By Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker
December 19, 2016
One night late last month, Antonio Alarcón, a twenty-two-year-old senior at cuny, came home to the apartment he shares with his uncle and aunt, who are undocumented, and found a pile of boxes and bags stacked by the door. “We want to be prepared,” they told him, in case immigration authorities raided the residence. Then they all sat down to eat dinner.
Many immigrant families have been living in similar states of anxiety since the Presidential election. Donald Trump has vowed to deport undocumented immigrants en masse, and no one knows what will happen after he is sworn in next month. “We’re expecting the worst,” Alarcón told me recently, when we met at a café near his house, in Queens. Dealing with so much uncertainty about the future has had both psychological and physical consequences, particularly for young people. Suicide hotlines catering to immigrants have reported significant upticks in phone calls in the past few weeks. There have been widespread reports of depression and heightened stress among young immigrants. “We always get lost in the politics of the election,” Luba Cortés, an organizer from Queens, told me. “We don’t think about the emotional toll on the people who are going to be most affected.” According to Julie Linton, the co-chair of a group that specializes in immigrant health at the American Academy of Pediatrics, “There have been complaints from young patients about stomachaches and headaches, body aches and joint pain. Kids are depressed. Some are having trouble focussing in school.”[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/undocumented-immigrants-brace-for-the-trump-administration
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Friday, January 6, 2017
Deportation Profits
El Salvador’s call-center industry is profiting off US deportees.
by Hilary Goodfriend, Jacobin
December 16, 2016
I had chosen a Mr. Donut café in San Salvador to meet Raúl. An agent in El Salvador’s burgeoning call-center industry, Raúl had been a member of the so-called 1.5 Generation of immigrants who were born abroad but spent their formative years in the United States, before he was deported. The donut shop sits in the shadow of the iconic Salvador del Mundo monument, now dwarfed by several towering call centers. That day, they were giving out two-for-one donuts to celebrate Civic Month, which marks the country’s independence from the Spanish Crown, in a deal that has become a patriotic ritual in El Salvador.
Raúl was taken off guard by the festival of patriotic gluttony. Like mine, Raul’s civic education had taken place elsewhere. In effortless English, he tells me, “Growing up pledging allegiance to the American flag, it sinks into you . . . To this day, for example, I hear the national anthem at a football game, I’m not gonna lie, I get teary-eyed. I mean, when I hear the Salvadorian national anthem it’s like, okay.”
He laughs and shrugs his shoulders. “I mean, it’s my country, I know I’m born here, but my life has been over there.”[...]
Read the full article:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/migration-deportation-outsourcing-undocumented-el-salvador/
by Hilary Goodfriend, Jacobin
December 16, 2016
I had chosen a Mr. Donut café in San Salvador to meet Raúl. An agent in El Salvador’s burgeoning call-center industry, Raúl had been a member of the so-called 1.5 Generation of immigrants who were born abroad but spent their formative years in the United States, before he was deported. The donut shop sits in the shadow of the iconic Salvador del Mundo monument, now dwarfed by several towering call centers. That day, they were giving out two-for-one donuts to celebrate Civic Month, which marks the country’s independence from the Spanish Crown, in a deal that has become a patriotic ritual in El Salvador.
Raúl was taken off guard by the festival of patriotic gluttony. Like mine, Raul’s civic education had taken place elsewhere. In effortless English, he tells me, “Growing up pledging allegiance to the American flag, it sinks into you . . . To this day, for example, I hear the national anthem at a football game, I’m not gonna lie, I get teary-eyed. I mean, when I hear the Salvadorian national anthem it’s like, okay.”
He laughs and shrugs his shoulders. “I mean, it’s my country, I know I’m born here, but my life has been over there.”[...]
Read the full article:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/migration-deportation-outsourcing-undocumented-el-salvador/
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Prosecutions of illegal entry a driving force in mass incarceration in US – report
Mexican nationals account for 15% of federal prison population as illegal entry prosecutions make up half of all criminal cases in US federal court system in 2015
By Renée Feltz, The Guardian
July 14, 2016
The Obama administration’s prosecution of immigrants who cross the border into the US is a driving force in mass incarceration, according to a new report.
Cases against immigrants for having illegally entered the country, known as illegal entry and re-entry, accounted for half of all criminal cases in the US federal court system last year, a report from Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership found. Non-citizens currently make up nearly a quarter of the total federal prison population, with Mexican nationals alone accounting for 15%.
Now several US judges who sentenced thousands of immigrants say the zero-tolerance policy for such cases they helped enforce was ineffective and should end.
“The only thing we have done is destroyed the lives of many people whose only crime is a desire to exercise their human rights to feed and care for themselves and their families,” said retired judge Felix Recio, who served as a federal magistrate from 1999 to 2013 in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Matamoros, Mexico.
Recio is one of five retired federal judges, along with former prosecutors and public defenders from border districts in Texas and Arizona, who are featured in the report that critically examines a decade-old immigration enforcement initiative called “Operation Streamline”.[...]
Read the full article:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/14/immigrants-illegal-entry-us-mexico-prosecution-prisons-report
Read the full report:
http://grassrootsleadership.org/reports/indefensible-decade-mass-incarceration-migrants-prosecuted-crossing-border
By Renée Feltz, The Guardian
July 14, 2016
The Obama administration’s prosecution of immigrants who cross the border into the US is a driving force in mass incarceration, according to a new report.
Cases against immigrants for having illegally entered the country, known as illegal entry and re-entry, accounted for half of all criminal cases in the US federal court system last year, a report from Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership found. Non-citizens currently make up nearly a quarter of the total federal prison population, with Mexican nationals alone accounting for 15%.
Now several US judges who sentenced thousands of immigrants say the zero-tolerance policy for such cases they helped enforce was ineffective and should end.
“The only thing we have done is destroyed the lives of many people whose only crime is a desire to exercise their human rights to feed and care for themselves and their families,” said retired judge Felix Recio, who served as a federal magistrate from 1999 to 2013 in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Matamoros, Mexico.
Recio is one of five retired federal judges, along with former prosecutors and public defenders from border districts in Texas and Arizona, who are featured in the report that critically examines a decade-old immigration enforcement initiative called “Operation Streamline”.[...]
Read the full article:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/14/immigrants-illegal-entry-us-mexico-prosecution-prisons-report
Read the full report:
http://grassrootsleadership.org/reports/indefensible-decade-mass-incarceration-migrants-prosecuted-crossing-border
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Santuario/“Sanctuary”
Santuario
Teníamos fe, y además, entendíamos que nuestra seguridad dependía del grado que el mismo pueblo podría educarse y movilizarse. Cada día en que marchábamos, manifestábamos o dábamos testimonio, cada día que pasábamos en el santuario, supimos que estábamos frenando la deportación de algún joven y la separación de una cariñosa familia.
Por Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
9 de diciembre, 2016
Como se empieza a conversar del asunto de “santuario” en la nación entera – ciudades, universidades, y iglesias como santuarios – me parece oportuno aclarar lo que es el santuario en este caso, y lo que no lo es. Cuando, en 2006, entré en el santuario con mi hijo Saúl, un ciudadano de los Estados Unidos, lo hicimos en una forma totalmente pública, abierta. Entre la gente se hablaba si era cierto que una iglesia, en realidad, podría ofrecer, por medio del santuario, alguna protección legal, como era el caso hace siglos atrás. La respuesta es que no. A mí me fue posible permanecer en el durante todo un año porque razón de que el público apoyaba el derecho de mi hijo de permanecer en su país natal, y su necesidad de tener su madre consigo.
En 2002 habíamos iniciado la organización “la Familia Latina” con 20 familias de padres indocumentados y madres indocumentadas con hijos e hijas que gozaban de la ciudadanía estadounidense. Durante los próximos años pudimos dar testimonio en audiencias del consejo municipal de Chicago, la mesa directiva del condado y la legislatura del estado de Illinois.[...]
“Sanctuary”
We had faith – and we understood that our safety lay in educating and mobilizing the people. Every time we marched or protested or testified, every day we spent in sanctuary, we knew we were stopping the deportation of some young person and the separation of a loving family.
By Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
December 9, 2016
As the talk around the nation turns to sanctuary – sanctuary cities, sanctuary universities and sanctuary churches – it seems a good time to clarify what sanctuary is – and isn’t. When I went into sanctuary in 2006 with my U.S. citizen son Saul we were very public. Many people were discussing whether or not a church could actually offer some legal protection – as churches once did centuries ago. The answer is no. I was able to stay in sanctuary for a year because of popular support for my son’s right as a citizen to stay in this country and his need to have his mother with him.
We had begun in 2002 with thirty undocumented families with U.S. citizen children, forming Familia Latina Unida. Over the next years we testified in the city council, the county board and the state legislature.[...]
Lea el artículo completo/read the full article:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/aNm-xuDhlpY
Teníamos fe, y además, entendíamos que nuestra seguridad dependía del grado que el mismo pueblo podría educarse y movilizarse. Cada día en que marchábamos, manifestábamos o dábamos testimonio, cada día que pasábamos en el santuario, supimos que estábamos frenando la deportación de algún joven y la separación de una cariñosa familia.
Por Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
9 de diciembre, 2016
Como se empieza a conversar del asunto de “santuario” en la nación entera – ciudades, universidades, y iglesias como santuarios – me parece oportuno aclarar lo que es el santuario en este caso, y lo que no lo es. Cuando, en 2006, entré en el santuario con mi hijo Saúl, un ciudadano de los Estados Unidos, lo hicimos en una forma totalmente pública, abierta. Entre la gente se hablaba si era cierto que una iglesia, en realidad, podría ofrecer, por medio del santuario, alguna protección legal, como era el caso hace siglos atrás. La respuesta es que no. A mí me fue posible permanecer en el durante todo un año porque razón de que el público apoyaba el derecho de mi hijo de permanecer en su país natal, y su necesidad de tener su madre consigo.
En 2002 habíamos iniciado la organización “la Familia Latina” con 20 familias de padres indocumentados y madres indocumentadas con hijos e hijas que gozaban de la ciudadanía estadounidense. Durante los próximos años pudimos dar testimonio en audiencias del consejo municipal de Chicago, la mesa directiva del condado y la legislatura del estado de Illinois.[...]
“Sanctuary”
We had faith – and we understood that our safety lay in educating and mobilizing the people. Every time we marched or protested or testified, every day we spent in sanctuary, we knew we were stopping the deportation of some young person and the separation of a loving family.
By Elvira Arellano, Familias Unidas
December 9, 2016
As the talk around the nation turns to sanctuary – sanctuary cities, sanctuary universities and sanctuary churches – it seems a good time to clarify what sanctuary is – and isn’t. When I went into sanctuary in 2006 with my U.S. citizen son Saul we were very public. Many people were discussing whether or not a church could actually offer some legal protection – as churches once did centuries ago. The answer is no. I was able to stay in sanctuary for a year because of popular support for my son’s right as a citizen to stay in this country and his need to have his mother with him.
We had begun in 2002 with thirty undocumented families with U.S. citizen children, forming Familia Latina Unida. Over the next years we testified in the city council, the county board and the state legislature.[...]
Lea el artículo completo/read the full article:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sanctuarymovement/aNm-xuDhlpY
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Penn, Trump's alma mater, becomes sanctuary campus for undocumented students
Efforts to support undocumented students are growing nationwide.
By Rebecca Heilweil, Philadelphia Inquirer
December 1, 2016
The University of Pennsylvania will not allow federal immigration authorities on campus unless they have a warrant, the university's president, Amy Gutmann, said in an email to undergraduates Wednesday.
"The University of Pennsylvania will not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) / Customs and Border Protection (CBP) / U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on our campus unless required by warrant," the email said. "Further, the university will not share any information about any undocumented student with these agencies unless presented with valid legal process."
Penn also endorsed Philadelphia's practice of barring city and campus police from honoring detainer requests from ICE for nonviolent offenders.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20161201_UPenn__Donald_Trump_s_alma_mater__becomes_sanctuary_campus_for_undocumented_students.html
By Rebecca Heilweil, Philadelphia Inquirer
December 1, 2016
The University of Pennsylvania will not allow federal immigration authorities on campus unless they have a warrant, the university's president, Amy Gutmann, said in an email to undergraduates Wednesday.
"The University of Pennsylvania will not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) / Customs and Border Protection (CBP) / U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on our campus unless required by warrant," the email said. "Further, the university will not share any information about any undocumented student with these agencies unless presented with valid legal process."
Penn also endorsed Philadelphia's practice of barring city and campus police from honoring detainer requests from ICE for nonviolent offenders.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20161201_UPenn__Donald_Trump_s_alma_mater__becomes_sanctuary_campus_for_undocumented_students.html
Monday, January 2, 2017
Punishing Employers Who Hire Undocumented Immigrants Isn’t the Answer—Solidarity Is
Some nativist and rightwing organizations argue that sanctions were never enforced because employers didn't go to jail, as Malone proposes. Actually, a few did for document fraud, and others did pay fines. But many more workers were fired for not having papers, so workers were the ones who paid the price.
By David Bacon, Working In These Times
November 30, 2016
The following was written in response to a previous post.
It is clear in the article that its author, Buzz Malone, feels he is defending the interests of workers against employers. The article's thrust, however, calls for the enforcement of employer sanctions—punishing employers for hiring undocumented workers. I'm writing this letter because, with the election of Donald Trump on the most overtly anti-immigrant platform in decades, the proposals in this article present a greater danger than they would at any other time. In many ways they line up with the kind of immigration enforcement we can expect from the Trump administration.
Malone misstates the history of the kind of proposal he is making, so I'd like to set the historical record straight.[...]
Read the full article:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19680/punishing_employers_who_hire_undocumented_immigrants_isnt_the_answersolidar
By David Bacon, Working In These Times
November 30, 2016
The following was written in response to a previous post.
It is clear in the article that its author, Buzz Malone, feels he is defending the interests of workers against employers. The article's thrust, however, calls for the enforcement of employer sanctions—punishing employers for hiring undocumented workers. I'm writing this letter because, with the election of Donald Trump on the most overtly anti-immigrant platform in decades, the proposals in this article present a greater danger than they would at any other time. In many ways they line up with the kind of immigration enforcement we can expect from the Trump administration.
Malone misstates the history of the kind of proposal he is making, so I'd like to set the historical record straight.[...]
Read the full article:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19680/punishing_employers_who_hire_undocumented_immigrants_isnt_the_answersolidar
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Trump Has Not ‘Softened’ His War On Immigrants
We should anticipate that his administration will unleash a deportation regime unprecedented in recent U.S. history.
By Bob Libal and Judy Greene, Huffington Post
November 23, 2016
Last week’s “60 Minute” interview with president elect Donald Trump prompted headlines suggesting that he might be “softening” his immigration stance, compared to his extreme campaign proposal to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. The media have it wrong.
Those of us who have worked to promote sensible and humane policies for decades are bracing for what may very well be an all-out war on immigrants of unprecedented scope and intensity.
Some news reports have offered an unjustifiably charitable interpretation of Mr. Trump’s recent statement to suggest that he is becoming more “targeted.” This view was based on a few short statements where he described vague plans to immediately deport or incarcerate those with “criminal records ? gang members, drug dealers, probably 2 million, it could even be 3 million” that are “here illegally.” Mr. Trump’s numbers are wrong, and his vision is anything but “soft.” In fact, it is terrifying.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-has-not-softened-his-war-on-immigrants_us_5834753ee4b050dfe61876a1
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