of women of childbearing ages. http://www.alternet.org/rights/48284/ 2/10/07 Arrest of two dozen men waiting to be picked up for day jobs outside a 7-Eleven store in Baltimore spurs immigrant advocates' call for an indoor work center which has been resisted in the city and throughout Maryland. 2/9/07 Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations makes a "probable cause" determination of discrimination against immigrant customers of a local steak shop where a sign says that meals should be ordered in "English only." http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/16657337.htm 2/9/07 Anti-immigration sentiments in U.S. join gay marriage and urban crime as "hot button" issues that have contributed to resurgence of Ku Klux Klan. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0209/p02s02-ussc.html 1/29/07 When George Bush was Governor of Texas, "immigrant-bashing" was not allowed. With Bush gone, that has all changed radically. 1/27/07 Colorado's "tough" anti-immigration law which was to have saved the state money by denying state services to the undocumented as now shown, a year after its enactment, have failed to accomplish its purposes as state agencies report all cost, no gain. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_5081255 1/27/07 Evangelicals edge their way into the immigration debate with a "moderate" approach that raises the question "Whom would Jesus deport?" http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0126-09.htm 1/26/07 Migrant activist suggests that the migrant demonstrations last May stopped in their tracks a Minuteman/Sensenbrenner fascist effort to intimidate America's stateless people, her undocumented immigrants. Now, with Bush and the Democrats united in their pursuit of a "comprehensive" immigration reform that will effectively deprive migrants of citizenship rights, the movement may have to step to the plate once again. http://www.countercurrents.org/us-santos250107.htm 1/25/07 Operation Return to Sender nets 761 illegal immigrants in Los Angeles, most of them people who had already been deported and ignored deportation orders or who returned after deportation. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_re_us/immigration_raids 1/21/07 The remnants of a Brazilian immigrant community in Philadelphia, including a school with instruction in Portuguese, are beginning to disappear with fear caused by reality and rumors of "crackdown" on illegal immigrants. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/16507616.htm 1/18/07 Homeland Security IG audit finds inadequate health and safety standards at five centers for detention of suspected illegal immigrants. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0117ImmigrationTreatment17-ON.html 1/11/07 "Reverse discrimination" in St. Paul MN as school bus designed to transport non-English speaking immigrant children refuses to allow English-speaking children on bus. 1/6/07 Who's guarding Minnesota? 200 National Guard troops, some of whom have already completed a year and half deployment to Afghanistan, will be sent to New Mexico to help with border patrol operations against illegal immigrants. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/917802.html 1/2/07 Little sanctuary for Iraqi refugees in America: while the U.S. has traditionally granted "refugee" status to people fleeing political violence in their home countries, and did so for Iraqi refugees after a U.S.-sponsored attempt on Saddam Hussein's life in 1996, there is almost no provision for sanctuary immigration for any of the huge number of Iraqis fleeing the country today, as few actually apply either because of fear of reprisals against their families or because of a U.S. system that has not treated this as a "priority" problem. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/world/middleeast/02refugees.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 12/27/06 Citing comparisons with Nazi Germany, Hispanic activists call for a moratorium on work place raids in search of undocumented immigrants. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122706P.shtml 12/27/06 Immigrant rights groups in Texas file suit against city of Farmers Branch for its ordinance forbidding the rental of housing to undocumented immigrants. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4427679.html 12/26/06 06 election fallout: Bipartisan effort underway in Congress to rewrite immigration legislation eliminating the "three-tiered" treatment based on length of undocumented status, withhold funding from border fence and put millions on path to citizenship. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/washington/26immig.html?th&emc=th 12/24/06 New Congress may enact immigration reform which would permit illegal immigrants to obtain temporary residency permits and permanent residency if they complete two years of college or service in the armed forces. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/stories/2006/12/DREAM_ACT18_COX_W4784.html 12/22/06 Incoming Governor of Massachusetts (Democrat) says he will rescind a just-signed agreement between outgoing Governor (Republican) and federal authorities that would have allowed state troopers to be used to enforce federal immigration laws. 12/22/06 Over a week after federal agents raided Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in 6 states and arrested over 1000 workers, ostensibly on identity theft charges, their cases are in limbo, many of the arrested have literally been "disappeared" from their relatives and |