by Michelle Chen, In These Times
September 14, 2009
Even before they became the paper tiger in the healthcare reform circus, undocumented immigrants were Washington's favorite boogeyman in the politics surrounding the federal stimulus.
To quell paranoia about Americans' hard-earned tax dollars getting misspent, the Obama administration is requiring federal contractors to use the E-verify system for screening workers' immigration status. The new mandate was drawn up by the Bush administration, but never implemented until now.
The controversial program, which lets employers cross-check workers through Social Security Administration and Homeland Security databases, will be imposed on about 169,000 contractors and subcontractors under the plan. But E-verify has attracted criticism over the years as ineffective, discriminatory, and threatening to workers' rights.
So much for combating waste, fraud and abuse. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4888/mandatory_e-verify_program_confirms_dysfunction_of_immigration_system/
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Equality Is Never Having To Say You Are Sorry
by Jean Pfaelzer, The Globalist
September 7, 2009
In celebrating Labor Day, the United States honors the struggle for honorable working conditions. In this two-part series, Jean Pfaelzer — author of Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans — discusses the cruel irony of a nation apologizing for past immigrant abuses at the same time as it perpetrates new ones.
As the United States observes Labor Day this year on September 7, apologies for labor abuses, anti-labor violence, and slavery are flowing in from states like Maryland, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, California and New Jersey.
On a national level, the U. S. Senate has also just apologized for slavery.
For instance, California has passed a resolution “deeply regretting” 150 years of violence against Chinese Americans. Adding to the momentum for recognition and regret, in late August 2009, California Assemblymen Mike Eng and Kevin de Leon called for a “Day of Inclusion” to mark December 17, 1943.
On that day, the United States finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first U.S. law that banned immigration by race. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=7977
September 7, 2009
In celebrating Labor Day, the United States honors the struggle for honorable working conditions. In this two-part series, Jean Pfaelzer — author of Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans — discusses the cruel irony of a nation apologizing for past immigrant abuses at the same time as it perpetrates new ones.
As the United States observes Labor Day this year on September 7, apologies for labor abuses, anti-labor violence, and slavery are flowing in from states like Maryland, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, California and New Jersey.
On a national level, the U. S. Senate has also just apologized for slavery.
For instance, California has passed a resolution “deeply regretting” 150 years of violence against Chinese Americans. Adding to the momentum for recognition and regret, in late August 2009, California Assemblymen Mike Eng and Kevin de Leon called for a “Day of Inclusion” to mark December 17, 1943.
On that day, the United States finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first U.S. law that banned immigration by race. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=7977
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care
by Emile Schepers, Political Affairs
September 13, 2009
The way the issue of undocumented immigrants has been wielded as a weapon in the health care debate is an indicator of how far this country has backslid on the immigration issue since the giant immigrants’ rights marches of 2006 and 2007. All we hear and see is the Republicans claiming that undocumented immigrants will, too, be covered by the Democrats’ health insurance plans, and the Democrats responding that, no, they will not be covered.
Who is standing up for sick immigrant workers and their families?
There is an unstated subtext of agreement on both sides that undocumented immigrants do not deserve, and should not have, health insurance. Even some progressive commentators, eager to defend the Obama administration’s health care reform from the attacks of the paranoid ultra-right, get a little too enthusiastic in their celebration of the fact that sick undocumented immigrants won’t be covered unless they somehow have the money to pay for private insurance out of their own pockets.
They talk and write as if not covering the undocumented were a self-evidently a good thing. [...]
Read the full article:
http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8995/
September 13, 2009
The way the issue of undocumented immigrants has been wielded as a weapon in the health care debate is an indicator of how far this country has backslid on the immigration issue since the giant immigrants’ rights marches of 2006 and 2007. All we hear and see is the Republicans claiming that undocumented immigrants will, too, be covered by the Democrats’ health insurance plans, and the Democrats responding that, no, they will not be covered.
Who is standing up for sick immigrant workers and their families?
There is an unstated subtext of agreement on both sides that undocumented immigrants do not deserve, and should not have, health insurance. Even some progressive commentators, eager to defend the Obama administration’s health care reform from the attacks of the paranoid ultra-right, get a little too enthusiastic in their celebration of the fact that sick undocumented immigrants won’t be covered unless they somehow have the money to pay for private insurance out of their own pockets.
They talk and write as if not covering the undocumented were a self-evidently a good thing. [...]
Read the full article:
http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8995/
Friday, October 16, 2009
Mejia-Reyes Deportation Delayed
Novato couple to testify at son's hearing,
Oct. 22
by Ronnie Cohen, Pacific Sun (Marin County)
October 13, 2009
A Novato couple facing deportation to their native Guatemala will be allowed to stay in California until the end of the month so they can testify at their 18-year-old son's deportation hearing on Oct. 22. The attorney for Elida Perez and Salvador "Sam" Mejia-Reyes said immigration officials agreed to extend the deportation date until Nov. 2 for the couple, who have lived in Marin County for 17 years. But the attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said the couple's best hope for being able to remain in the U.S. with their American-born 13-year-old and 4-year-old daughters was shattered when Senator Dianne Feinstein declined to write a so-called private bill to spare them deportation to the country they fled during a civil war in 1992. "We are still going to continue to make all efforts to keep the family here," Van Der Hout said. The only road open to Perez and Mejia-Reyes, however, appears to be the one back to Guatemala.
http://www.pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=1198
Novato family fights deportation
by Jim Welte, Contra Costa Times
October 11, 2009
The parents of a family of five are facing deportation on Tuesday. On Thursday they stand in their Novato home. Left to right are Elida Perez, Gilbert Mejia-Perez, 18, Helen Mejia-Perez, 13, Dulce Mejia-Perez, 4, and Salvador Mejia. As a boy, Gilbert Mejia-Perez of Novato went to work with his father Salvador, a carpenter. He learned the tools of the trade, but as Mejia-Perez got older, he developed higher aspirations. Instead of helping to build and remodel homes, he wanted to design them himself. Now 18 and in his first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College, Mejia-Perez is on his way to fulfilling his dream.
But barring an unforeseen reversal from immigration officials, Mejia-Perez will be pursuing that dream in Guatemala, the country he left with his parents when he was 1 year old.
Read the full article:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13542300
Oct. 22
by Ronnie Cohen, Pacific Sun (Marin County)
October 13, 2009
A Novato couple facing deportation to their native Guatemala will be allowed to stay in California until the end of the month so they can testify at their 18-year-old son's deportation hearing on Oct. 22. The attorney for Elida Perez and Salvador "Sam" Mejia-Reyes said immigration officials agreed to extend the deportation date until Nov. 2 for the couple, who have lived in Marin County for 17 years. But the attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said the couple's best hope for being able to remain in the U.S. with their American-born 13-year-old and 4-year-old daughters was shattered when Senator Dianne Feinstein declined to write a so-called private bill to spare them deportation to the country they fled during a civil war in 1992. "We are still going to continue to make all efforts to keep the family here," Van Der Hout said. The only road open to Perez and Mejia-Reyes, however, appears to be the one back to Guatemala.
http://www.pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=1198
Novato family fights deportation
by Jim Welte, Contra Costa Times
October 11, 2009
The parents of a family of five are facing deportation on Tuesday. On Thursday they stand in their Novato home. Left to right are Elida Perez, Gilbert Mejia-Perez, 18, Helen Mejia-Perez, 13, Dulce Mejia-Perez, 4, and Salvador Mejia. As a boy, Gilbert Mejia-Perez of Novato went to work with his father Salvador, a carpenter. He learned the tools of the trade, but as Mejia-Perez got older, he developed higher aspirations. Instead of helping to build and remodel homes, he wanted to design them himself. Now 18 and in his first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College, Mejia-Perez is on his way to fulfilling his dream.
But barring an unforeseen reversal from immigration officials, Mejia-Perez will be pursuing that dream in Guatemala, the country he left with his parents when he was 1 year old.
Read the full article:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13542300
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sign the Petition for Ibrahim Parlak
Speaking up for Ibrahim
by Citizens for Ibrahim, South Bend Tribune
October 6, 2009
The organization Citizens for Ibrahim is collecting signatures for a petition that asks President Barack Obama, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder to drop deportation proceedings against Ibrahim Parlak.
The group first said it hoped to collect 1,000 names in 100 days. But that was too easy. It got that many names in the first week. So it has upped the target to 2,000 names. We think the new goal, too, will be readily achieved. To sign, go to the Web site www.freeibrahim.com.
Word of Parlak's dilemma has spread far and wide. The federal government once gave Parlak asylum after he was imprisoned and tortured in Turkey for separatist activities. But in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been bent on deporting him. Most recently, he lost an appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and is contemplating his next move. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20091006/Opinion/910060365/1062/Opinion
Free Ibrahim
by Geoffrey R. Stone, Huffington Post
October 4, 2009
Ibrahim Parlak is a Kurd who was born and raised in southeastern Turkey. As a young man, he became active in the Kurdish human rights movement both in Turkey and Europe. He was arrested in Turkey in 1988 and held incommunicado and tortured repeatedly in three different Turkish police stations.
He was then tried and convicted of "separatist activities" by one of the notorious Turkish security courts. After serving a sixteen-month sentence, he was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1992 on the ground that he had "established a well-founded fear of persecution" if he were to return to Turkey. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/free-ibrahim_b_309152.html
by Citizens for Ibrahim, South Bend Tribune
October 6, 2009
The organization Citizens for Ibrahim is collecting signatures for a petition that asks President Barack Obama, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder to drop deportation proceedings against Ibrahim Parlak.
The group first said it hoped to collect 1,000 names in 100 days. But that was too easy. It got that many names in the first week. So it has upped the target to 2,000 names. We think the new goal, too, will be readily achieved. To sign, go to the Web site www.freeibrahim.com.
Word of Parlak's dilemma has spread far and wide. The federal government once gave Parlak asylum after he was imprisoned and tortured in Turkey for separatist activities. But in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been bent on deporting him. Most recently, he lost an appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and is contemplating his next move. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20091006/Opinion/910060365/1062/Opinion
Free Ibrahim
by Geoffrey R. Stone, Huffington Post
October 4, 2009
Ibrahim Parlak is a Kurd who was born and raised in southeastern Turkey. As a young man, he became active in the Kurdish human rights movement both in Turkey and Europe. He was arrested in Turkey in 1988 and held incommunicado and tortured repeatedly in three different Turkish police stations.
He was then tried and convicted of "separatist activities" by one of the notorious Turkish security courts. After serving a sixteen-month sentence, he was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1992 on the ground that he had "established a well-founded fear of persecution" if he were to return to Turkey. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/free-ibrahim_b_309152.html
Friday, September 11, 2009
Denuncia ‘guerra sucia’ de migra
Activista chileno: quieren deportarme por pasado de izquierdas en dictadura
Por Carmen Alarcón, El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
9 de septiembre, 2009
Nueva York — La sorpresa que recibió el chileno Víctor Toro Ramírez fue un documento del gobierno estadounidense interfiriendo en su caso por los nexos políticos de éste hace 36 años en Chile.
Toro, de 65 años, quien fue arrestado por agentes de inmigración a bordo de un tren de Amtrak en Rochester, Nueva York, en julio del 2007, y enfrenta una orden de deportación, está luchando por lograr asilo político.
Sin embargo, las razones políticas por las que fue perseguido en Chile durante la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) son las mismas que hoy están utilizando en su contra. [...]
Lea el artículo entero:
http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/2009/9/10/denuncia-guerra-sucia-de-migra-147207-1.html
Por Carmen Alarcón, El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
9 de septiembre, 2009
Nueva York — La sorpresa que recibió el chileno Víctor Toro Ramírez fue un documento del gobierno estadounidense interfiriendo en su caso por los nexos políticos de éste hace 36 años en Chile.
Toro, de 65 años, quien fue arrestado por agentes de inmigración a bordo de un tren de Amtrak en Rochester, Nueva York, en julio del 2007, y enfrenta una orden de deportación, está luchando por lograr asilo político.
Sin embargo, las razones políticas por las que fue perseguido en Chile durante la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) son las mismas que hoy están utilizando en su contra. [...]
Lea el artículo entero:
http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/2009/9/10/denuncia-guerra-sucia-de-migra-147207-1.html
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Disorder on the Border: Trashing the Law in the Name of Immigration Deterrence
By Randall Amster, CommonDreams
September 8, 2009
In two recent criminal cases in the United States, defendants received similar sentences for very different sorts of actions. In the first, a young man was convicted of negligent homicide for texting while driving and killing two scientists in the process. The New York Times reported [1] on the case and the sentence meted out to the young man:
"He pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide, but his record will be cleared if he fulfills the sentence imposed by the judge. It included 30 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and a requirement that he read Les Misérables to learn, like the book's character Jean Valjean, how to make a contribution to society."
In the second case, another young man received a sentence of 300 hours of community service, one year of probation, and a one-year ban from a large swath of land on the U.S.-Mexico border. His crime? Leaving jugs of water in the desert for would-be border crossers, in an attempt to help prevent deaths. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.commondreams.org/print/46712
September 8, 2009
In two recent criminal cases in the United States, defendants received similar sentences for very different sorts of actions. In the first, a young man was convicted of negligent homicide for texting while driving and killing two scientists in the process. The New York Times reported [1] on the case and the sentence meted out to the young man:
"He pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide, but his record will be cleared if he fulfills the sentence imposed by the judge. It included 30 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and a requirement that he read Les Misérables to learn, like the book's character Jean Valjean, how to make a contribution to society."
In the second case, another young man received a sentence of 300 hours of community service, one year of probation, and a one-year ban from a large swath of land on the U.S.-Mexico border. His crime? Leaving jugs of water in the desert for would-be border crossers, in an attempt to help prevent deaths. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.commondreams.org/print/46712
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