Book announcement: The Politics of Immigration, 2nd Edition

By Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson

Monthly Review Press 

Publication date: May 22, 2017

372 pages | $24, paper

978-1-58367-636-3

“Brilliantly interrogates this urgent subject that defines our time. This concise volume—ideal for students and the general public—presents a wealth of data in lively and engaging prose that ultimately explores who is an American and what is America. Read this book now!”

—Ron Hayduk, San Francisco State University

Praise for the first edition of The Politics of Immigration:

“We desperately need to put aside false information about immigrants, to see them as we see ourselves with honesty and compassion. This book gives powerful meaning to the slogan ‘No Human Being is Illegal.’ I hope it will be widely read.”

—Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States

Immigration has been the subject of furious debates in the United States for decades. On one side, politicians and the media talk about aliens and criminals, with calls to “deport them all.” On the other side, some advocates idealize immigrants and gloss over problems associated with immigration. But what does it mean to be “illegal”? How do immigration raids, prisons, and border walls impact communities? Who suffers and who profits from our current system—and what would happen if we transformed it?

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers goes beyond soundbites to tackle these concerns in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. For immigrants and supporters, the book is a useful tool to confront stereotypes and disinformation. For those who are undecided about immigration, it lays out the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion. Ideal for classroom use, this updated and expanded edition provides a succinct overview of U.S. immigration history, policy, and practice, with detailed notes guiding readers toward further exploration.

MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS

to order, contact: Monthly Review Press, monthlyreview.org

t: (212) 691-2555 | email: press@monthlyreview.org

White House Seeks Pretext for Deporting Haitians

The 2010 earthquake. Photo: Tequila Minsky/NY Times

Some 50,000 Haitians have been able to live legally in the United States since 2010 under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a special immigration status granted after a massive earthquake struck southern Haiti that year. The Trump administration plans to end TPS for Haitians starting in 2018, and now it’s looking for an excuse. Since there’s no evidence that conditions have improved in Haiti—which would provide a rationale for terminating TPS—the Department of Homeland Security is turning to classic racist and xenophobic stereotypes. Department employees have been instructed to look for evidence that Haitians covered by TPS are committing crimes and/or living on welfare.

Ironically, some Haitian Americans supported Donald Trump during his 2016 election. Now they seem surprised that his rightwing administration wants to deport African-descended immigrants.—TPOI editor

AP Exclusive: US digs for evidence of Haiti immigrant crimes

Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press

May 9, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Trump administration weighs extending humanitarian protections for thousands of Haitian immigrants, officials are digging for unusual information: How many have been convicted of crimes.

Internal emails obtained by The Associated Press show a top immigration official wanted not only crime data on Haitians who are protected from deportation under the Temporary Protected Status program, but also how many were receiving public benefits. Such immigrants aren’t eligible for welfare benefits.

Roughly 50,000 Haitians have been allowed to live in the U.S. under the program in the aftermath of a 2010 earthquake, and the questions about misdeeds among them comes at a critical moment. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly must decide soon whether to continue protecting the group from deportation.[…]

Read the full article:

https://apnews.com/740ed5b40ce84bb398c82c48884be616

A Harrowing Turning Point for Haitian Immigrants

By Edwidge Danticat, New Yorker

May 12, 2017

D.—he asked that I not use his name—moved to the United States from Haiti with his parents in 2001, when he was nine years old. They travelled from Port-au-Prince on tourist visas, and then stayed beyond the authorized time period because of political instability in Haiti. D. attended school in Miami.

In high school he played football and had a 4.1 G.P.A. He completed all of his coursework, including all the Advanced Placement classes offered at his school, by the end of his junior year, and graduated in the top three per cent of his class. He applied and was accepted to Florida Memorial University in 2009, hoping to study engineering, but because he was undocumented he did not qualify for the full-ride scholarship he was offered. He tried other schools, including the local community college, but did not qualify for loans or in-state tuition. Instead, D. saved up for a paralegal-certificate course by working as a parking attendant at a Miami Beach hotel during the day, then at the hotel’s front desk at night. He studied and wrote papers during his night shifts. “It was like having two and a half jobs,” he told me recently. “I was only sleeping every other day. People kept telling me, ‘You’re so bright, why aren’t you in college?’ They didn’t realize that I wanted more than anything to go to college. I just didn’t have the opportunity.”[…]

Read the full article:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-harrowing-turning-point-for-haitian-immigrants

Mother’s Day in an ICE Detention Center

“I thought that entering this country, which had always been my dream, was always going to be an unforgettable day.... It was. But it was the saddest and ugliest day I could have imagined.”

By Sharon Lerner, The Intercept

May 14, 2017

The woman arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border with her daughter in late April. “From what I had heard about the U.S., it was supposed to be a country that practices showing love to their fellow man. But what I have experienced with my daughter was horrible,” she wrote a few days later, after she was transferred from Border Patrol custody to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

An official took me who humiliated me, throwing all of my things into the trash, even the medicines of my daughter and the food that, with much work, I had brought. When I walked in to give my declaration the officials laughed at me because I arrived wet and with mud up to my abdomen. I asked them to please allow me to change my daughter’s clothes, but they wouldn’t let me. … We were still wet with mud. My sadness was that my daughter was shaking from the cold, wet and thirsty. But they would not give us water or food.

The letter was one of 22 I received from women who had crossed into the United States in recent weeks and were awaiting asylum hearings at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.[…]

Read the full article:

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/14/mothers-day-in-an-ice-detention-center/

“Politics of Immigration” News: Excerpts, Dialogues, and a Chronology

The second edition of The Politics of Immigration is due out in a little more than a week, but we’ve already started facilitating events and making additions to our blog and our website.

We’re now occasionally posting excerpts from the book which seem especially relevant to breaking news stories. The postings so far have dealt with “What Trump Doesn’t Get About MS-13,” “How Much Would Trump’s Wall Really Cost?” and “What’s Up With the Kushners and the EB-5 Visa?”

We’ve also just facilitated our first two immigration dialogues for the Trump era. These were both held on May 10 at Bard High School Early College Manhattan, where the students organized a teach-in around the theme of “civic engagement.” We’ve facilitated about three dozen dialogues and other events since the publication of the first edition, and we look forward to doing many more in the coming months. Please contact us if you’re interested in hosting one.

Today we’ve enhanced the website with the new edition’s “Immigration and the Law: A Chronology.” In addition to the material in the book, the web version has hyperlinks to the texts of the laws and court decisions. We can also update it as new legal issues arise, and we can make improvements and add material. We welcome comments from readers who feel that something should be added or that we’ve got something wrong. Write us at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.

And if you’re going to Left Forum in New York the weekend of June 2, be sure to check out our panel, “Immigrant Rights in 2017: Crisis and Opportunity?” More information to follow.

Immigrants at Ellis Island, 1902

AFL-CIO Issues Toolkit on Workplace Raids

The AFL-CIO has produced a useful toolkit to help workers and union officials prepare for immigration raids at the workplace and for I-9 “silent raids.” As the authors point out, the two types of raid have a way of happening when a company’s workers are organizing; technically the government is committed to holding back in these cases, but the reality is often different. Note: the toolkit describes conventional, strictly legal approaches to resisting the raids, not more the militant responses we see with groups like the Tom Cat Bakery workers.--TPOI editor.

We Will Defend and Resist

AFL-CIO, May 9, 2017

 

Too often, workplace raids and audits are used as cover to suppress the rights of working people who speak up for safe, just and dignified working conditions. Below are many of the materials and tools we developed to prepare for, and resist, the unjust workplace raids and audits that undermine the rights of all workers.

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Frequently Asked Questions About I-9 Audits

III. What Are the Steps in an I-9 Audit?

IV. What Happens if an I-9 Audit Occurs While Workers Are Exercising Their Rights?

V. Guidance on the I-9 Process for Organizers and Advocates

VI. Frequently Asked Questions About Workplace Raids

VII. Preparing for a Possible Workplace Raid

VIII. Guidance on Social Security Administration "No-Match" Letters

IX. Sample Union Contract Language on Immigration Protections

X. Appendices

XI. Special Thanks

Read selections from the toolkit online:

https://aflcio.org/reports/we-will-defend-and-resist

Order the full toolkit:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/defend-and-resist-workplace-raid-and-action-toolkit

Recommendation: The Immigration Action Bulletin

Since late January Aaron Bobrow-Strain, an associate professor at Whitman College in Washington state, has been circulating a weekly bulletin with a roundup of immigration news,  action alerts, and background on immigration issues. The Immigration Action Bulletin has provided useful information and in-depth analysis on a host of important issues, including the “So-Called Border Security Order,” the “Invention of Illegal Immigration,” and “How Current and Proposed Immigration Enforcement Policies Undermine Public Safety and Encourage Criminals.”  It already has nearly 700 subscribers, and we strongly recommend it to Politics of Immigration readers. You can subscribe here. See the brief excerpt below.

Immigration Action Bulletin

Number 14, May 7, 2017

Welcome to the “Immigration Detention 101” edition of the Bulletin.

The detainees of the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington, are on hunger strike. Again. Their demands are basic and unadorned: better food and hygiene; an end to the $1-a-day labor program; and a solution for procedural backlogs that leave some detainees incarcerated for years awaiting the outcome of their legal cases.  For compelling video testimonies from within the NWDC hunger strike movement, click here.

While conducting research on the use of psychotropic drugs on immigrant detainees, Andrea Berg met Noemi, a 56-year-old pastor who spent almost a year at the NWDC.  Noemi ended up detained after fleeing her home town in Guerrero, Mexico, to seek asylum in the United States.  In Mexico, Noemi and her husbanded had founded an anti-gang youth program.  The work had a profound impact in kids in their home town, but angered local criminals.  Threats, intimidation, and the failure of the Mexican state to protect Noemi and her husband, left them no choice but to flee to the United States.

“If it wasn’t for the violence, the killings, I would stay there,” Noemi told Andrea.[…] 

Read online or subscribe to the bulletin:

http://us15.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=a27b0fff1c5942310a69d1aab&id=c9bed72129

Book Excerpt: What’s Up With the Kushners and the EB-5 Visa?

Over the weekend of May 5 Nicole Kushner Meyer—the sister of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner—was in Beijing seeking Chinese investors for one of the Kushner family’s real estate projects. Meyer made sure the wealthy attendees noticed the Kushners’ connection to the White House and emphasized that investing in the project, a luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, could win them the EB-5 visa, which allows rich foreigners to buy themselves green cards. The Kushner gambit brought media attention to the little-known program, a feature of the immigration system that President Trump seems not to have criticized. But the program’s been around for nearly three decades and has been tainted with corruption from the start. Here’s a description in The Politics of Immigration, Chapter 4, “Yacht People.”

Manhattan, an EB-5 “high unemployment area.” Photo: Shutterstock

The Immigration Reform Act, signed by President George H. W. Bush on November 29, 1990, created a new category of visa for millionaire investors. Up to 10,000 immigrant visas a year were made available under the EB-5 category to anyone investing $1 million into a U.S. business and creating at least ten jobs for U.S. citizens. The investment can be smaller—$500,000—if made in rural or “high unemployment areas.”

“We’ve done a great job on boat people,” Harold Ezell, former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) western regional commissioner, said in 1991. “I see no problem with a few yacht people.” After leaving his INS post in 1989, Ezell began marketing investor visas to wealthy foreigners. Ezell was one of a number of government officials who pushed for the investor visa program, then left for the private sector to reap profits from it, as revealed in a February 2000 Baltimore Sun exposé.

Those profits were boosted when INS deputy general counsel Paul Virtue issued legal opinions in 1993 and 1995 loosening the rules for the investor visas. The controversial rules were reversed in late 1997, and the scandal led the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general to launch an investigation in 1998 into the “appearance of impropriety” in the behavior of high-level government employees. The investigation concluded that Virtue had arranged special access to key agency officials for a private company, American Immigration Services (AIS). The Inspector General’s office closed the case without taking further action in October 1999, and its report was kept secret.

The program started off slowly but grew each year, from 179 visas issued in 2005 to over 3,000 in 2012. In 2014 the number of visas issued reached the 10,000 maximum for the first time, with 9,128 of them going to Chinese nationals. One favorite “high unemployment area” has been Manhattan’s West Side, where some 1,200 Chinese millionaires have invested in the $20 billion Hudson Yards project. The Atlantic noted in 2015 that the project actually “is on the edge of one of the richest neighborhoods in the country.”

[We’re occasionally posting excerpts from the new edition of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, which is due out on May 22. You can pre-order here or from your favorite bookseller.]