2008 May Day Events in New York City

1. THU May 1: May Day Rally for Immigrant & Worker Rights / jueves 1de mayo: Marcha masiva por los derechos de l@s inmigrantes y tod@s l@strabajador@s[texto en español sigue al ingles]

Thursday MAY 1st
Stop the Raids & Deportations Legalization Now · Justice for ALL
MASS RALLY for IMMIGRANT & WORKER RIGHTS
12 pm: Gather at Union Square, 14th Street & Broadway
4 pm: Rally & March

We Say: * Black, Latin@, Asian, Indigenous, Arab, White -- In Unity there is strength. * ICE raids are racist, anti-union and violate immigrant and USworkers' civil rights & divide families. * Jobs & homes, not lay-off and foreclosures. Stop demolition ofpublic housing in New Orleans & everywhere. * No war in Iraq. Bring the troops home now. * Political asylum for Victor Toro. No deportation for Flor Crisostomo. * Money for levees in New Orleans, not the US / Mexico border wall. * Repeal NAFTA, no more U.S. trade agreements that force migration& cause lay-offs here.

Download fliers: English: http://www.leftshift.org/may1/pdf08/may1eng.gif
Spanish: http://www.leftshift.org/may1/pdf08/may1esp.gif

Jueves PRIMERO DE MAYO
¡Alto a las redadas y deportaciónes!¡Legalización ya! ˜ ¡Justicia para tod@s!
Marcha masiva por los derechos de l@s inmigrantes y tod@s l@s trabajador@s
12 pm: Concentración y programa cultural en Union Square (la plaza deInmigrantes) Calle 14 y Broadway, Manhattan
4 pm: Mitin y Marcha

Digamos: * La unión de africa@s american@s, latin@s, asiátic@s, indigenas,árabes y blanc@s - en la unidad está la fuerza. * Las redadas son racistas, en contra los sindicatos y violan losderechos de l@s inmigrantes y l@s obrer@s nacid@s aquí. Dividen lasfamilias. ¡Basta ya! * Trabajos y viviendas para tod@s, no más despidos y pérdidas denuestros hogares. * No a la guerra en Irak * No a la deportación de Flor Crisóstomo; asilo político para Victor Toro * Dinero para los diques de Nueva Orleáns, no para el muro con México * Defendamos el derecho de la gente a regresar a Nueva Orleáns * Rechazo al Traado de Libre Comercio que implusa la migración

Descargar volantes:español: http://www.leftshift.org/may1/pdf08/may1esp.gif
ingles: http://www.leftshift.org/may1/pdf08/may1eng.

***

2. THU May 1: 2pm Rally in Chinatown, March to Union Square / jueves 1de mayo: manifestacion en Chinatown, marchar a Union Square

MARCH on May 1st, 2008International Workers' Day
2pm - Rally at Roosevelt Park, Chinatown Grand St. between Forsyth and Chrystie St.-(B/D trains to Grand St.)
3pm - March to Union Square

Equal Rights for All WorkersEQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL WORKERS!DON'T CRIMINALIZE IMMIGRANTS!Join us in a May Day march to unite all workers.Join us to demand:1. Repeal of the Employer Sanctions Provision2. Legislate Equal Rights for All Workers3. Establish a genuine path to citizenship for undocumented

Contact the Break The Chains Campaign
c/o NMASS at(212) 358-0295 nmass@yahoo.com http://www.breakthechainsnow.org/

MARCHA 1ro de Mayo Día Internacional de los Trabajadores¡
Este 1ro de Mayo únete en una marcha para unir a TODOS los trabajadores!
2pmMANIFESTACIÓN EN ROOSEVELT PARK, Chinatown (Grand entre Forsyth yChrystie. Trenes D/B a Grand St.)
3pmMARCHA a UNION SQUAREÚNETE PARA DEMANDAR:Revocación de las Sanciones a los Empleadores.

Marchamos por la unidad entre trabajadores nativos e inmigrantes y para que derechos iguales entre los trabajadores se convierta en una verdadera prioridad nacional.

Contacta la campaña Rompa las Cadenas
c/o NMASS al(212) 358-0295 info@breakthechainsnow.org http://www.breakthechainsnow.org/

INB 4/27/08: Detainees Transferred After Riot

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 9 - April 27, 2008

1. Detainees Transferred After Riot
2. Food Poisoning in Arizona Detention Center?
3. Palestinian Professor Transferred to ICE Custody
4. Georgia: Restaurant Labor Agents Indicted

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com. Starting with 2008, INB issues on the blog include clickable links to all available cited sources. Please use the blog to access sources and back issues and to search by key word.

*1. DETAINEES TRANSFERRED AFTER RIOT
On Apr. 22, a riot broke out at the Mira Loma immigration detention center in Lancaster, California, which holds nearly 1,000 immigrants. The riot allegedly involved the South Siders and Paisa gangs, according to a detainee who spoke with the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department fired tear gas grenades at the detainees; additional deputies came to the detention center from nearby Lancaster and Palmdale stations to assist the guards with separating detainees. The riot was diffused "within minutes," said Steve Whitmore, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. At least 10 immigrants were taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Virginia Kice. Two detainees suffered serious, though not life-threatening, head injuries during the riot and were taken to a local hospital, Whitmore said, and about 20 other detainees suffered minor injuries. No deputies were injured, said Whitmore. [...]

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/04/inb-42708-detainees-transferred-after.html

April Events on Immigration in Brooklyn and Suffolk County

Information and Book Signing
with David Wilson, co-author of
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers

Saturday, April 26, from 11 am to 2 pm
Fifth Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair
at the Latin America information table
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
1 University Plaza, Brooklyn
(at Flatbush & DeKalb Aves, Q/R to DeKalb Ave;
2/3/4 to Nevins St; A/C, G Hoyt-Schermerhorn; photo ID required)
Sponsored by Brooklyn For Peace, Student Government Association-LIU Brooklyn Campus

The Peace Fair runs from 11 am to 6 pm and is free and open to the public. It will include presentations by Debbie Almontaser, Eric Adams, Major Owens, and many others. There will be workshops, speakers, a performance showcase, and information tables from community peace and social justice organizations.
Workshops 11 am-2 pm
Plenary session 2 pm-3 pm
Performance showcase 3-6 pm.

Information: iraq@brooklynpeace.org & http://www.brooklynpeace.org/

***
Dialogue on Immigration
with Jane Guskin and David Wilson, authors of
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers

Tuesday, April 29, at 12:30 pm
Free and open to the public
At Suffolk Community College
Montauk Point Rm, Babylon Student Center
Ammerman Campus, 533 College Rd
Selden, NY

Sponsored by Latinos del Mundo and the Office of Campus Activities
Information: Lisa Melendez, 631-451-4171, melendl@sunysuffolk.edu

Families separated by immigration laws

Perla Trevizo, The Chattanooga Times Free Press
April 16, 2008

[...] Just getting married to a U.S. citizen does not grease the rails to permanent residency, even for someone entering the country legally. And the task gets far more complicated, sometimes impossible, for illegal immigrants. [...]

Read the full article:
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/apr/16/families-separated-immigration-laws/?local

TUE 4/22 & WED 4/23: Dialogues on Immigration in Tacoma, WA

Community Dialogues on Immigration in Tacoma, Washington

with Jane Guskin, co-author of
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers

Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at 7:00 pm
Free and open to the public
at King's Books
218 St. Helens Avenue
Tacoma, Washington 98402
Phone: 253.272.8801 - 877.529.9525 toll free
http://www.kingsbookstore.com/
for info: kingsevents@harbornet.com
Directions: http://www.kingsbookstore.com/directions.html

co-sponsored by United for Peace of Pierce County - http://www.ufppc.org/

***

Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at 2:00 pm
Free and open to the public; light refreshments provided
Carwein Auditorium
University of Washington Tacoma
1900 Commerce Street
Tacoma, Washington 98402

hosted by UWT ACLU Student Chapter & Latino Student Organization
sponsored by UWT Student Activities Board

***
For more information about the book:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org/
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/

To set up a dialogue in your community, contact the authors at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com

INB 4/20/08: Over 300 Arrested in Poultry Plant Raids

Immigration News Brief
Vol. 11, No. 8 - April 20, 2008

1. Over 300 Arrested in Poultry Plant Raids
2. 56 Arrests in Restaurant Raids
3. Houston Donut Plant Raided
4. Mississippi Restaurant Raided
5. Iowa Clothing Company Raided
6. Deport Flight to Philippines, Indonesia
7. TPS Extended for Somalis

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.

*1. OVER 300 ARRESTED IN POULTRY PLANT RAIDS
Early on Apr. 16, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out coordinated raids on poultry processing plants owned by the Pilgrim's Pride company in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas and West Virginia. A total of 311 workers were arrested, according to figures supplied by ICE in an Apr. 17 news release. At least 91 workers were charged with criminal violations, including false use of a Social Security number and document fraud, and have been turned over to the custody of the US Marshals Service. The other workers arrested are being processed for removal on administrative immigration violations. Of the total number of workers arrested, 58 were released under supervision for humanitarian reasons such as childcare or medical issues. [ICE News Release 4/17/08] Some of the workers were arrested at the plants; others were picked up at their homes. [CBS/AP 4/17/08] All the workers arrested in the operation appear to be from Latin America. In a fact sheet about the raids, ICE said 130 of the arrested workers were from Mexico, 112 from Guatemala, 59 from Honduras, four from El Salvador and one from Colombia; the nationality of five others was listed as unknown. [...]

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/04/inb-42008-over-300-arrested-in-poultry.html

Dos Articulos Sobre "The Politics of Immigration"

Desmitificando la inmigración ilegal
Silvina Sterin Pensel, El Diario-La Prensa
04/13/2008

http://www.eldiariony.com/noticias/detail.aspx?section=23&desc=Comunidad&id=1850803
[el articulo ya no aparece en el sitio de El Diario - hemos incluido el texto y los imagenes aqui abajo]

Desmitificando la inmigración ilegal
COMUNIDAD - 04/13/2008
Silvina Sterin Pensel

------------------------------

Nueva York/especial para edlp — A través del grueso armazón de sus lentes, el periodista dominicano Orlando Martínez lo observa todo desde un mural que lo muestra en su juventud, antes de ser asesinado por militares afines al gobierno de Joaquín Balaguer. "Gran periodista. Una lástima que lo perdimos", dice el dueño de la librería Caliope donde está la pintura.

En la librería, ubicada en la calle Dyckman, en Inwood, la tertulia está por comenzar. Como todos los jueves, vecinos de la zona y de Washington Heights se reúnen en Caliope a conversar de sus cosas y escuchar a los invitados que César, el librero, les tiene preparados.

Sentados en primera fila, esperando que les toque el turno de presentarse están Jane Guskin y David Wilson, autores de 'The politics of Immigration'; o 'La Política de la inmigración', un libro que en 141 páginas aborda todo aquello que uno alguna vez quiso saber sobre la inmigración y no se atrevía a preguntar o, mejor dicho, no sabía a quién preguntar.

'¿Los políticos están creando pánico acerca de la inmigración?; ¿Por qué la gente elige venir a este país?; ¿Es culpa de Estados Unidos que otros países tengan problemas? ¿Es fácil ser ilegal? ¿Es verdad que los inmigrantes traen a toda su familia o la dejan en su lugar de origen?; ¿Los inmigrantes cometen más crímenes que la gente de acá?'

Los autores tratan todo tipo de temáticas relativas a la inmigración, principalmente, la ilegal. Desde lo que sucede en la frontera con México hasta el impacto que tienen los inmigrantes en el medio ambiente, la salud y la cultura norteamericanas pasando por el 11 de septiembre y tocando además la problemática de las redadas y la deportación.

"Escribir el libro nos tomó nueve meses", comenta Jane, una americana con rostro juvenil y sin maquillaje que domina perfectamente el español. "Finalmente dimos a luz a nuestro bebé. Bah, una beba", dice bromeando, "porque la inmigración es mujercita".

Sentado muy cerquita de un libro titulado 'Por la ruta de los Coyotes', David cuenta cómo surgió el proyecto de este libro tan preguntón. "Queríamos desbancar los mitos más comunes sobre la
inmigración; retrucar las diez cosas más descabelladas que se dicen contra los inmigrantes ilegales. Lo que pasó es que la editorial –Monthly Review Press- nos propuso el tema y una vez que dijimos que sí caímos en la cuenta que los mitos alrededor de los inmigrantes son muchos más que diez".

Utilizando un lenguaje llano, sin rebusques, 'La Política de la Inmigración', se pregunta todo aquello que alguna vez alguien nos preguntó y en su momento nos dejó sin respuesta. "Elegimos este formato de preguntas y respuestas para que cada cosa que explicamos sea más fácil de digerir, de procesar", comenta Jane.

Algunos por ignorancia; otros con ingenuidad y otros definitivamente con mala espina, lo cierto es que mucha gente realiza afirmaciones hirientes o simplemente falsas sobre los inmigrantes ilegales, sin documentos, fuera de estatus, sin papeles o indocumentados –las distintas denominaciones que se leen en el libro- y a veces cuando escuchamos estas cosas nos quedamos sin saber que responder. "Nuestro libro es una herramienta para tener esa respuesta y no una respuesta de sentido común o basada exclusivamente en las emociones. Con David realizamos un trabajo exhaustivo de investigación para responder a cada pregunta", afirma Jane.

Ella ronda los 40 y el probablemente los 70. Jane luce como una mochilera, vestida con ropa cómoda, un tanto desalineada y David bien podría ser un bibliotecario, absorto en su mundo de letras y obras que resisten el paso del tiempo. Lo cierto es que ella es de Indiana y el de Washington DC y que se conocieron aquí en Nueva York en 1990 cuando ambos militaban en una organización llamada Red de Solidaridad con Nicaragua.

Ambos habían viajado a ese país en los '80's durante el furor Sandinista y en los 90's seguían los destinos del país centroamericano desde la Gran Manzana. "Era la época en que asumió Violeta Chamorro, después de Daniel Ortega, y había mucha desinformación, muchos rumores y la prensa aquí hasta cometía errores. Nosotros intentábamos dar un punto de vista mejor informado", narra David.

Para hacerlo publicaban un boletín semanal de noticias sobre Latinoamérica que aún hoy siguen editando robándole tiempo a sus trabajos regulares: David es programador de computadoras y Jane trabaja en el Instituto por la Memoria de Abraham J. Muste, un pacifista, y la organización promueve, precisamente, la paz y la no violencia.

Enamorados de los movimientos populares, tanto Jane como David, se distancian de partidos políticos, ideologías y los poderosos de turno. "Si hay una mina y los mineros se organizan en pro de lograr algo; allí estamos. Con los sindicalistas que luchan contra alguien que los explota; allí estamos. Esta es una época en la que es difícil tomar partido por una bandera en particular, ya nada es blanco o negro, hay muchos matices. Por eso nosotros estamos con la gente y sus problemáticas que son las verdaderamente genuinas", afirma Jane.

El de la inmigración fue un tema que les intereso siempre. Jane esta casada con un colombiano de Medellín que fue ilegal. Las vivencias de Esneider, -"con quien llevamos dieciséis anos juntos"- hicieron que Jane conozca de cerca lo que vive aquél que transita por la vida sin papeles. "Es durísimo", afirma. El casamiento le dio estatus legal y terminó con su odisea. "Los papeles fueron una razón primordial para casarnos pero nosotros ya éramos una pareja bien consolidada", dice. "No vaya a ser que nos vengan a buscar las autoridades", agrega con ironía. Jane le dedico el libro a su marido. David tiene un roommate peruano y viajó varias veces a México. Hoy vive en Flushing donde dice que "Hasta los mexicanos hablan en coreano, es increíble".

Con el libro que, pronto se traducirá al español, pretenden generar un debate. "Quisiéramos cambiar esta ola de tensión que rodea al tema de los inmigrantes. Actualmente hay un clima muy negativo en torno a los inmigrantes ilegales. Nosotros estamos a favor de la amnistía para quienes están aquí ilegalmente pero eso no resuelve el problema a futuro".

Jane y David definen su obra como una con la cual contestarle a Lou Dobbs, -el recalcitrante conductor de CNN- y a todos quienes basan sus posturas sobre los indocumentados en mitos o verdades a medias y conceptos tergiversados o forzados.

"Ser legal o ilegal es una categoría. Hubo un tiempo", sostiene David, "en el que ser un esclavo prófugo era una afrenta a la ley. Hoy vemos eso con horror. Quizás en un futuro ser una persona sin papeles y ser perseguido por las autoridades también sea visto como algo aberrante".

* * *

Por fin! Un libro que habla con la verdad acerca de la inmigracion!
Alma Anides, Hispanos Unidos
7 al 13 de diciembre del 2007

Con cada a~o que pasa, el tema de la inmigración se convierte en un mas controversial en los Estados Unidos... Por eso la autora Jane Guskin junto con su colega David Wilson publicaron eso a~o "The Politics of Immigration," o "La Politica de la Inmigración."[...]

Read the full article:
http://www.hispanosnews.com/PDF-2006/HU-SD-12-07-07-01.pdf

INB 4/11/08: Virginia Resort Raided, NJ Suit Challenges Raids

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 7 - April 11, 2008

1. Virginia Resort Raided
2. ICE Arrests 332 in South Florida
3. “Fugitive” Raids in Midwestern States
4. NJ Lawsuit Challenges Home Raids
5. Kids Sue Detention Center Over Abuse

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/.

[...]

*4. NJ LAWSUIT CHALLENGES HOME RAIDS

On Apr. 3, Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice and Lowenstein Sandler, PC, filed suit in Federal District Court in New Jersey, alleging that federal law enforcement officials violated the rights of people whose homes they entered during pre-dawn immigration raids. The 10 plaintiffs include two US citizens, a permanent resident, and a person who was lawfully present in the US under protected status. The plaintiffs charge that officials violated their constitutional privacy and due process rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by entering their homes without consent or a judicial warrant during eight home raids across New Jersey between August 2006 and January 2008. [...]

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/04/inb-41108-virginia-resort-raided-nj.html

Mon 4/14 in Connecticut, Tue 4/22 in Tacoma, WA

Upcoming events featuring the authors of
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
(to set up a dialogue in your community, write the
authors at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com):

Monday, April 14, 2008 at 4:15pm

U.S. Politics of Immigration: A Roundtable Discussion

with Jane Guskin and David Wilson
authors of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers

and local guests:
- LCDR Mark Moland, Professor of Public Policy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy
- Elizabeth Ritter, Connecticut State Representative
- Robert Washabaugh, New London parish priest, ministers in Spanish
- Gerry Kirby, New London priest, worked many years in Haiti

Room 014 in Olin Hall
Connecticut College
270 Mohegan Ave
New London, Connecticut
Directions: http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/abo_directions_college.htm

---

Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at 7:00 pm

A Dialogue on Immigration
with Jane Guskin, co-author of
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers

at King's Books
218 St. Helens Avenue
Tacoma, Washington 98402
Phone: 253.272.8801 - 877.529.9525 toll free
http://www.blogger.com/www.kingsbookstore.com
for info: kingsevents@harbornet.com
Directions: http://www.kingsbookstore.com/directions.html

co-sponsored by United for Peace of Pierce County - http://www.ufppc.org/

Time to Question the ICE Raids

by Jane Guskin, MRZine
April 10, 2008

According to an article in today's Los Angeles Times, "L.A. Mayor Chides ICE for Workplace Immigration Raids," Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa "has asked the federal government to review its immigration enforcement priorities, warning that work-site raids on 'non-exploitative' businesses could have 'severe and lasting effects' on the local economy."

Villaraigosa "said ICE should spend its limited resources targeting employers who exploit wage and hour laws," according to the article. [...]

But ICE raids never result in a positive resolution for exploited workers -- in fact, workers who are jailed and deported after being picked up in raids face a real challenge collecting their last paychecks, let alone suing their abusive employers for underpayment of wages. [...]

Read the full article at:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/guskin100408.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jane Guskin is co-author of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, published by Monthly Review Press in July 2007. Guskin also edits Immigration News Briefs, a weekly newsletter covering immigration issues. She lives in New York City.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INB 4/6/08: LA Area Warehouses Raided; Amtrak Arrests Protested

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 6 - April 6, 2008

1. LA Area Warehouses Raided
2. Day Laborers Arrested in Northern California
3. Nightclub Security Guards Arrested in Dallas
4. Idaho Pallet Company Raided
5. Activists Protest Arrests on Amtrak, Greyhound
6. Laws to Be Waived for Border Fence

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate [at] gmail.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs [at] gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.

Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com. Starting with 2008, INB issues on the blog include clickable links to all available cited sources. Please use the blog to access sources and back issues and to search by key word.

*1. LA Area Warehouses Raided
On Apr. 1, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 44 workers at the warehouses of three distribution companies--Samsung, Frontier and Imperial CSS--in an industrial park in Torrance, California, just south of Los Angeles. ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice said all but two of the 44 people arrested are Mexican. Kice said 17 of those arrested were released for humanitarian reasons. [Diario Hoy (LA/Chicago) 4/2/08, 4/3/08; La Opinión (Los Angeles) 4/3/08; Free Speech Radio News 4/2/08] The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles reported that its personnel were able to speak with 34 of the arrested Mexicans and offer them orientation about their legal situation. [El Financiero (Mexico) 4/3/08 with information from Notimex/MVC] William Jarquin, the consul of El Salvador in Los Angeles, said he was informed that two of those arrested were Salvadoran, and that one of the two had been released. [Diario Hoy 4/2/08] [...]

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/04/inb-4608-la-area-warehouses-raided.html

UN Scolds Washington for War on Migrants

Written by Cyril Mychalejko, UpsideDownWorld
Thursday, 20 March 2008

The United Nations released a report this month scolding the United States for disregarding international law and violating the human rights of migrants.

Jorge Bustamante, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, noted serious concerns about deportation and detention policies, especially in light of the fact that cases of indefinite detention were common. Other concerns included lack of due process, imprisonment of children and infants, imprisoned migrants being subjected to solitary confinement, possible sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme heat and cold. [...]

Read the full article:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1186/1/

The Undocumented Commit 21 Percent of Crimes?

by David Wilson
Co-Author, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org

Until recently almost all studies have indicated that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population. But a Feb. 27, 2008 article in Time magazine, "Immigration: No Correlation With Crime," notes that Prof. Eric Rasmusen, an economist at Indiana University, has come to a strikingly different conclusion. In postings to his blog in 2007 (accessed on March 17, 2008), he announced he had "run the numbers" and discovered that undocumented immigrants have a crime rate six times that of other US residents, causing about 21 percent of crimes; their criminal activities cost the US $84 billion a year, he says.

The reason for this startling difference from the other studies, Prof. Rasmusen tells us, is that the other studies "are about legal immigrants, not illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants are by definition unusually law-abiding, and include Indian doctors, Korean grocers, and Mexican grandmothers who are unlikely to be committing many murders and rapes."

So how does Prof. Rasmusen establish the crime rate for undocumented immigrants?

As he points out, data on out-of-status inmates "isn't readily available from the government." There are, however, some interesting suggestions in a 2005 report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), "Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Local Jails" (GAO‑05‑337R). The report bases its numbers on the Department of Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which partially reimburses state and local jurisdictions each year for the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants "who were convicted of a felony or two misdemeanors and incarcerated for a minimum of four days," according to the GAO.

Numbers based on SCAAP are questionable, as Prof. Rasmusen notes. Some jurisdictions don't apply for the reimbursements, and some probably underreport because of poor record-keeping. Jurisdictions may also overreport, and it's worth noting that overreporting results in higher payments from the federal government. Still, the SCAAP numbers may well be the best we have for now.

Starting from this GAO report, Prof. Rasmusen says there were about 49,000 undocumented inmates in federal prisons at the end of calendar 2004, and some 77,000 in state prisons and 138,000 in local jails in fiscal 2002 (the fiscal 2003 figures were incomplete). This would make a total of about 264,000 undocumented immigrants in federal, state, and local prisons in or near the year 2004. Prof. Rasmusen then takes the US prison population in 2005 as 1,496,000, and concludes that the undocumented inmates make up 21.4 percent of this prison population and therefore account for 21.4 percent of the estimated $400 billion that he says crime costs the US each year.

The problem with all this is that Prof. Rasmusen's numbers make no sense.

1. Nowhere does the GAO report say that there were 49,000 undocumented inmates in federal prisons at the end of calendar 2004. The 49,000 number is for "criminal aliens," which includes the entire immigrant federal prison population, both documented and undocumented, excluding immigrants held in immigration detention. (The 49,000 number is close to the Bureau of Prison's estimate of 26 percent to 27 percent for noncitizens in the federal prisons; but note that the Department of Justice's midyear report on the prison population for 2005 gives the total number of noncitizens held in federal prisons as 35,385, far less than the GAO's number. The reason for the discrepancy is not clear.)

2. Since the GAO report's figures for state and local prisons are based on reimbursements under SCAAP for the entire fiscal year, these numbers include prisoners that were incarcerated or released during the year along with the prisoners who remained in the system throughout the year. But figures for prison populations are usually based on the number of inmates in the system on a certain date--December 31, for instance--not on the number of inmates that passed through the system during the year. So these figures need to be adjusted before we make comparisons with the total prison population.

For example, the GAO report shows 77,000 undocumented inmates in state prisons in fiscal 2002, but the Justice Department's midyear 2005 report on prisoners gives a total of just 54,804 noncitizen inmates, documented and undocumented, in the state systems on June 30, 2002 (the total had grown to 57,393 by June 30, 2004). Clearly the number of undocumented prisoners must be lower than the total number of noncitizen prisoners. To use the SCAAP reimbursements to estimate a figure for the undocumented state inmates at a given time, we'd need to know the inmates' average stays in state prisons. (The reports on noncitizen inmates, which are only issued for the middle of the year, may undercount, since some large states, like Virginia, don't report. But they may also overcount, since other large states, like New York, include naturalized citizens in their figures, and other states include inmates in local jails.)

The GAO report is more informative for the local jails, where sentences are generally much shorter than in the state systems and inmate turnover is therefore much higher. The GAO says that in fiscal 2003 SCAAP reimbursed local systems for 147,000 prisoners, who "spent a total of about 8.5 million days in jail." This works out to a little less than two months for each prisoner, so probably about one sixth of these prisoners--24,500--were in jail on any given day.

So in fact the GAO report doesn't give us a way to estimate the number of undocumented prisoners except in the local jails. But for the sake of argument, let's take all the noncitizen prisoners in both the federal and state systems in 2004 as undocumented immigrants; if we then add in our estimated number of undocumented immigrants in local jails at any point during fiscal 2003, we come out with a total of about 131,000, less than half Prof. Rasmusen's number.

3. Prof. Rasmusen postulates a US prison population of 1,496,000 in 2005, and then unaccountably subtracts his figure for undocumented prisoners from the total to come up with a percentage of 21.4 percent (it would actually be about 17.6 percent if he'd left the undocumented prisoners in the total). But where does he get this 1,496,000? He cites a government URL, but the government has an annoying habit of moving its websites around, and that URL has disappeared. Wherever he got his number, it's off by more than 600,000. The actual prison population at the end of 2004 was 2,135,335, according to the Justice Department--177,600 federal, 1,243,745 state and 713,990 local.

If we follow Prof. Rasmusen's methodology, but with corrected numbers, we get an undocumented prison population of 131,000 out of a total prison population of 2,135,335; the undocumented would then make up about 6.1 percent of the prison population. While probably still way too high--since it overstates the number of undocumented in the federal and state systems--this percentage is still less than a third of Prof. Rasmusen's number.

By this calculation the undocumented would have a somewhat higher crime rate than the population as a whole, since undocumented immigrants are about four percent of the general population. But undocumented immigrants are mostly young adults and are disproportionately male; if we compare them to a native-born population with similar characteristics, the immigrants show a much lower crime rate--which is exactly what most studies have indicated. Prof. Rasmusen's numbers change exactly nothing.

[Please read Prof. Rasmusen's May 1, 2008 comment, posted below.]