Unboxed Voices, 2012
A short documentary about growing up undocumented, by Juan Galindo, produced by John Howard, featuring Katherine Chua.
Watch the film:
https://vimeo.com/61496205
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Former NY Gov. Spitzer: Hillary Clinton Opposed Driver's Licenses for Immigrants
In a statement from the Dream Action Coalition, the organization said Latinos and Dreamers are "truly disappointed" that Clinton "would throw the immigrant community under the bus, especially since she had criticized other[s] for doing the same." According to DRC, many immigrants have been deported for not having a driver's license.
By Michael Oleaga, Latin Post
October 30, 2015
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is under the spotlight for her stance on providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.
During a Democratic presidential primary debate in 2007, Clinton was questioned if she supported then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to give undocumented immigrants driver's licenses. Clinton said she did not think Spitzer's plan was the appropriate approach at addressing the immigration issues that the George W. Bush administration failed to address.
"What Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform," Clinton told debate moderator Tim Russert in the October 2007 debate. "In New York, we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability."
Clinton added, "Gov. Spitzer is trying to fill the vacuum. We need to get back to comprehensive immigration reform because no state, no matter how well intentioned, can fill this gap. There needs to be federal action on immigration reform." [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latinpost.com/articles/91159/20151030/former-ny-gov-spitzer-hillary-clinton-opposed-drivers-licenses-immigrants.htm
By Michael Oleaga, Latin Post
October 30, 2015
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is under the spotlight for her stance on providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.
During a Democratic presidential primary debate in 2007, Clinton was questioned if she supported then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to give undocumented immigrants driver's licenses. Clinton said she did not think Spitzer's plan was the appropriate approach at addressing the immigration issues that the George W. Bush administration failed to address.
"What Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform," Clinton told debate moderator Tim Russert in the October 2007 debate. "In New York, we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability."
Clinton added, "Gov. Spitzer is trying to fill the vacuum. We need to get back to comprehensive immigration reform because no state, no matter how well intentioned, can fill this gap. There needs to be federal action on immigration reform." [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latinpost.com/articles/91159/20151030/former-ny-gov-spitzer-hillary-clinton-opposed-drivers-licenses-immigrants.htm
Sunday, November 8, 2015
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants
In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants.
By Bryce Covert, Think Progress
October 27, 2015
Pedro started getting worried when his hands were so swollen he needed a larger size of plastic gloves.
Pedro (which is not his real name) would arrive at the chicken processing plant for Tyson in North Carolina at 5 p.m. to clock in for the second shift. For the next three hours, he says he wouldn’t get a single break from breaking down slaughtered and defeathered chickens, cutting the shoulders and pulling out the tenders, until he was allowed to take a half-hour lunch at 8 p.m. Then it was back to the line until all of the chickens were processed, sometimes at 5 or 6 in the morning.
He says the line moved so quickly that he was processing 45-50 chickens every minute, or nearly one each second. The fast, repetitive motions soon started affecting his hands, which swelled up painfully. They got so large he had to wear 3XL sized plastic gloves. But when he was sent to the plant’s infirmary, he says the nurse simply told him to take ibuprofen and soak his hands in epsom salts and hot water. “The infirmary nurse told me it was nothing to worry about, just your body getting used to it, like when you lift weights and your muscles swell up,” he said on a call with media.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/18/classics.grahamgreene
Download the Oxfam report:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/lives-on-the-line/
By Bryce Covert, Think Progress
October 27, 2015
Pedro started getting worried when his hands were so swollen he needed a larger size of plastic gloves.
Pedro (which is not his real name) would arrive at the chicken processing plant for Tyson in North Carolina at 5 p.m. to clock in for the second shift. For the next three hours, he says he wouldn’t get a single break from breaking down slaughtered and defeathered chickens, cutting the shoulders and pulling out the tenders, until he was allowed to take a half-hour lunch at 8 p.m. Then it was back to the line until all of the chickens were processed, sometimes at 5 or 6 in the morning.
He says the line moved so quickly that he was processing 45-50 chickens every minute, or nearly one each second. The fast, repetitive motions soon started affecting his hands, which swelled up painfully. They got so large he had to wear 3XL sized plastic gloves. But when he was sent to the plant’s infirmary, he says the nurse simply told him to take ibuprofen and soak his hands in epsom salts and hot water. “The infirmary nurse told me it was nothing to worry about, just your body getting used to it, like when you lift weights and your muscles swell up,” he said on a call with media.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/18/classics.grahamgreene
Download the Oxfam report:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/lives-on-the-line/
Women Face Retaliation at Texas Detention Center Following Hunger Strike
By Tina Vasquez, RH Reality Check
November 6, 2015
Ten days after news broke of a hunger strike at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, reports are emerging from inside Hutto that six women are being rounded up for transfer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as retaliation for participating in the hunger strike.
Grassroots Leadership, an organization that forms part of a larger umbrella group known as Texans United for Families (TUFF), confirms two of the initial hunger strikers, Francisca and Amalia, have been moved to a remote majority men’s detention center in Pearsall, Texas. The organization also reports that Francisca’s family has verified that she has been placed in solitary confinement there.
Last weekend, Insis, a Garífuna woman from Honduras participating in the hunger strike, was placed in “medical solitary confinement” for two days.
Cristina Parker, the immigration programs director for Grassroots Leadership, told RH Reality Check that this type of solitary confinement is a common tactic used by ICE. Hutto doesn’t have what might be considered a traditional solitary confinement area, so women are placed in the medical section alone under the guise of needing medical attention.[...]
Read the full article:
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/11/06/women-face-retaliation-texas-detention-center-following-hunger-strike/
November 6, 2015
Ten days after news broke of a hunger strike at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, reports are emerging from inside Hutto that six women are being rounded up for transfer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as retaliation for participating in the hunger strike.
Grassroots Leadership, an organization that forms part of a larger umbrella group known as Texans United for Families (TUFF), confirms two of the initial hunger strikers, Francisca and Amalia, have been moved to a remote majority men’s detention center in Pearsall, Texas. The organization also reports that Francisca’s family has verified that she has been placed in solitary confinement there.
Last weekend, Insis, a Garífuna woman from Honduras participating in the hunger strike, was placed in “medical solitary confinement” for two days.
Cristina Parker, the immigration programs director for Grassroots Leadership, told RH Reality Check that this type of solitary confinement is a common tactic used by ICE. Hutto doesn’t have what might be considered a traditional solitary confinement area, so women are placed in the medical section alone under the guise of needing medical attention.[...]
Read the full article:
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/11/06/women-face-retaliation-texas-detention-center-following-hunger-strike/
Saturday, November 7, 2015
A 'No Haitians' job ad shows discrimination is not dead
By Monica Campbell, PRI's The World
October 21, 2015
A healthcare company this month placed an ad in a New York pennysaver newsletter, seeking a female nurse. In addition to needing to be laid back and have experience with respiratory management, the woman needed to not be Hatian.
“I thought it was a hoax,” says WLRN reporter Nadege Green, when she first saw the ad.
The company, Interim Healthcare, is based in Florida, and one of its franchisees placed the ad in New York. As word of the ad spread through social media, outrage grew, especially among Haitian Americans across the United States.
Green followed the reaction from South Florida, with its large Haitian immigrant community. "People started talking about how, in 2015, you have what appears to be this type of discrimination happening," she says.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-21/no-haitians-job-ad-shows-discrimination-not-dead
October 21, 2015
A healthcare company this month placed an ad in a New York pennysaver newsletter, seeking a female nurse. In addition to needing to be laid back and have experience with respiratory management, the woman needed to not be Hatian.
“I thought it was a hoax,” says WLRN reporter Nadege Green, when she first saw the ad.
The company, Interim Healthcare, is based in Florida, and one of its franchisees placed the ad in New York. As word of the ad spread through social media, outrage grew, especially among Haitian Americans across the United States.
Green followed the reaction from South Florida, with its large Haitian immigrant community. "People started talking about how, in 2015, you have what appears to be this type of discrimination happening," she says.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-21/no-haitians-job-ad-shows-discrimination-not-dead
Friday, November 6, 2015
Hundreds launch hunger strike at immigrant detention center in Adelanto, Calif.
By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
November 6, 2015
Immigrant advocates say hundreds of men have launched a hunger strike at an immigrant detention center in the high desert city of Adelanto, Calif., making it the fourth immigrant detention facility in the U.S. where protesting detainees have refused food in recent weeks.
Attorneys for some of the men and advocates with a detention center visitation group say more than 300 men stopped eating Oct. 30 to protest conditions at the center. They said another group of detainees joined them in the strike on Wednesday.
Shannah Abdulluah, an asylum-seeker from Ghana who has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since he asked for amnesty at the Mexican border 11 months ago, said he and about 90 other men joined the hunger strike this week.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-immigrant-hunger-strike-20151106-story.html
Sign a petition supporting immigrant detainees organizing for their rights:
http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/asylumseekersdetained/
For earlier hunger strike coverage, go to:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-hunger-strike-you-havent-heard-about.html
November 6, 2015
Immigrant advocates say hundreds of men have launched a hunger strike at an immigrant detention center in the high desert city of Adelanto, Calif., making it the fourth immigrant detention facility in the U.S. where protesting detainees have refused food in recent weeks.
Attorneys for some of the men and advocates with a detention center visitation group say more than 300 men stopped eating Oct. 30 to protest conditions at the center. They said another group of detainees joined them in the strike on Wednesday.
Shannah Abdulluah, an asylum-seeker from Ghana who has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since he asked for amnesty at the Mexican border 11 months ago, said he and about 90 other men joined the hunger strike this week.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-immigrant-hunger-strike-20151106-story.html
Sign a petition supporting immigrant detainees organizing for their rights:
http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/asylumseekersdetained/
For earlier hunger strike coverage, go to:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-hunger-strike-you-havent-heard-about.html
Thursday, November 5, 2015
B&H Photo and Video Warehouse Workers Win in Union Vote
For Immediate Release, November 4, 2015
Spanish and English:
Rosanna Rodriguez, Laundry Workers Center, 347-652-5724, rosaran18@gmail.com
Mahoma Lopez, Laundry Workers Center 347-488-6936 garfiasdf@gmail.com
B&H Photo and Video Warehouse Workers Vote Overwhelmingly to Join United Steelworkers
Workers Vote 200 to 88 to Join Union; Demand an End to Hazardous Working Conditions and Discrimination in Brooklyn Warehouses
BROOKLYN, NY – Workers in B&H’s two Brooklyn warehouses voted overwhelmingly today for union representation with the United Steelworkers, in an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board. The vote comes on the heels of a weeks-long anti-union campaign waged by B&H management, with workers alleging daily threats, harassment, and intimidation in the workplace. Lawyers for the union have filed multiple charges with the NLRB, alleging B&H engaged in unlawful anti-union activity during the course of the campaign.
Workers remained strong in the face of management’s tactics, confident in the widespread support for unionization in the workplace. "We knew we would win our vote today by a large margin, which of course the company did not expect”, said Jorge Lora, B&H Warehouse Worker of 5 years. “Today we won because the workers voted with their conscience”.
Workers publicly announced their intent to organize with the United Steelworkers on October 11th, after receiving training and support from the grassroots, worker-led community organization Laundry Workers Center. Since the campaign launch, a groundswell of support has grown amongst community, faith and labor groups, as well as thousands of photo/video professionals and B&H customers. On the eve of the union vote, the Photo/Video Alliance for Fair Labor released an open letter to B&H management with over 1,000 signers in journalism, fine art and commercial photography, film, television, and academia, calling on B&H “to end the hazardous working conditions and discrimination workers report at B&H’s Brooklyn warehouses”. Supporters used the campaign slogan #BHExposed to increase awareness of the worker’s campaign, garnering extensive coverage of the working conditions in B&H’s warehouses, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera America, The Nation, WNYC, and numerous photo-video websites and blogs.
The news of the landslide victory was welcomed by dozens of supporters who waited outside of both Brooklyn warehouses to congratulate workers coming off of their shifts. “We want to share this moment with other workers so they also know that they longer have to feel exploited”, said Alberto Sánchez, B&H employee, 7 years. “We were taught our rights, and now we have to pass that on to other workers so they can fight back against the exploitation and discrimination they face.”
“After a year of hard work organizing, today the workers are victorious. This is a huge step for the workers’ movement, and for the Laundry Workers Center, as it continues to develop worker power and leadership in New York City and beyond, said Rosanna Aran, Co-Director of the Laundry Workers Center, said.
###
For additional coverage, go to:
http://www.usw.org/news/media-center/releases/2015/bh-photo-warehouse-employees-vote-to-join-usw-union
http://hyperallergic.com/250959/in-landslide-vote-bh-photo-workers-decide-to-unionize/
For earlier coverage of the B&H unionization drive, go to:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2015/10/photo-retailer-b-faces-unwanted.html
Spanish and English:
Rosanna Rodriguez, Laundry Workers Center, 347-652-5724, rosaran18@gmail.com
Mahoma Lopez, Laundry Workers Center 347-488-6936 garfiasdf@gmail.com
B&H Photo and Video Warehouse Workers Vote Overwhelmingly to Join United Steelworkers
Workers Vote 200 to 88 to Join Union; Demand an End to Hazardous Working Conditions and Discrimination in Brooklyn Warehouses
BROOKLYN, NY – Workers in B&H’s two Brooklyn warehouses voted overwhelmingly today for union representation with the United Steelworkers, in an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board. The vote comes on the heels of a weeks-long anti-union campaign waged by B&H management, with workers alleging daily threats, harassment, and intimidation in the workplace. Lawyers for the union have filed multiple charges with the NLRB, alleging B&H engaged in unlawful anti-union activity during the course of the campaign.
Workers remained strong in the face of management’s tactics, confident in the widespread support for unionization in the workplace. "We knew we would win our vote today by a large margin, which of course the company did not expect”, said Jorge Lora, B&H Warehouse Worker of 5 years. “Today we won because the workers voted with their conscience”.
Workers publicly announced their intent to organize with the United Steelworkers on October 11th, after receiving training and support from the grassroots, worker-led community organization Laundry Workers Center. Since the campaign launch, a groundswell of support has grown amongst community, faith and labor groups, as well as thousands of photo/video professionals and B&H customers. On the eve of the union vote, the Photo/Video Alliance for Fair Labor released an open letter to B&H management with over 1,000 signers in journalism, fine art and commercial photography, film, television, and academia, calling on B&H “to end the hazardous working conditions and discrimination workers report at B&H’s Brooklyn warehouses”. Supporters used the campaign slogan #BHExposed to increase awareness of the worker’s campaign, garnering extensive coverage of the working conditions in B&H’s warehouses, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera America, The Nation, WNYC, and numerous photo-video websites and blogs.
The news of the landslide victory was welcomed by dozens of supporters who waited outside of both Brooklyn warehouses to congratulate workers coming off of their shifts. “We want to share this moment with other workers so they also know that they longer have to feel exploited”, said Alberto Sánchez, B&H employee, 7 years. “We were taught our rights, and now we have to pass that on to other workers so they can fight back against the exploitation and discrimination they face.”
“After a year of hard work organizing, today the workers are victorious. This is a huge step for the workers’ movement, and for the Laundry Workers Center, as it continues to develop worker power and leadership in New York City and beyond, said Rosanna Aran, Co-Director of the Laundry Workers Center, said.
###
For additional coverage, go to:
http://www.usw.org/news/media-center/releases/2015/bh-photo-warehouse-employees-vote-to-join-usw-union
http://hyperallergic.com/250959/in-landslide-vote-bh-photo-workers-decide-to-unionize/
For earlier coverage of the B&H unionization drive, go to:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2015/10/photo-retailer-b-faces-unwanted.html
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