Immigration

Stories of immigration, and more

All Americana: New Film Documents Hardships Faced by Undocumented Immigrants
Posted by Dennis , Movement Vision Lab on August 21, 2008 at 6:17 PM.

Introducing the first part of our two-part film, All Americana! Written and directed by MVL Film Fellow, Stephen Dypiangco, this film follows Marta whose dream of attending UCLA is derailed by her undocumented status.

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Son of Undocumented Immigrants Wins Gold
Posted by David Neiwert on August 19, 2008 at 10:01 AM.

Whatever you do, don't let Michelle Malkin and her horde of flying wingnut monkeys hear about Henry Cejudo:

Henry Cejudo, the 21-year-old wrestling prodigy who had wrestled in only one world-level senior tournament before Beijing, has won the Olympic gold medal in men's freestyle 55-kilogram wrestling.

Cejudo, the son of undocumented Mexican aliens who bypassed a college career to try to become an Olympian, assures the United States of winning a freestyle wrestling gold for the ninth consecutive Olympics at which it has competed.

If the nativist wingnuts -- the ones demanding the deportation of all 12 million "illegal aliens" (as they like to call them) -- get ahold of his parents, they could wind up back in Mexico. Heaven forfend if any children should be involved.

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Children Are Paying the Price for Bush's Deportation Policies
Posted by David Neiwert, Firedoglake on August 19, 2008 at 4:02 AM.

We've already seen, here in the States, the travesties created by the Republican push to deport illegal immigrants: police-state tactics, the bastardization of justice, the destruction of families, the inhuman treatment of cancer victims. But that's just the beginning of the ugliness.

Then there's what happens afterwards -- particularly to the children. A La Jornada report (translated; see original here) gives the basic outline:

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Welcome to America, Soon-to-Be Land of the White Minority
Posted by Roberto Lovato, Of America on August 18, 2008 at 4:02 PM.

In another telling truism about how 'demography is destiny", the Census Bureau recently released a report with a most radical implication: whites will be a 'minority' by 2042 or a full 8 years before most experts predicted. Coming from places like California, many of us have witnessed firsthand some of the white minority dynamics that will define the future United States Of América. Scholars like my friend David Hayes-Bautista, writers like Dale Maharidge, author of the ever-prescient "The Coming White Minority", and people in Whiteness Studies programs have long analyzed the extreme fluidity of whiteness. Yet, the news from the Census is nothing less than astonishing in terms of its political, economic, and cultural implications.

Viewed from the perspective of such startling demographic developments, the current anti-migrant climate, a climate filled with fear and with tragedies like the recently reported death of Chinese immigrant Hui Lui Ng , reflect the workings of personal and institutional fear or what I call "White Fear" in this article. Though I do not have any direct insight into the workings of the mind of An Other, I imagine that news of the coming white minority status must inspire images like those depicted in this photo-parody by San Diego-based Chicano artists Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez formerly known as "Los Anthropolocos":

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Are Cities Warming Up to 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Immigration Policies?
Posted by Suman Raghunathan, Feet in 2 Worlds on August 14, 2008 at 11:22 AM.

In an interesting update to the ongoing national debate over police officers enforcing immigration law (and to Feet in 2 Worlds' reporting on the issue), Hartford, CT's City Council voted unanimously Monday to prohibit all city workers, including police officers, from asking about residents' immigration status except in criminal cases and from turning over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities solely due to their lack of legal status.

The local ordinance, which must still be approved by Mayor Eddie Perez, also bars city employees from asking residents about their immigration status as they access city services.

Perez says he supports the idea behind the resolution, but it's still not clear if he will approve it: in the past he's cited a policy (issued by Hartford Chief of Police Daryl Roberts in March 2008 that allows officers to only inquire about the immigration status of those involved in a criminal investigation) as enough to encourage city residents to cooperate with police.

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Border Fence To Keep Out Illegals Being Built By Illegals
Posted by Blue Texan, Firedoglake on August 12, 2008 at 5:02 AM.

I'm going to file this one under "shit about the Bush administration you couldn't possibly make up."

Is it possible to build a border wall without the help of the very people it is intended to keep out?

That's an open question all along the border, and especially in the Rio Grande Valley, where the wall is widely unpopular but is now becoming a reality ...Valley longtimers have cracked wise about the barriers, saying they not only won't thwart illegal immigrants intent on entering the country but that illegal labor will probably help build them.

People in South Texas know what the deal is. It's happened before, after all:

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ICE Makes Self-Deportation Easy, You Can Even Do it Over the Phone
Posted by Sandip Roy on August 11, 2008 at 11:00 AM.

It's good to know that despite the colossal mess the country's immigration system is in, the government is working overtime to fix it.

For example, coming up with something like ICE Scheduled Departure Program for non-criminal fugitive aliens.

It's so simple, it's brilliant.

In a nutshell you turn yourself in and you deport yourself. In a tottering economy, you save the tax payers thousands of dollars. And you have the privilege of deporting yourself.

Ask not what ICE can do for you. Ask what you can do for ICE. Like its job, I guess.

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Aggressive Tactics are Failing: Why ICE is a Bust
Posted by Angela Kelley, Huffington Post on August 7, 2008 at 1:54 PM.

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced its latest gimmick -- Operation Scheduled Departure, a pilot program of voluntary deportation with no precedent, no incentives, and essentially no sensible basis. Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a "think tank" that has been referred to as a "thinly disguised anti-immigration organization," published a highly contested study claiming that severe enforcement measures are driving down the U.S.' "likely undocumented" immigrant population. Yet while ICE runs in circles, rounding up undocumented workers as CIS pats them on the back, the government fails to recognize that undocumented immigration is based more on the economics of survival than the politics of immigration enforcement -- a costly misjudgment.

The CIS report is marred with ambiguities and dubious information to begin with. The authors report confidently about a population that is nearly impossible to accurately measure and even admit they didn't include information about any population other than Hispanics. Most significantly, the CIS report tries to discount the significance of the current economic downturn with a flawed economic timeline. CIS claims that a decline in undocumented immigration became present after August 2007, prior to the significant jump in the unemployment rate. Yet, what CIS overlooks is that the economic downturn in many of the industries where undocumented immigrants tend to be employed, began well before August 2007.

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Immigration: The 'Please Deport Me' Plan Falls Flat on First Day
Posted by , Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights on August 6, 2008 at 5:54 AM.

By Jackie Mahendra ....

In the past few months, both DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) and ICE (Immigration, Customs and Enforcement) have come under fire for the dozens upon dozens of unaccounted-for deaths in immigrant detention. This was followed by outrage over ratcheted-up enforcement operations that have spawned the largest, and perhaps most unjust, workplace raids in US history.

The response?

Instead of making strides to repair an ailing immigration system, or ensuring humane detention conditions for those in DHS custody, ICE has introduced a plan so absurd, even its die-hard fans are stumped.

ICE to immigrants: "Please Deport Yourselves."

In an honor akin to hosting the next Olympics, Chicago was selected to be one of five pilot cities for the "Please Deport Me Plan." "Operation Scheduled Departure," as ICE calls it, targets undocumented immigrants with no criminal record, whom ICE believes might be convinced to deport themselves. Spanish, English, and Polish-language ads will run in ethnic news outlets throughout the city to let undocumented immigrants know about this exciting new option at their fingertips. While today marked the first full day of the new program, (surprise, surprise) not a single immigrant volunteered for deportation.

The incentive to "self-deport"?

The wish to avoid traumatic separation from family, dying in a privately-traded detention facility, or having to give birth shackled, which have become the crowning achievements of our failure to pass humane immigration reform under this administration's watch.

A bad joke?

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ICE Raids: Working for Elites and Their Status Quo
Posted by Harry Moroz, Drum Major Institute on August 5, 2008 at 6:26 AM.

On March 27th, 2007 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested an undocumented man picking up his 4th-grade daughter from Chaparral Elementary School in Santa Fe. According to The Albuquerque Tribune, "an anonymous source had told ICE that the suspect had engaged in sexual conduct with a minor." Within two days he was exonerated...and deported.

Santa Fe Mayor David Coss is a staunch supporter of immigrant rights, as is much of Santa Fe and New Mexico's population. The state is one of only a handful that still permits undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver's license and a state law makes undocumented students eligible for instate tuition and financial aid, a luxury they are not afforded by 40 other states.

Yet, just prior to the arrest described above, as part of its "Return To Sender" initiative ICE arrested 30 undocumented immigrants in Santa Fe. Unlike other raids that have involved local police (and still been botched), both Mayor Coss and Santa Fe's police chief were unaware of ICE's plans. As Coss told The Santa Fe New Mexican:

We're just a little displeased that such a major operation would take place without our chief of police being informed...

Schoolchildren - and school administrators - were shaken:

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Anti-Immigration "Think Tank": Eliminating the Border Patrol Will Halt Illegal Entries
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on July 31, 2008 at 12:59 PM.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) — the “non-partisan research” arm of John Tanton’s formidable anti-immigration empire — would be a source of endless laughs if not for the fact that some take their “research” seriously.

(My favorite CIS release was a “study” that supposedly revealed that there wasn’t a shortage of native-born farm-workers — it was just another liberal media hoax all along. The central argument: “Production of fruits and vegetables has been increasing. In particular, plantings of very-labor intensive crops such as cherries and strawberries have grown by more than 20 percent in just five years.” So, there are enough farmworkers to pick those crops after all! Never mind that the Dept. of Agriculture estimates that 50 percent of our current farmworkers are undocumented migrants and unofficial estimates range as high as 70 percent.)

Anyway, they have a new one focusing on recent Census data suggesting that the undocumented population is declining, and they try to walk a fine line with it. While explicitly noting that the economic downturn is likely a contributing factor, they strongly imply that the surge in harsh and basically ineffective immigration crackdowns has played a large role.

The Immigration Policy Center put out a release that made quick work of CIS’ claims:

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Bush's Latest Harebrained Scheme to Combat Unauthorized Immigration
Posted by Suman Raghunathan, Feet in 2 Worlds on July 31, 2008 at 6:58 AM.

Could the nation's undocumented immigrants please stand up? The government will be happy to deport you.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) will encourage the nation's roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants to voluntarily turn themselves into immigration authorities for deportation in the coming months in an unorthodox new program designed to help the agency combat unauthorized immigration.

ICE Director Julie Myers leaked the new federal effort on Univision this past Sunday at the end of an interview with Jorge Ramos, the anchor of the popular public affairs show 'Al Punto' and in advance of an anticipated formal announcement next week.

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The U.S. Should Never Deny the Right to Education. So Why Are We?
Posted by Christina Jimenez, Drum Major Institute on July 28, 2008 at 1:51 PM.

Since its foundation, our nation has witnessed the special contributions and success of immigrants and their children. Indeed, some of the most innovative contributions to American society have come from the children of immigrants, both the second generation (those born in the United States) and the generation known as 1.5 -- those born abroad and brought to the U.S. as children. It was a Belarusian 1.5 immigrant, Irving Berlin, who wrote "God Bless America."

Children of immigrants are unique in that they are raised in multiple cultures and become effective at building bridges between them. The 1.5 generation, however, exhibits even a greater level of uniqueness and talent. They are immersed in their native culture long enough to learn their native language and cultural values, but come to this country early enough to easily learn English and become part of mainstream America. 1.5 immigrants tend to be fluently bilingual and bicultural, communicate easily between two worlds, and can easily connect to different cultures, approaching the ideal global citizen.

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Repubs Vote for High Gas Prices, More Illegal Immigration and Against "the Troops"
Posted by Ian Welsh, Firedoglake on July 28, 2008 at 4:51 AM.

On Friday Republicans blocked a bill in the Senate meant to give regulators more ability to reign in oil speculation (h/t The Zoo). While there's some dispute how much if any of the price of oil is based on speculation, there's reason to think it could be a lot. And current law means that a lot of oil futures trading is done in such a way that we don't even know how much is being done, let alone if it's having any effect. At this point the current law is effectively "we don't even look to see if a crime could be occuring."

Hugh lays this out (365):

3. The Enron exception. Through its political pull with politicians like then Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Enron was able to insert language into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 exempting energy trading companies from oversight by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the government watchdog agency, in the over-the-counter (OTC) market for "futures-like" instruments.

4. London-Dubai loophole. In January 2006, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) with the blessing of the CFTC (via no-action letters) began allowing American traders to trade futures contracts on oil produced and consumed in this country on foreign terminals in the UK thus circumventing reporting requirements to the CFTC regarding large trader activity and speculation caps. (ICE also has an OTC component.) NYMEX joined with the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to launch a similar venture in May 2007.

5. Swaps dealer loophole. Under a 1993 CFTC rule, swaps dealers, investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, were given the same status as traditional futures traders like oil companies and airlines as long as they were considered to be hedging a "legitimate" risk. This allowed large financial funds to enter into swaps contracts with investment banks. A swap contract is essentially an agreement between two parties in which the first party agrees to pay the second a fixed rate of interest on an agreed upon amount, and the second party agrees to pay the first a variable rate on the same amount. The actual principals offset each other so it's really a mechanism to convert a fixed rate into a variable rate. The trick is that the investment banks use the money they receive to buy something that has a variable value, in this case crude oil futures which they have access to and the funds do not. This has been yet another way for large amounts of outside capital to enter into and distort the operation of the futures market in crude.

6. An ineffectual CFTC. This agency is supposed to regulate futures markets, but in this most anti-regulatory of Administrations, it has given away so much of its authority that it has no idea what is going on in the "dark markets" created by ICE and the Enron exception and no real interest in doing anything about it.

So, the Senate bill, while it doesn't go far enough (I'd slap a percentage tax on all futures and options commodity trading, probably of 1% and I'd increase margin requirements significantly), it's certainly a good basic idea. Even if you don't think futures are doing a thing to oil prices, no liberal can be for all that trading going on in the dark--nor should any markets believer, since transparency in markets is generally considered necessary for them to operate properly, and this is clearly not a transparent market without information asymmetries.

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Latino Migrant Beaten to Death in Penn
Posted by yave begnet, Drum Major Institute on July 24, 2008 at 6:00 PM.

Editor's note: This is about unintended consequences, or so we hope. The hard-line anti-immigration movement has made a strategic choice in demonizing immigrants, especially those from Latin America. They believe that they can make gains in the immigration debate by dehumanizing mostly Latino immigrants, by suggesting that they are foreign invaders. But hate speech leads to hate acts, and these kinds of incidents are a predictable outcome of their rhetorical choices.

The AP carried this article over the weekend about what appears to be the racially-motivated killing of a Latino migrant by a group of teenagers in rural Pennsylvania:

MICHAEL RUBINKAM --

SHENANDOAH, Pa. (AP) --

Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

. . .

Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up here, said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including "dirty Mexican," and told to return to his homeland.

"People in this town are very racist toward Hispanic people. They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good," said Dillman, who has two young children by Ramirez and a 3-year-old who thought of him as her father.

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