By Veronica Escobar, New York Times
July 25, 2014
EL PASO — TO hear the national news media tell the story, you would think my city, El Paso, and others along the Texas-Mexico border were being overrun by children — tens of thousands of them, some with their mothers, arriving from Central America in recent months, exploiting an immigration loophole to avoid deportation and putting a fatal strain on border state resources.
There’s no denying the impact of this latest immigration wave or the need for more resources. But there’s no crisis. Local communities like mine have done an amazing job of assisting these migrants.
Rather, the myth of a “crisis” is being used by politicians to justify ever-tighter restrictions on immigration, play to anti-immigrant voters in the fall elections and ignore the reasons so many children are coming here in the first place.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/opinion/why-the-border-crisis-is-a-myth.html
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Massive Rights Violations Charged at New Mexico Detention Facility
By Frontera Norte Sur
July 24, 2014
After touring a New Mexico detention facility housing Central American refugees, immigrant advocates and lawyers have charged the Obama Administration with violating due process rights.
In a July 24 telephonic press conference hosted by the National Immigration Law Center, representatives of an advocates’ group that were allowed to conduct a short visit July 22 of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLTEC) in Artesia, New Mexico, where hundreds of Central American women and children are being held, detailed a laundry list of grievances.
In comments to reporters, advocates said women and children were held in crowded conditions; not adequately informed of their due process rights or given timely access to legal counsel, as per U.S. refugee law; hustled through deportation proceedings; and forced to read complex forms in English. Additionally, serious concerns were raised about the physical and emotional health of children and their mothers. [...]
Read the full article:
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/massive-rights-violations-charged-at-new-mexico-detention-facility/
July 24, 2014
After touring a New Mexico detention facility housing Central American refugees, immigrant advocates and lawyers have charged the Obama Administration with violating due process rights.
In a July 24 telephonic press conference hosted by the National Immigration Law Center, representatives of an advocates’ group that were allowed to conduct a short visit July 22 of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLTEC) in Artesia, New Mexico, where hundreds of Central American women and children are being held, detailed a laundry list of grievances.
In comments to reporters, advocates said women and children were held in crowded conditions; not adequately informed of their due process rights or given timely access to legal counsel, as per U.S. refugee law; hustled through deportation proceedings; and forced to read complex forms in English. Additionally, serious concerns were raised about the physical and emotional health of children and their mothers. [...]
Read the full article:
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/massive-rights-violations-charged-at-new-mexico-detention-facility/
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Honduran Girl’s Struggle to Get to NYC
By Alexandra Ochoa, El Diario La Prensa
July 23, 2014
Translated by Ana Maria Rodriguez for Voices of NY
At age 10, Katherine Rodríguez had already lived the odyssey of her life. For two weeks, she and her mother had to travel across three countries by land, from the time they left her home in Choluteca, Honduras, until they got to New York City. Now, the girl hopes that authorities will approve the adoption process and that her mother can stay as a refugee so that they can make the Big Apple their new home.
Katherine does not talk much but listens carefully when Ana Rosa Martinez, 41, describes the journey that she and her daughter made. The girl smiles when she says she wanted to come because people told her New York was “very nice” and nods when her mother says she risked traveling with Katherine so her daughter could have a better future and go to school.[...]
Read the full article:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/immigration/147679b53bba7f86
Read the original:
http://www.eldiariony.com/ni%C3%B1o-inmigrantes-nueva-york
July 23, 2014
Translated by Ana Maria Rodriguez for Voices of NY
At age 10, Katherine Rodríguez had already lived the odyssey of her life. For two weeks, she and her mother had to travel across three countries by land, from the time they left her home in Choluteca, Honduras, until they got to New York City. Now, the girl hopes that authorities will approve the adoption process and that her mother can stay as a refugee so that they can make the Big Apple their new home.
Katherine does not talk much but listens carefully when Ana Rosa Martinez, 41, describes the journey that she and her daughter made. The girl smiles when she says she wanted to come because people told her New York was “very nice” and nods when her mother says she risked traveling with Katherine so her daughter could have a better future and go to school.[...]
Read the full article:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/immigration/147679b53bba7f86
Read the original:
http://www.eldiariony.com/ni%C3%B1o-inmigrantes-nueva-york
Monday, August 4, 2014
Blowback on the Border: America’s Child Refugee Crisis
Decades of short-sighted, inhumane U.S. policies have brought a child refugee crisis to America's door.
By Laura Carlsen, Foreign Policy in Focus
July 18, 2014
After three years of relative silence, the U.S. press has finally “discovered” the crisis of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors piling up on the U.S. border. Although the coverage often began with moving stories of the hardships these young migrants faced, it soon turned ugly. For right-wing pundits and politicians, the “humanitarian crisis” has become a crackdown on kids.
The dominant narrative has been that foolish parents, perhaps duped by scheming criminal bands, are sending hapless children north to take advantage of loopholes in U.S. immigration practices.
This is just plain wrong. On every count. [...]
Read the full article:
http://fpif.org/blowback-border-americas-child-refugee-crisis/
By Laura Carlsen, Foreign Policy in Focus
July 18, 2014
After three years of relative silence, the U.S. press has finally “discovered” the crisis of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors piling up on the U.S. border. Although the coverage often began with moving stories of the hardships these young migrants faced, it soon turned ugly. For right-wing pundits and politicians, the “humanitarian crisis” has become a crackdown on kids.
The dominant narrative has been that foolish parents, perhaps duped by scheming criminal bands, are sending hapless children north to take advantage of loopholes in U.S. immigration practices.
This is just plain wrong. On every count. [...]
Read the full article:
http://fpif.org/blowback-border-americas-child-refugee-crisis/
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Here's How The U.S. Sparked A Refugee Crisis On The Border, In 8 Simple Steps
By Roque Planas and Ryan Grim, Huffington Post
July 18, 2014
The 57,000 children from Central America who have streamed across the U.S.-Mexico border this year were driven in large part by the United States itself. While Democrats and Republicans have been pointing fingers at each other, in reality the current wave of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has its roots in six decades of U.S. policies carried out by members of both parties.
Since the 1950s, the U.S. has sown violence and instability in Central America. Decades of Cold War gamesmanship, together with the relentless global war on drugs, have left a legacy of chaos and brutality in these countries. In many parts of the region, civil society has given way to lawlessness. It's these conditions the children are escaping.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/refugee-crisis-border_n_5596125.html
July 18, 2014
The 57,000 children from Central America who have streamed across the U.S.-Mexico border this year were driven in large part by the United States itself. While Democrats and Republicans have been pointing fingers at each other, in reality the current wave of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has its roots in six decades of U.S. policies carried out by members of both parties.
Since the 1950s, the U.S. has sown violence and instability in Central America. Decades of Cold War gamesmanship, together with the relentless global war on drugs, have left a legacy of chaos and brutality in these countries. In many parts of the region, civil society has given way to lawlessness. It's these conditions the children are escaping.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/refugee-crisis-border_n_5596125.html
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Rendir Cuentas/Accountability
Por Elvira Arellano, Sanctuary Movement
22 de julio, 2014
(English Version Follows)
Mirando hacia el este, vemos que casi 300 personas fallecieron en el derrumbe del avión malasiano. El presidente Obama ha insistido que se lleve a cabo una investigación y sugerido que el presidente Putin sea el responsable de la tragedia.Dijo Obama “Rusia entrenó a los separatistas y les proporcionó armas….debe haber un rendimiento de cuentas”.
Tal vez Putin piensa que Europa oriental es su patio trasero donde puede hacer lo que le hace la gana.
Ahora bien, tomaremos una mirada hacia el sur. Sabemos que hay miles de niños hondureños detenidos en la frontera, niños que se dirigieron al norte por razón de la pobreza y la violencia que existen en sus propios países. ¿Quién debe rendir cuentas por lo sucedido a ellos? [...]
Lea el artículo:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/8ZWqZ1gWO1c
By Elvira Arellano, Sanctuary Movement
July 22, 2014
As we look to the east, nearly 300 people were killed when the Malaysian airliner was shot down. President Obama demanded that there be an investigation and strongly suggested that President Putin of Russia was responsible. “Russia trained the separatists. Russia armed them.” President Obama said, “There must be accountability.”
President Putin evidently thinks that the Ukraine is “in the Russian backyard” and he can do what he wants there.
Now, look to the south for a moment. We know that thousands of Honduran children are being held in detention at the border, children who came north because of the poverty and violence in their home country. Who is accountable for what has happened to them?
Read the full article:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/8ZWqZ1gWO1c
22 de julio, 2014
(English Version Follows)
Mirando hacia el este, vemos que casi 300 personas fallecieron en el derrumbe del avión malasiano. El presidente Obama ha insistido que se lleve a cabo una investigación y sugerido que el presidente Putin sea el responsable de la tragedia.Dijo Obama “Rusia entrenó a los separatistas y les proporcionó armas….debe haber un rendimiento de cuentas”.
Tal vez Putin piensa que Europa oriental es su patio trasero donde puede hacer lo que le hace la gana.
Ahora bien, tomaremos una mirada hacia el sur. Sabemos que hay miles de niños hondureños detenidos en la frontera, niños que se dirigieron al norte por razón de la pobreza y la violencia que existen en sus propios países. ¿Quién debe rendir cuentas por lo sucedido a ellos? [...]
Lea el artículo:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/8ZWqZ1gWO1c
By Elvira Arellano, Sanctuary Movement
July 22, 2014
As we look to the east, nearly 300 people were killed when the Malaysian airliner was shot down. President Obama demanded that there be an investigation and strongly suggested that President Putin of Russia was responsible. “Russia trained the separatists. Russia armed them.” President Obama said, “There must be accountability.”
President Putin evidently thinks that the Ukraine is “in the Russian backyard” and he can do what he wants there.
Now, look to the south for a moment. We know that thousands of Honduran children are being held in detention at the border, children who came north because of the poverty and violence in their home country. Who is accountable for what has happened to them?
Read the full article:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/8ZWqZ1gWO1c
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