Immigration

Stories of immigration, and more

Latino Migrant Beaten to Death in Penn
Posted by yave begnet, Drum Major Institute on July 24, 2008 at 8:00 AM.

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.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The Hypocrisy and Racism of the San Diego Minutemen
Posted by Kyle Hussein de Beausset, Citizen Orange on July 22, 2008 at 11:52 AM.

On July 13, 2008, the San Diego Minutemen protested the appearance of Barack Obama before the National Council of La Raza. Sporting signs with trumped up allegations that the National Council of La Raza is racist, the Minutemen, nevertheless engaged in horrific displays of their own bigotry.

Read more about what happened here.

Liveblogging Netroots' Immigration Panel
Posted by Man Egee, Latino Politico on July 19, 2008 at 12:38 PM.

Alright, I'm all set up and things are getting ready for the workshop: How to Win the Immigration Debate and Beat Back ICE's Emerging Police State Info on the panelists and moderator are at the link. I will be updating this post as the session goes, so hit the refresh button. I'll update it later with links and other bloggy-type stuff.

Joshua Holland of Alternet is the moderator. "Immigration, sadly, is an issue that has failed to get traction in the greater progressive blogosphere. Been relegated to ethnic media and labeled as a "pet issue". Gross human rights abuses are being committed in the country with little focus. Guantanamo Bay receives global condemnation, but right here in the US the poorest of the poor are being rounded up in a migrant gulag. Many are not charged with crimes, health care access is withheld, etc.

30 minutes to the north of Austin, the T. Don Hutto, half of the detainees are children, as young as three years old. It is a medium-security prison that has been changed very little to house families. ACLU has sued. Guards have threatened children, withheld access to recreation, etc.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Daily Show: Dobbs-O-Meter
Posted by The Daily Show on July 18, 2008 at 12:10 PM.

Ban on HIV+ Visitors and Immigrants in the U.S. is One Step Closer to Being Repealed
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on July 17, 2008 at 2:00 PM.

Hello, Progress -- nice to see you again:

The U.S. Senate has approved repeal of a law barring HIV-positive visitors and immigrants from entering the country. The measure was included in legislation reauthorizing PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The ban repeal measure was tacked onto the bill by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) despite an effort by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to block it.

PEPFAR passed the Senate with the Kerry-Smith provision by a vote of 80 to 16 and now moves to conference committee before being sent to the President.

…Gay and HIV/AIDS rights advocates have been fighting for repeal of the ban for more than a decade. The battle now focuses on keeping the language intact while PEPFAR moves through conference.

"We call on the leaders of the House and Senate to retain the Kerry-Smith provision in conference and ensure it is included in the final legislation sent to the President’s desk," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

Aside from its intrinsic and immediate value if the repeal is signed into law, it's also a good first step toward undoing the immigration policy that prevents HIV+ foreign nationals from obtaining legal permanent residency in the US -- which itself is necessarily tied to any reform of the fiancée/marriage visa laws to include same-sex couples.

McCain's Shifting Stance on Immigration Continues With 'Dream Act' Flip-Flop
Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report on July 15, 2008 at 3:41 PM.

John McCain, recognizing the importance of Latino voters in the upcoming election, spoke to the National Council of La Raza yesterday. He told the audience, "I do ask for your trust," adding, "I think I have earned that trust."

I know McCain often has a dry sense of humor, and in this case, I can't help but wonder if he was kidding.

We've already talked about McCain's efforts to mislead the audience about his on-again, off-again support/opposition to comprehensive immigration reform. But after his speech, McCain opened the floor to about 15 minutes of Q&A. A young woman asked whether the Republican senator would support the Dream Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), which gives undocumented young people a chance to earn U.S. citizenship by going to college or enlisting in the military.

McCain didn't hesitate to endorse the legislation.

That's clearly the right position for McCain to take. The Dream Act should be a no-brainer: "Roughly 65,000 children graduate each year from high school into a constrained future because they cannot work legally or qualify for most college aid. These are the overlooked bystanders to the ferocious bickering over immigration. They did not ask to be brought here, have worked hard in school and could, given the chance, hone their talents and become members of the homegrown, high-skilled American work force. The bill is one of the least controversial immigration proposals that have been offered in the last five years."

But what McCain neglected to mention is that he already promised conservative activists that he opposes the Dream Act, and would have voted against it had he shown up for work last fall.

In fact, it was captured on tape.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Minutemen Scream "F@$k You Brown Boy!" at Latinos Attending Obama Talk
Posted by Kyle Hussein de Beausset, The Sanctuary on July 15, 2008 at 7:00 AM.

I'm here in San Diego where Barack Obama just spoke at the annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) conference. NCLR flew me out here and provided with me accommodations at the luxurious San Diego Marriot Hotel Marina. I was given the opportunity after I helped publicize NCLR's latest We Can Stop the Hate video using Digg and StumbleUpon, among other new media tools. I didn't do it to advance myself in an particular way. I just thought the video provided the most succinct description of the link between leading "anti-illegal immigration" groups and white supremacy. I wanted as many people to see it as possible.

In fact, when NCLR invited me here, I did everything I could to get them to bring one of my blogmig@s along with me, or in my stead. I identify as white and there should be a latin@ blogger here covering this conference. I hear Todd Beeton of MyDD, and Lucas O'Connor of Calitics are here liveblogging Obama's speech, as well. They probably weren't hand picked by NCLR like I was, but if you don't see a problem with three white male bloggers covering a National Council of La Raza conference, I'll leave that for a post that I'll write when all of this is done. For now, we'll get back to Obama's appearance here.

I debated whether or not to cover Obama's speech. A put up a full copy of his remarks here. Eventually I decided that with hundreds of press people here, and more "influential" bloggers than myself covering this, that it would be best to do something a little different.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The Myth of the Latino Swing Voter
Posted by Aswini Anburajan, Feet in 2 Worlds on July 14, 2008 at 5:00 AM.

In this year’s historic elections Latinos are poised to play a historic role. If Latinos vote in the precedent-setting numbers that marked their participation in the presidential primaries, they could be responsible for putting a candidate in office.

When Sen. Hillary Clinton exited the race in June, the support that she had among this voting block appeared up for grabs. Both campaigns released Spanish language ads and Sen. John McCain even traveled to Mexico and Colombia to appeal to Hispanic voters. Demographic profiles showed that Latinos could help decide who would win key battleground states like New Mexico, Colorado, Florida and Nevada.

But despite the hype, perhaps Latino votes aren't really that swing-able? Ever since Clinton's departure, polls have shown Latinos steadily moving to support Obama. A recent Gallup Poll appears to confirm this trend, showing Latinos backing Obama 59% to 29% over McCain. The poll concludes that Latino support enjoyed by Clinton appears to have shifted to Obama.

The shift in poll numbers raise the question: Is this group really as elastic as the political narrative has suggested?

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The U.S of A: Where Politicians Apologize for Wanting to Educate Kids
Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo on July 12, 2008 at 1:17 PM.

Have we really dumbed ourselves down so much in this country that presidential candidates have to apologize for saying that children should learn things?

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama reiterated his belief Friday that America's children to learn a foreign language, firing back against criticism he received from some conservative groups who suggested the Illinois senator wanted to make the United States a bilingual country.

Speaking in Powder Springs, GA on Tuesday Obama told the crowd that it's embarrassing when Europeans come to the US and they all speak English. By comparison, Obama said, America's young people do not have matching language skills.

"All we can say is merci beacoup," Obama said. "We should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age."

The statements prompted outrage from some conservative groups who argued his remarks were an endorsement of the idea that Americans should be forced to learn Spanish. Americans for Legal Immigration PAC posted Obama's comments on their website with the headline: "Voters Reject Obama's Call for Bilingualism."

At a town hall in Dayton, Ohio the presumptive Democratic nominee attempted to explain his statements, blasting the interpretation of his original remarks.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Voices From a Raid
Posted by David Sullivan, American News Project on July 10, 2008 at 2:40 PM.

Immigration arrests from work-site raids have increased tenfold in the last five years. As politicians on both sides of the aisle grapple with the issue, families are caught in the middle.

American News Project went to Annapolis, MD to see how people were coping in the aftermath of the state's largest immigration roundup in years.

Enforcement Only? Yes, Only for Working People
Posted by Edmundo Rocha, Drum Major Institute on July 8, 2008 at 8:44 AM.

One of the common complaints over the recent increase in the number of worksite raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is that it is the workers who are hit the hardest, while the employers go unpunished. On Monday, in the Houston Chronicle, Stewart Powell reported on this ongoing pattern:

Only 75 ''bosses" -- business owners, supervisors or human resources workers -- have been arrested on charges such as harboring or knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants.

That accounts for barely 2 percent of the total of 3,750 workplace immigration arrests since last October.

Even though Department of Homeland Security talks big about cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants, federal officials explain that is easier to prove that an immigrant is here illegally than it is to build a case against the employer.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Fark TV: Our Founding Illegals
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on July 7, 2008 at 11:45 AM.

Fark TV takes a comical look at some of the first immigrants ever to reach our shores.

Protesters Blast ICE Raids in East Houston
Posted by Brave New Films, Dream Activist on June 30, 2008 at 10:29 AM.

Recently, ICE removed about 160 mostly undocumented female workers from Action Rags, a used clothing and rag exporting factory in East Houston.

A protester from SEIU asks a crucial question in this video: How does putting a working woman in jail keep this country safer?

What does society gain from imprisoning working women, wives, mothers and sisters who are not criminals?

As usual, there have been NO arrests of Action Rags or Shipley managers or company officials and ICE has not provided details of any sort of criminal investigation against the company.

As President of the Migration Policy Institute, Demetrios Papademetriou states:

It's much easier and gets more headlines to arrest a lot of people. To make a case against an employer requires time and significant investments of investigative resources. Sometimes it takes half a year, or a year.

Does Marriage Determine Level of Assimilation?
Posted by Christina Jimenez, Drum Major Institute on June 27, 2008 at 10:38 AM.

There's been a lot said about assimilation and whether or not today's immigrants are assimilating. A recent report published by the Manhattan Institute offers an inadequate approach to analyze the assimilation of the U.S. immigrant population. To discuss this further, I recently wrote an op-ed that was published by El Diario last Thursday. Here's the published Spanish version.

The op-ed's translation is following:

The complex debate on immigration has been full of myths about the assimilation of today's immigrant population. They don't want to learn English. They don't want to learn American ways. Is it true? Are they assimilating, or aren't they?

While some elements of this question are clear - for example, the vast majority of Latino immigrants believe that learning English is necessary to be successful in the U.S - a new study proposes to go deeper into the many measurements of assimilation. Unfortunately, however, Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States, the latest report from The Manhattan Institute, a conservative policy organization, tries so hard to make a science out of the American story that it winds up diminishing the achievements of immigrants.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Leading Anti-Immigrant Groups Linked to One Man with White Supremacist Ties
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on June 26, 2008 at 11:25 AM.

"Behind the Veil" is a new video that draws the disturbing connections between leading anti-immigrant groups in our country and one man, John Tanton, who is associated with white supremacists. According to Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who narrates the film, some of the most outspoken anti-immigrant groups in the country like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, and the Social Contract Press, are all tied to Tanton. Even if Tanton didn't create them all directly, they still receive funding from U.S. Inc., which Tanton established.

This video is the third from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), which aims to separate hate groups and their vitriolic rhetoric from the immigration debate. (Learn more and watch their other videos here.) The NCLR and SPLC do a great job of connecting the dots because all too often, the media will give voice to extremists in the immigration debate but then present a group like FAIR for a "more moderate" perspective, when the reality is that they are all related.

It's no coincidence that there has been a sharp rise in the number of hate groups in our country over the past seven years (from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007), as the anti-immigrant fervor has reached a fever pitch. And if this connection wasn't apparent before, "Behind the Veil" makes it now.