Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Immigrants Come Here Because Globalization Took Their Jobs Back There

By Jim Hightower
Hightower Lowdown, February 7, 2008
.
Seal-the-border hysteria is everywhere. Instead of blaming immigrants for America's problems, let's look at executives on both sides of the border.

[...] Although you never hear it mentioned in debates on the issue, you might start with this reality: Most Mexican people really would prefer to live in their own country. Can we all say, duh? Pedro Martin, who has seen most of the young men and women in his small village depart for El Norte, put it this way: "Up north, even though they pay more, you're not necessarily living as well. You feel out of place. Here you can walk around the whole town, and it's comfortable. Life is easier." [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.alternet.org/story/76076/

Thursday, February 21, 2008

On the Right: Immigration "Misfires" and "Fizzles"

Immigration Misfire
By Rosa Rosales
Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2008

Political pundits used to maintain that the American electorate was galvanized around the issue of illegal immigration. Voters, they claimed, would punish any candidate who failed to take a tough stance on immigrants and did not adamantly oppose the "A" word--Amnesty--in all its tortured definitions.

Yet a funny thing happened in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. The most anti-immigrant candidates performed below expectations, and those accused of supporting amnesty and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants won. [...]

Read the full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120217267552142823.html?mod=Letters

Immigration--The Big Fizzle
By Markos Moulitsas
The Hill, February 5, 2008

The irony is superb. In an election cycle that has seen many Republicans pin their fading hopes on a last-ditch effort to demonize immigrants, their party appears well on its way to nominating the candidate least hostile to immigration.

By the time you read this, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may or may not have effectively secured his party’s nomination; in either case, it’s clear that both establishment and rank-and-file Republicans are coalescing around his candidacy. And McCain has consolidated his grip on the nomination in the face of his conservative opponents’ desperate efforts to destroy his candidacy by scapegoating McCain’s sponsorship of the even-handed McCain-Kennedy immigration legislation--a bill he would still sign into law today if here were president, as he recently told Tim Russert. [...]

Read the full article:
http://thehill.com/markos-moulitsas/immigration-the-big-fizzle-2008-02-05.html

Monday, February 18, 2008

NYC, March 15-16: From Dialogue to Action

The Battle for Immigrant Rights: From Dialogue to Action

A panel at the March 14-16 Left Forum conference in New York City; time and date TBA.

As the battle over immigration heats up in the media, where is the immigrant rights movement headed? How can activists do more to support immigrants who are organizing against deportation, defending their labor rights and building community power? How can we respond effectively to tough questions about immigration and start to chip away at anti-immigrant attitudes?

Join us for a participatory discussion with panelists:

Aarti Shahani, co-founder, Families for Freedom (a multiethnic organization of families fighting deportation)

Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director, Make the Road NY, a grassroots group organizing immigrant communities in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island

Victor Toro, a founder of Chile's MIR, now an activist for the human rights of immigrants who has lived in New York for 25 years; founder of Vamos a la Peña del Bronx, currently fighting his own deportation order; his case is rescheduled for August 15, 2008.

Jane Guskin, co-author of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers (published July 2007 by Monthly Review Press)

Moderator: Adriana Rocha, program officer, New York Foundation

Left Forum 2008, Cracks in the Edifice, takes place March 14-16 at Cooper Union in New York City. Register early to save money at www.leftforum.org/leftforum2008/Register-1.html.

Left Forum hosts the largest annual conference of the international and US Left in North America, bringing together intellectuals and activists from research institutions and social movements from across the world. Left Forum 2007 drew almost 2,000 participants.

Speakers this year include Naomi Klein, Grace Lee Boggs, Tariq Ali, Staughton Lynd, Billionaires for Bush, Mahmood Mamdani, Adam Hochschild, Jeremy Scahill, David Harvey, Max Elbaum, Stanley Aronowitz, Frances Fox Piven, Patricia McFadden, Patrick Bond, Michael Albert, Naomi Wolff, Carlos Vilas, Dennis Brutus, Deepa Fernandes, and many, many more.

Please check the website (www.leftforum.org) frequently for information and updates on the program and speakers.

To save money, register early at:
www.leftforum.org/leftforum2008/Register-1.html
For exhibit or vendor tables, go to:

www.leftforum.org/leftforum2008/Exhibits.aspx
To advertise in our magazine-format program guide, go to:

www.leftforum.org/leftforum2008/Advertise.aspx

Thursday, February 14, 2008

INB 2/10/08: Danbury Protest, Chicago Sanctuary, Raids in CA, Utah

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 4 - February 10, 2008

1. Danbury, CT: Thousands Protest Enforcement
2. Activist Takes Sanctuary in Chicago
3. California: Toner Cartridge Plant Raided, 130 Arrested
4. Utah: 57 Arrested at Metal Factory

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 now archived at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.

*1. DANBURY, CT: THOUSANDS PROTEST ENFORCEME NT
An estimated 3,500 people attended a rally on Feb. 6 in Danbury, Connecticut, to protest a partnership between Danbury police and US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the demonstrators voiced their opposition outside City Hall, inside the Common Council voted 19-2 to invite ICE to train and deputize Danbury police as immigration agents. Mayor Mark Boughton, who backs the plan, said it will start with the training of two detectives to carry out investigations of immigrants suspected of human trafficking, drug smuggling or document fraud. [News-Times (Danbury) 2/7/08; Hartford Courant 2/7/08] [...]

Read the complete INB:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/02/inb-21008-danbury-protest-chicago.html

Read the press release on Flor Crisostomo taking sanctuary in Chicago:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/01/press-release-12808-sanctuary-begins.html

Sunday, February 10, 2008

February Immigration Dialogues

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

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 5:15-7 pm

"Participatory Dialogue on Immigration"
with Jane Guskin & David Wilson

At Central Connecticut State University
Vance Academic Center, room 105
1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT
Free and open to the public

******
Sunday, Feb. 17, 1-3 pm
"The Root Causes and History of Immigration"
with David Wilson

At Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, New York, NY
(between Thompson and Sullivan Streets in Greenwich Village)
Free and open to the public
Refreshments; childcare available

Sponsored by the Judson New Sanctuary Task Force
For more information contact the church at: 212-477-0351

This is the opening of a four-part series, "Over the Fence and Under the Radar: Border-Crossing Conversations." For full description:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/02/feb-17-mar-19-radarborder-crossing.html

Feb. 17-Mar. 9, NYC: Immigration Conversations at Judson

Over the Fence and Under the Radar
Border-Crossing Conversations
at Judson Memorial Church

What does immigration mean today? Who are our new immigrants? What impact does immigration have on our democracy, our economy, our society? What would fair immigration policies and laws look like? What will the future hold and how do we build a strong diverse country?

Join the Judson New Sanctuary Task Force in a series of Sunday afternoon dialogues about this very complex and compelling issue. Each discussion, led by a guest speaker, will focus on a different aspect of immigration in the United States and our city.

February 17
The Root Causes and History of Immigration
with David Wilson, co-author of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
Who are today’s immigrants? Why are they here?

February 24
The Current Law & Legal System
with Professor Nancy Morawetz, Clinical Professor and Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law
What about following and respecting the law?

March 2
The Impact of Immigration on Society
with David Dyssegaard Kallick, Senior Fellow at the Fiscal Policy Institute and principal author of Working for a Better Life: A Profile of Immigration on the New York Economy
What is the impact of immigration on our economy and on our community?

March 9
Moving from the Language of “They” to “We”
How can we frame current immigration issues and the debate in ways that invite conversation, understanding, and action? How can we be welcoming without doing harm—to ourselves, to the undocumented immigrant, to our nation? Where do we go from here?

Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
(between Thompson and Sullivan Streets in Greenwich Village)
Sundays, 1 – 3 pm

This event is free and open to the public
Refreshments Childcare available
For more information contact the church at: 212-477-0351

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

INB 2/4/08: Nigerians, Palestinians on Deport Flight

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 3 - February 4, 2008
(INB did not publish for the past two weeks; apologies for the lapse)

1. Nigerians, Palestinians on Deport Flight
2. US Signs Deport Pact with Vietnam
3. Feds Sue Texas Border Towns
4. "Fugitive" Raids in Wisconsin

Immigration News Briefs is a 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 for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is archived at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.

*1. NIGERIANS, PALESTINIANS ON DEPORT FLIGHT
On Jan. 15, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 107 people on a flight from Niagara Falls that made stops in Lagos, Nigeria; Cairo, Egypt; and Amman, Jordan. The deportees included 94 Nigerians, 11 Palestinians, one Moroccan and one Egyptian. Seven of the Palestinians and 39 of the Nigerians on the flight had no criminal records in the US. The flight was contracted by the Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Operations Support and Coordination Unit. The deportees had been transferred from various facilities across the US to the Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York, in preparation for the flight. [...]

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/02/inb-2408-nigerians-palestinians-on.html