By Nancy Hiemstra, Huffington Post
January 8, 2016
At the end of December, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would being rounding up Central American immigrants for deportation. This past weekend, the raids began, with parents and children being detained in military-style operations in several southern and border states. Fear has spread through immigrant communities around the country.
As a professor of migration studies at Stony Brook University who has researched consequences of immigration policies for over a decade, I have followed news of this initiative closely. But I am also an Anglo mom of two on Long Island, in a town with sizeable communities of Latino immigrants, many of them from Central America. I speak Spanish, so I talk with Latino immigrants, I listen, I ask. And this is what fear looks like in my town.
Sunday afternoon, my kids were playing with some kids in the community, blowing off end-of-holiday break steam. Suddenly, one boy said to me, "Miss Nancy, did you hear that they are stopping people on the streets, and taking them away? Whole families. My mom was crying, she's so scared."[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-hiemstra/this-is-fear-ice-raids-on_b_8939568.html
Monday, January 18, 2016
Sunday, January 17, 2016
9 Phrases the Migrant Rights Movement Needs to Leave in 2015
You cannot fix what is rotten to the core. The system is not broken—it was designed this way.
By Carlos García, Latino Rebels
December 31, 2015
In 2016, we need to stop leaving people behind. It doesn’t serve our movement to use corrupt messaging that serves the needs of those in power. It divides our community into those who are deserving and those who are not and throws other oppressed communities under the bus.
It’s time for us to step up our words and our actions and drop these phrases from our own movements. Let’s end the divide-and-conquer tactics of the state and commit to liberation for all of our people.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/31/ninephrases/
By Carlos García, Latino Rebels
December 31, 2015
In 2016, we need to stop leaving people behind. It doesn’t serve our movement to use corrupt messaging that serves the needs of those in power. It divides our community into those who are deserving and those who are not and throws other oppressed communities under the bus.
It’s time for us to step up our words and our actions and drop these phrases from our own movements. Let’s end the divide-and-conquer tactics of the state and commit to liberation for all of our people.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/31/ninephrases/
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
18 Guatemalan Ex-Military Leaders Arrested for Crimes Against Humanity During U.S.-Backed Dirty War
"...[W]hen there’s terror in a place like Guatemala, people flee. They come to the U.S. That’s where a lot of the undocumented immigrants originated from. And then Americans complain. Well, you know, if you go and burn down your neighbor’s house, don’t complain when, as they run from the flames, they come onto your lawn." --Allan Nairn
Democracy Now!
January 8, 2016
In a stunning development, Guatemalan police have arrested 18 ex-military leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the decades-long, U.S.-backed dirty war against Guatemala’s indigenous communities. The ex-military leaders face charges of ordering massacres and forced disappearances during the conflict, which led to perhaps a quarter-million deaths. Many of the arrested former military leaders were backed by the United States, including Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who had worked closely with U.S. military officials to develop a system of attacking the highlands where Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan communities reside. The system involved decapitating and crucifying people. We speak to investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to stunning developments in Guatemala, where this week police have arrested 18 ex-military leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the decades-long, U.S.-backed dirty war against Guatemala’s indigenous communities. The ex-military leaders face charges of ordering massacres and forced disappearances, which led to perhaps a quarter of a million deaths. Many of the arrested former military leaders were backed by the United States, including Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who had worked closely with U.S. military officials to develop a system of attacking the highlands where Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan communities reside. The system involved decapitating and crucifying people. Lucas is a former army chief of staff and the brother of the ex-dictator, General Fernando Romeo Lucas García. Speaking Wednesday, he defended himself against the charges.[...]
Read the full transcript or watch the program:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/8/18_ex_military_guatemalan_leaders_arrested
Democracy Now!
January 8, 2016
In a stunning development, Guatemalan police have arrested 18 ex-military leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the decades-long, U.S.-backed dirty war against Guatemala’s indigenous communities. The ex-military leaders face charges of ordering massacres and forced disappearances during the conflict, which led to perhaps a quarter-million deaths. Many of the arrested former military leaders were backed by the United States, including Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who had worked closely with U.S. military officials to develop a system of attacking the highlands where Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan communities reside. The system involved decapitating and crucifying people. We speak to investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to stunning developments in Guatemala, where this week police have arrested 18 ex-military leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the decades-long, U.S.-backed dirty war against Guatemala’s indigenous communities. The ex-military leaders face charges of ordering massacres and forced disappearances, which led to perhaps a quarter of a million deaths. Many of the arrested former military leaders were backed by the United States, including Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who had worked closely with U.S. military officials to develop a system of attacking the highlands where Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan communities reside. The system involved decapitating and crucifying people. Lucas is a former army chief of staff and the brother of the ex-dictator, General Fernando Romeo Lucas García. Speaking Wednesday, he defended himself against the charges.[...]
Read the full transcript or watch the program:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/8/18_ex_military_guatemalan_leaders_arrested
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Stop the Raids and Focus Instead on U.S. Policy towards Central America
"...[T]he U.S. needs to genuinely address the root causes of Central American migration. To do so requires policy makers to take a hard look at existing U.S. policies toward the region..."
Statement from U.S. and Central American Groups Working on Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Women’s Rights, U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin America Solidarity
January 8, 2016
Over the last few days, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been rounding up and deporting dozens of members of Central American families seeking refuge from extreme violence and dire economic conditions in their communities of origin. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has described the move as part of an effort to “secure” the U.S. border and has announced that “additional enforcement operations such as these will continue to occur as appropriate.”
These raids are the latest chapter of what can only be described as a prolonged U.S. government war on migrant families, and specifically those coming from the most dangerous and economically deprived parts of Central America.
Following the public outcry generated by the mass detention of child migrants from Central America during the summer of 2014, the U.S. government enlisted Mexico’s security forces to carry out the dirty work of aggressively apprehending and repatriating migrants fleeing rampant violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (collectively referred to as the “Northern Triangle”). With promises of economic assistance, the U.S. then successfully lobbied Northern Triangle governments to use their security forces to further suppress migration towards the United States.[...]
Read the full statement:
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/18213
Statement from U.S. and Central American Groups Working on Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Women’s Rights, U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin America Solidarity
January 8, 2016
Over the last few days, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been rounding up and deporting dozens of members of Central American families seeking refuge from extreme violence and dire economic conditions in their communities of origin. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has described the move as part of an effort to “secure” the U.S. border and has announced that “additional enforcement operations such as these will continue to occur as appropriate.”
These raids are the latest chapter of what can only be described as a prolonged U.S. government war on migrant families, and specifically those coming from the most dangerous and economically deprived parts of Central America.
Following the public outcry generated by the mass detention of child migrants from Central America during the summer of 2014, the U.S. government enlisted Mexico’s security forces to carry out the dirty work of aggressively apprehending and repatriating migrants fleeing rampant violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (collectively referred to as the “Northern Triangle”). With promises of economic assistance, the U.S. then successfully lobbied Northern Triangle governments to use their security forces to further suppress migration towards the United States.[...]
Read the full statement:
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/18213
Monday, January 11, 2016
How New York's "Fight for $15" Launched a Nationwide Movement
[Immigrant workers continue to lead labor struggles. For other articles, see
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2013/05/immigrant-workers-are-organizing-in-new.html
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2012/08/low-wage-workers-march-in-new-york-will.html]
Wendi C. Thomas, Frederick McKissack, Jr., The American Prospect
January 4, 2016
Brooklyn car-wash worker Angel Rebolledo and Bronx fast-food employee Flavia Cabral work in jobs and neighborhoods that are miles apart, but they have remarkably similar stories to tell.
Rebolledo, a 55-year-old Mexican immigrant, was earning $600 a week to work 90 hours at the Vegas Auto Spa car wash in 2013 when he realized that he could not make ends meet and had to take a stand.
Rebolledo was getting constant nosebleeds from the harsh acids used to wash the grime off the vehicles. Along with his fellow “car washeros,” as they became known, Rebolledo joined a grassroots campaign that pushed for legislation to regulate the troubled car-wash industry. In June, the carwasheros celebrated the passage of New York’s first Car Wash Accountability Act, which among other provisions protects car-wash workers from wage theft.
Across town in the Bronx, 53-year-old Dominican immigrant Flavia Cabral had also reached a breaking point. Juggling two minimum-wage jobs, one at a fast-food restaurant and the other at a shipping company, Cabral was more worried about sustaining her family on $8.75 an hour than she was about her painful deep-fryer and oven burns. Like the carwasheros, Cabral and her fellow fast-food workers organized to take a stand. The upshot was that in September, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo approved a proposal by the state’s labor commissioner to raise fast-food workers’ pay to $15 an hour.[...]
Read the full article:
http://prospect.org/article/how-new-yorks-fight-15-launched-nationwide-movement
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2013/05/immigrant-workers-are-organizing-in-new.html
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2012/08/low-wage-workers-march-in-new-york-will.html]
Wendi C. Thomas, Frederick McKissack, Jr., The American Prospect
January 4, 2016
Brooklyn car-wash worker Angel Rebolledo and Bronx fast-food employee Flavia Cabral work in jobs and neighborhoods that are miles apart, but they have remarkably similar stories to tell.
Rebolledo, a 55-year-old Mexican immigrant, was earning $600 a week to work 90 hours at the Vegas Auto Spa car wash in 2013 when he realized that he could not make ends meet and had to take a stand.
Rebolledo was getting constant nosebleeds from the harsh acids used to wash the grime off the vehicles. Along with his fellow “car washeros,” as they became known, Rebolledo joined a grassroots campaign that pushed for legislation to regulate the troubled car-wash industry. In June, the carwasheros celebrated the passage of New York’s first Car Wash Accountability Act, which among other provisions protects car-wash workers from wage theft.
Across town in the Bronx, 53-year-old Dominican immigrant Flavia Cabral had also reached a breaking point. Juggling two minimum-wage jobs, one at a fast-food restaurant and the other at a shipping company, Cabral was more worried about sustaining her family on $8.75 an hour than she was about her painful deep-fryer and oven burns. Like the carwasheros, Cabral and her fellow fast-food workers organized to take a stand. The upshot was that in September, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo approved a proposal by the state’s labor commissioner to raise fast-food workers’ pay to $15 an hour.[...]
Read the full article:
http://prospect.org/article/how-new-yorks-fight-15-launched-nationwide-movement
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Why Is the US Deporting Refugee Families?
By Michelle Chen, The Nation
January 4, 2016
The White House rang in the New Year by slamming the gates on refugee families seeking sanctuary. Immigration and Customs Enforcementm (ICE) announced quietly, in the midst of the holiday break, that it would begin raiding and deporting Central American families who have failed to qualify for asylum. Their impending exile, according to ICE, is a matter of upholding rule of law, apparently to make it clear that the United States takes border control seriously and seeks to somehow deter mass migration.
The law the Obama administration is following, immigrant advocates say, runs counter to the higher mandate the White House should be abiding by. International humanitarian law actually dictates that these desperate parents and children be granted protection from the persecution and violence they have fled in their home countries.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-the-us-deporting-refugee-families/
January 4, 2016
The White House rang in the New Year by slamming the gates on refugee families seeking sanctuary. Immigration and Customs Enforcementm (ICE) announced quietly, in the midst of the holiday break, that it would begin raiding and deporting Central American families who have failed to qualify for asylum. Their impending exile, according to ICE, is a matter of upholding rule of law, apparently to make it clear that the United States takes border control seriously and seeks to somehow deter mass migration.
The law the Obama administration is following, immigrant advocates say, runs counter to the higher mandate the White House should be abiding by. International humanitarian law actually dictates that these desperate parents and children be granted protection from the persecution and violence they have fled in their home countries.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-the-us-deporting-refugee-families/
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Families are taken into custody as push to deport immigrants denied refuge begins
By Nigel Duara and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
January 3, 2016
The detentions of at least 11 families across the country marked the first day of an effort by the government to find and deport Central American migrants who sought refuge in the U.S. and stayed illegally, immigrant advocates said Saturday.
Unlike a string of immigration raids in the mid-2000s, agents do not plan to conduct workplace raids or other mass enforcement actions, but will instead target addresses for families with deportation orders.
In Norcross, Ga., on Saturday, Joanna Gutierrez said her niece and niece's 9-year-old son were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrived in an unmarked car and presented Gutierrez with a warrant for a man she didn't know.
Gutierrez says she told the agents they needed a warrant to enter her home. They told her they didn't, she says, and walked inside, checking every room in the house and waking her children. "They were shaking from fear," Gutierrez said of the children in a phone interview Saturday night.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-ff-immigration-raids-20160103-story.html
January 3, 2016
The detentions of at least 11 families across the country marked the first day of an effort by the government to find and deport Central American migrants who sought refuge in the U.S. and stayed illegally, immigrant advocates said Saturday.
Unlike a string of immigration raids in the mid-2000s, agents do not plan to conduct workplace raids or other mass enforcement actions, but will instead target addresses for families with deportation orders.
In Norcross, Ga., on Saturday, Joanna Gutierrez said her niece and niece's 9-year-old son were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrived in an unmarked car and presented Gutierrez with a warrant for a man she didn't know.
Gutierrez says she told the agents they needed a warrant to enter her home. They told her they didn't, she says, and walked inside, checking every room in the house and waking her children. "They were shaking from fear," Gutierrez said of the children in a phone interview Saturday night.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-ff-immigration-raids-20160103-story.html
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