The Great Wall of Boeing

The 670-mile physical fence on the 2,000-mile border with Mexico could cost as much as $46.9 billion by 2030, and that's not including the still nonexistent Boeing "virtual fence."

by David L. Wilson, MRzine
September 27, 2008

On September 10 the U.S. government acknowledged that its Secure Border Initiative (SBI) was behind schedule and over budget. Promoted in 2005 as a new way to block unauthorized immigration, the $2.7 billion project was supposed to create a 670-mile physical and "virtual" fence by the end of this year along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

After three years, the government's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has only completed 341 miles of the physical fence -- 187 miles of wire-mesh fencing to stop pedestrians and 154 miles of shorter barriers to block vehicles. The cost for the pedestrian barriers has risen to $7.5 million a mile from earlier estimates of $4 million; the cost for the vehicle barriers has gone up from $2 million to $2.8 million a mile. The physical fence is already $400 million over budget. The "virtual fence" -- SBInet, an electronic monitoring system being constructed by Boeing Co., the giant military contractor -- is now on hold. Its cost so far has been $933 million; the official estimates are that it will cost $8 billion through 2013, and that number may triple, according to the DHS inspector general.

None of this is really news, of course. [...]

Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/wilson270908.html

Latinos Are the Fastest Growing Group in the U.S. Labor Movement

Report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
September 16, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - To mark the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) documents a large wage and benefit advantage for Latino workers in unions relative to their non-union counterparts.

The report, "Unions and Upward Mobility for Latino Workers," found that unionized Latino workers earned, on average, 17.6 percent more than their non-union peers. In addition, Latino workers in unions were much more likely to have health insurance benefits and apension plan.

"Latinos are the fastest growing group in the U.S. labor force and the fastest growing group inside the U.S. labor movement," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study. "The data show that unions make a big difference in wages and benefits for Latino workers."

Read the report:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/latino_union_2008_09.pdf

Justice for Ana Romero

Click the link below to sign a petition demanding a full investigation of the death of Salvadoran immigrant Ana Romero Rivera on August 22 while in immigration detention in Kentucky:

http://www.anaromero.org/

Immigrant Had Been Put in Isolation for Not Eating
Romero's death in jail to be reviewed
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Steve Lannen
Herald-Leader (Lexington, KY), September 24, 2008

Ana Romero Rivera was due to be deported in three to six weeks. Franklin Commonwealth's Attorney Larry Cleveland said Tuesday that he will review the Kentucky State Police investigation into the death of a Salvadoran immigrant at the Franklin County Regional Jail to see whether further action is warranted.

Ana Romero Rivera, 44, was awaiting deportation at the jail when she died Aug. 22. Family members said that she had been placed in isolation for not eating just before her death.

Read the full article:
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/533843.html

Review: Confronting Myths About Immigration

by Orlando Sepulveda, International Socialist Review
Issue 61, September–October 2008

MANY QUESTIONS about immigration politics—the causes and effects of immigration, its economics and so on—have emerged in the national political debate since 2006, when a legislative attempt to criminalize undocumented immigrants met with a massive response that halted the proposed law.

Although some of these questions are legitimate, many are products of racist ideas pushed by well-funded anti-immigrant organizations and passed on by fear-mongering politicians and compliant media pundits. In their quick-read book, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, Jane Guskin and David L.Wilson round up many of these questions and honestly answer them from a strong pro-immigrant position, thus setting the stage to tackle bigger questions about the futility of borders and immigration laws.

Read the full review:
http://www.isreview.org/issues/61/rev-immigration.shtml

INB 9/20/08: California Bakery, Restaurants Raided; Raids in Chicago

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 23 - September 20, 2008

1. Southern California Bakery Raided
2. Northern California Restaurants Raided
3. Chicago Neighborhood Raided, Again
4. “Fugitive” Raids in Chicago Area
5. “Fugitive” Raids in Colorado

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com; http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.

*1. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BAKERY RAIDED
On Sept. 10, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided the Palm Springs Baking Company in Palm Springs, California, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at the bakery and arrested 51 workers on administrative immigration violations. More than 60 officials from ICE and the federal Food and Drug Administration participated in the raid. Agents arrived in 10 passenger vans, blocking driveways and doors to prevent workers from leaving. [...]

Read the full INB:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/09/inb-92008-california-bakery-restaurants.html

Has ICE Abandoned Its Practice of Staying Out of Labor Disputes?

Workers Suffering Wage and Hour and Other Violations Are Increasingly Targeted for Immigration Enforcement

National Wage & Hour Clearinghouse Special Report
A periodic update on wage and hour trends
September, 2008

[Note to readers: Consider signing up for the National Wage & Hour Clearinghouse, at www.just-pay.org, where you can receive periodic reports and news on leading fair pay issues and participate in a listserv with other worker advocates working on wage theft and related issues.]

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)'s Office of Field Operations issued a revised operating instruction (OI) 287.3a on December 20, 1996, instructing its investigators to inquire about any ongoing employment disputes when they received information concerning the employment of an undocumented person. The OI specified that the investigator was required to receive approval from a Director before continuing an investigation, where it appeared that the Department was being used to interfere with workers exerting their employment and labor rights. The OI has been re-designated as 33.14(h) of the Special Agent Field Manual as of April 28, 2000 and it has not been officially rescinded.[1]

It should come as no surprise that in workplaces with rampant labor and employment violations, there are workers afraid to come forward and complain of those violations. This dynamic was the fundamental reason for the OI to begin with: without willing witnesses to the labor standards violations, the unpaid wages and unsafe conditions would continue. INS (now ICE) pledged to refrain from enforcing its laws in workplaces where labor standards were at issue.

Recently, ICE has conducted several high-profile workplace raids around the country that have been connected to a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) or other agency investigation of the work site. The most troubling example was the raid on a kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville, Iowa on May 12, 2008.[2] In that raid, ICE arrested 389 undocumented workers in what was at the time the largest enforcement operation in a single workplace. There have been several reports that prior to the ICE raid, the Iowa Division of Labor Services, Iowa's OSHA office, the DOL, and the EEOC were investigating the plant for wage and hour, child labor, health and safety, and sexual harassment allegations.[3] In addition, Mark Lauritsen, international vice-president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), sent a letter to ICE on May 2, 2008 advising officials of an ongoing organizing campaign at the plant. Lauritsen informed ICE, "the federal and Iowa Departments of Labor (DOL) are currently in the middle of an investigation of Agriprocessors' facilities in Postville, Iowa, in order to uncover possible labor violations. The UFCW has also had an ongoing organizing campaign at Agriprocessors which began in 2006 and continues today. Any potential ICE action could not only have a chilling effect over the existing workforce which has reported some of Agriprocessors' violations in the past, but ICE action could also result in employees leaving the plant, thereby interfering with DOL's investigation that could ultimately uncover unscrupulous employer acts."[4]

Finally, and perhaps most troubling, ICE acknowledges the vulnerability of undocumented workers to exploitation, the reasoning behind the OI, in its own Application and Affidavit for Search Warrant allowing it to conduct the raid. "Those who knowingly employ or supervise illegal aliens, knowing their unlawful status, are able to exploit illegal aliens because illegal alien are unlikely to contact authorities for fear they will be arrested and/or deported."[5] ICE goes on to cite newspaper articles detailing employee abuse at Agriprocessors and a civil lawsuit on behalf of twenty Agriprocessor workers alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act as further justification for its right to a search warrant to conduct its raid of the plant.[6] Instead of following the OI and allowing the labor standards investigations and organizing to continue, ICE swept into the plant, arrested hundreds of workers, and charged them with aggravated identity theft prompting the New York Times to declare, "This is enforcement run amok."[7]

Prior to the Agriprocessors raid, in Chicago, Illinois, on November 2, 2007, ICE raided O'Hare Airport and arrested 20 workers employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions, Inc. The workers were charged with fraudulently using airport security badges and many were placed in deportation proceedings. In its press release following the raid, ICE stated that it was assisted in its investigation by the DOL's Office of the Inspector General.[8] Following the raid, Working Hands Legal Clinic filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten workers, including some of the workers arrested in the raid, claiming unpaid minimum and overtime wages. The lawsuit was filed against Ideal Staffing Solutions, Inc., as well as eight other companies, including several airlines.[9]

It also appears ICE violated the OI last December when conducting an I-9 audit of Fresh Direct, a high-end on-line grocery service based in Long Island City, New York. Two unions, the UFCW Local 348 and Teamsters Local 805 were in the middle of an organizing drive of the company's 900 warehouse workers when ICE informed the company of the impending audit.[10] The workers were scheduled to vote on December 22 and 23 on whether to affiliate with the UFCW or the Teamsters. Fresh Direct informed the workers that ICE planned to inspect their employment records on December 9 and 10 and asked the workers to update their files with information proving work eligibility.[11] Over a hundred workers disappeared shortly after receiving the company memo and the union election was unsuccessful. UFCW informed NELP that it had contacted ICE weeks prior to the election and asked that it refrain or at least postpone the audit until after the elections. The request was ignored.

Particularly troubling about the Postville and Chicago raids and the Long Island City audit was the fact that ICE was aware or should have been aware that an employment dispute or organizing campaign was underway in the workplaces where they conducted its enforcement actions. Even worse are ICE's public statements about collaborating with DOL and other enforcement agencies prior to conducting its raids.

Is this a lazy ICE trolling the newswires and courthouses for any mention of immigrant workers recovering unpaid wages, or is it more cynically a defiant flouting of the OI and its underpinning policy to enforce both labor standards and immigration laws? Either way, it sets up a system where workers are taught that ICE will appear if you stand up for your rights, and where employers are rewarded for seeking out and hiring undocumented workers who will be removed if they speak up about workplace conditions.

As we continue to monitor this situation and represent immigrant victims who wish to vindicate their employment rights, it is important that employment and labor attorneys speak out about these injustices to prevent them from continuing. We also must partner with immigration attorneys who can help our clients adjust their immigration status in this country. Some of the Postville victims are applying for U-Visas, which allow victims of certain crimes who can be helpful in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity to live and work lawfully in the United States. A growing body of plaintiffs'employment attorneys are educating themselves about these potentially useful protections that can help after the fact. Contact Rebecca Smith, rsmith@nelp.org, atNELP for more information.

This report was prepared for NELP by Hillary Ronen, Staff Attorney, La Raza Centro Legal, September 2008.
________________________________
[1] Request a copy of the OI.
[2] See ICE press release about the Postville raid: http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/080512cedarrapids.htm
[3] See series of articles by Julia Preston in the New York Times:After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries, July 27, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=postville%20julia&st=cse&oref=slogin#; Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant, July 28, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28immig.html?scp=6&sq=postville%20julia&st=cse; Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant, August 6, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28immig.html?scp=6&sq=postville%20julia&st=cse. Also see Criminal Investigation into Iowa Company Targeted by ICE,Wendy Feliz Sefsaf, July 11, 2008, New America Media, http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=6284daf3719c69e37da42cd08a40a90d.
[4] Letter from Mark D. Lauritsen to ICE dated May 2, 2008 (on file with NELP)
[5] ICE's Application and Affidavit for Search Warrant found at http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/ice_application.pdf and http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/D2108536515.PDF
[6] Id.at paragraphs 104-109.
[7] 'The Jungle,' Again, New York Times Editorial, August 1, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01fri1.html?scp=2&sq=postville%20editorial&st=cse. For more information about the "kangaroo trials" set-up in order topush the Agriprocessor workers into accepting guilty please, also seeInterpreting After the Largest ICE Raid in US History: A PersonalAccount, Erik Camayd-Freixas, June 13, 2008, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/14/opinion/14ed-camayd.pdf.Camayd-Freixas was an interpreter at the hearings for the close to 300 workers detained and charged with "aggravated identity theft" conducted in "emergency courtrooms" set up in the National Cattle Congress, a fairground in Waterloo, IA. Magistrate judges took guiltypleas from immigrants in groups of 10, then sentenced the immigrants immediately, five at a time. Although many of the workers did not know what a social security card was, they pled to a lesser charge of "knowingly using a false Social Security number" in order to serve 5months in jail followed by immediate deportation instead of waiting 6 to 8 months in jail for a trial on the "aggravated identity theft" charges which would nonetheless end in deportation. ICE prosecutors said the blanket plea agreement was directed from the DOJ inWashington and that they were not authorized to make any case by case exceptions so as not to interfere with the fast-tracking. Also see Immigrants' Speedy Trials After Raid Becomes an Issue, Julia Preston, August 8, 2008, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/09immig.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Postville%20raid&st=cse&scp=16.
[8] See ICE Press Release about the Chicago raid: http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/071107chicago.htm
[9] Immigrant Workers Sue Employment Agency Over Unpaid Wages, VanessaBauza, July 17, 2008, Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-immig_suitjul18,0,2667590.story
[10] Groceries on the Computer and Immigrants in the Cold, NinaBernstein, December 22, 2007, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/nyregion/22fresh.html?pagewanted=1.
[11] Warehouse Workers Quit in Immigration Inquiry, Nina Bernstein,December 13, 2007, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/nyregion/13fresh.html?fta=y.

Sept. 25: Night of 1,000 Conversations

Engage friends, family, and neighbors in discussions around the Hold Department of Homeland Security Accountable campaign.

Host a Conversation
Hosting a Conversation is easy and fun.

Step 1: Register your Conversation.
Step 2: Download the "Night of 1,000 Conversations Toolkit."
Step 3: Get ready for your Conversation.
Invite family and friends to your house or another meeting place.Use stories, RWG factsheets, or other conversations starters togenerate discussion.Join a Preparatory Conference Call with RWG staff to get tips and ask questions.
Step 4: Have your Conversation.
Have your participants talk about their personal experiences.
Step 5: Send us your feedback.
Have fun. Keep it simple. Use dialogue to create change.

CONVERSATION STARTERS
RWG Fact Sheets
RWG Fact Sheet on Raids (Spanish)
RWG Fact Sheet on Detention & Due Process (Spanish)
RWG Fact Sheet on Naturalization Backlogs (Spanish)

Videos / Games
Death By Detention Youtube video from Breakthrough
Swift Raids Video United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
ICED, a video game by Breakthrough

News Articles
Immigration Enforcement: Raiding Children's Dreams (The Huffington Post)
The Politics Driving Mississippi's ICE Raids (New America Media)
Immigration Detention: The Case for Abolition (The Huffington Post)I
ll and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands (New York Times)
Justice Detained (KoreAm Journal)
System of Neglect; As Tighter Immigration Policies Strain Federal Agencies, the Detainees in Their Care Often Pay a Heavy Cost (Washington Post)
The Name Game; The FBI's incompetence is punishing immigrants who playby the rules (Washington Post)
Some Immigrants Face Long Waits to Become U.S. Citizens (Kansas City InfoZine)

Read more:
http://nightof1000conversations.org/host/