Rise Is Despite Fewer Crossers, U.S. and Mexican Groups Say
by Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post
September 30, 2009
Despite a 50 percent drop over the past two years in the number of people caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico, the number of those who died while trying to cross the border increased this year and is the highest since 2006, according to new U.S. data and a study by human rights groups in both countries.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico's human rights agency allege that consistently high numbers of border deaths -- hovering around 350 to 500 a year, depending on which government's figures are used -- are a predictable but largely unrecognized result of border security policies.
"Border deaths have increased despite the economic downturn, fewer migrant crossers, and a steady drop in apprehensions," Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties in California say in a report set for release Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. The rising fatality rates "signal an escalating humanitarian crisis that is not going away and requires more effective governmental responses," the groups say.
Read the full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092903212.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Great Wall of Boeing Revisited
Scathing Report on Border Security Is Issued
by Randal C. Archibold, New York Times
September 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES — Government auditors reported Thursday that the effort to secure the Mexican border with technology and fences has fallen years behind schedule, will cost billions of dollars extra in maintenance costs and has no clear means of gauging whether illegal crossings have been curtailed.
Mark Borkowski, who directs the Secure Border Initiative for the Department of Homeland Security, stood by the program as “transformational,” but did not challenge the findings. “We are as frustrated as anybody is” with the setbacks, Mr. Borkowski said in an interview. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18fence.html?_r=1&ref=us
Editorial: Border Fantasies
New York Times
September 21, 2009
Members of Congress who voted for the Southwest border fence as the fix for illegal immigration professed shock — shock at the news that the project is running years behind, and billions of dollars ahead, of the Bush administration’s early, rosy projections.
Auditors reported last week that the high-tech, 28-mile “virtual” section of the fence was running a mere seven years behind this month’s planned opening. Initially, designers talked of using off-the-shelf technology for the radar, cameras and other sensors, but problems cropped up. (Imagine, discovering that cameras tremble in rough weather.) “I’m trying to figure out why this is so difficult,” said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas. “These are basically cameras on a pole.” [...]
Read the full editorial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/opinion/22tue3.html?ref=opinion
According to both the article and the editorial, the US General Accountability Office says it could cost $6.5 billion to maintain the fence over the next 20 years. Actually, this is an estimate from a contractor. For an estimate from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, see:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/wilson270908.html
by Randal C. Archibold, New York Times
September 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES — Government auditors reported Thursday that the effort to secure the Mexican border with technology and fences has fallen years behind schedule, will cost billions of dollars extra in maintenance costs and has no clear means of gauging whether illegal crossings have been curtailed.
Mark Borkowski, who directs the Secure Border Initiative for the Department of Homeland Security, stood by the program as “transformational,” but did not challenge the findings. “We are as frustrated as anybody is” with the setbacks, Mr. Borkowski said in an interview. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18fence.html?_r=1&ref=us
Editorial: Border Fantasies
New York Times
September 21, 2009
Members of Congress who voted for the Southwest border fence as the fix for illegal immigration professed shock — shock at the news that the project is running years behind, and billions of dollars ahead, of the Bush administration’s early, rosy projections.
Auditors reported last week that the high-tech, 28-mile “virtual” section of the fence was running a mere seven years behind this month’s planned opening. Initially, designers talked of using off-the-shelf technology for the radar, cameras and other sensors, but problems cropped up. (Imagine, discovering that cameras tremble in rough weather.) “I’m trying to figure out why this is so difficult,” said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas. “These are basically cameras on a pole.” [...]
Read the full editorial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/opinion/22tue3.html?ref=opinion
According to both the article and the editorial, the US General Accountability Office says it could cost $6.5 billion to maintain the fence over the next 20 years. Actually, this is an estimate from a contractor. For an estimate from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, see:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/wilson270908.html
Monday, October 19, 2009
Troubled "E-Verify" Program Highlights Dysfunctional Immigration System
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/
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/
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
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