by David L. Wilson, Extra!
September/October 2008
Immigrants aren't a crime problem. "The foreign-born commit considerably fewer crimes than the native-born," as President Herbert Hoover's National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement concluded in 1931 (National Lawyers Guild Quarterly, 10/39; Immigration Policy Center, Spring/07). While noncitizens now make up more than 8 percent of the U.S. population, the available evidence indicates that they account for no more than 6 or 7 percent of the people incarcerated for crimes in the United States, less than 170,000 of the 2.3 million inmates currently in our federal, state and local penal systems--not including some 30,000 immigrants in administrative detention on any given day awaiting deportation. (Politics of Immigration, 4/2/08, 5/7/08).
Why, then, do so many people believe in the myth of immigrant criminality?
One reason is the mainstream media's habit of giving inflated estimates for the number of immigrants in prison. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3683
Note: One of the people discussed in the article is Indiana University economist Eric Rasmusen, who was quoted in Time magazine last year as saying that undocumented immigrants commit 21 percent of crimes in the United States. Prof. Rasmusen is back this month with another astonishing claim. He signed on to the Cato Institute's January 28 full-page ad against using job creation and infrastructure maintenance to revive the economy. "Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth," the ad assures us, as if that wasn't what we've been doing for the past 30 years.
For more on Prof. Rasmusen and the immigrant prison population:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/04/undocumented-commit-21-percent-of.html
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Good News from Nashville: Diversity Not Uniformity
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum wrote that "making English the official language of the United States of America is about as urgently called for as making hotdogs the official food at baseball games."
Tom Barry, TransBorder Project
January 23, 2009
"Nashville listened to its leaders—the governor, the mayor, and a vast coalition of churches, businesses, and universities—and defeated an English-only measure by nearly 10,000 votes in Thursday's special election." That's the report from the Tennesseanthe day after the city referendum on an amendment that would have made Nashville the largest city in the nation with an "official English" law.
With financial and logistical support from the Arlington, VA-based ProEnglish, Nashville councilman Eric Crafton founded Nashville English First to spearhead a charter amendment that would have obligated the city government to conduct all government business in English. While the main case for the English-only measure was that it would save the city in translation costs, the issue of identity set the tone of the debate. [...]
Read the full article:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5812
Tom Barry, TransBorder Project
January 23, 2009
"Nashville listened to its leaders—the governor, the mayor, and a vast coalition of churches, businesses, and universities—and defeated an English-only measure by nearly 10,000 votes in Thursday's special election." That's the report from the Tennesseanthe day after the city referendum on an amendment that would have made Nashville the largest city in the nation with an "official English" law.
With financial and logistical support from the Arlington, VA-based ProEnglish, Nashville councilman Eric Crafton founded Nashville English First to spearhead a charter amendment that would have obligated the city government to conduct all government business in English. While the main case for the English-only measure was that it would save the city in translation costs, the issue of identity set the tone of the debate. [...]
Read the full article:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5812
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Costs of Crackdowns
Raids that target undocumented workers increasingly traumatize families left behind.
by Christopher Munsey, Monitor on Psychology
October 2008, Volume 39, No. 9
The growing number of workplace immigration raids is taking a toll on families — particularly those with young children — and psychologists are needed to help them cope with the trauma of abrupt separations, said a panel of psychologists at APA's Annual Convention.
At a session on the impact of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on families and immigrant communities, psychologists shared their own experiences in addressing families' resulting mental health needs. [...]
Read the full article at:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/10/crackdowns.html
by Christopher Munsey, Monitor on Psychology
October 2008, Volume 39, No. 9
The growing number of workplace immigration raids is taking a toll on families — particularly those with young children — and psychologists are needed to help them cope with the trauma of abrupt separations, said a panel of psychologists at APA's Annual Convention.
At a session on the impact of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on families and immigrant communities, psychologists shared their own experiences in addressing families' resulting mental health needs. [...]
Read the full article at:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/10/crackdowns.html
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Why They Hate Immigrant Workers, and Why We Love Them
Many of the organizing victories of the past two decades have been spearheaded by immigrant workers, from the great Justice for Janitors campaigns in Los Angeles and other urban areas to little victories in local restaurants and corner greengrocer stores.
by David L. Wilson, MRzine
January 26, 2009
On Tuesday, December 9, the anti-immigrant lobbyists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held a press conference in downtown Washington, DC to promote their "Immigration Reform Agenda for the 111th Congress."
The press conference followed the new line that groups like FAIR have adopted since the financial crisis broke out last September. Undocumented immigrants "played an important role" in the crisis, FAIR president Dan Stein insisted. "[T]he recent economic downturn" has made the "fiscal cost of immigration . . . even more burdensome to the American taxpayer," FAIR's handout announced, warning that Congress needs to "take special care to protect the American worker by restricting the amount of cheap, foreign labor that is allowed to compete with U.S. workers." [...]
Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/wilson260109.html
by David L. Wilson, MRzine
January 26, 2009
On Tuesday, December 9, the anti-immigrant lobbyists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held a press conference in downtown Washington, DC to promote their "Immigration Reform Agenda for the 111th Congress."
The press conference followed the new line that groups like FAIR have adopted since the financial crisis broke out last September. Undocumented immigrants "played an important role" in the crisis, FAIR president Dan Stein insisted. "[T]he recent economic downturn" has made the "fiscal cost of immigration . . . even more burdensome to the American taxpayer," FAIR's handout announced, warning that Congress needs to "take special care to protect the American worker by restricting the amount of cheap, foreign labor that is allowed to compete with U.S. workers." [...]
Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/wilson260109.html
Monday, January 26, 2009
Contract Awards Increase for All 10 Top DHS Vendors
Boeing got $617,213,996 in contracts for its "virtual fence" on the border during fiscal 2008.
By Jacob Goodwin, Government Security News
January 16th, 2009
The roster of leading suppliers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during fiscal year 2008 seems to have solidified, with seven of the Top 10 companies from last year's list re-appearing on this year's Top 10 list as well.
The corporate faces may be familiar, but their sales successes seem to have swelled in FY2008, with total revenues received by each of the Top 10 positions showing a marked increase over the amount of money the same position took in during the previous year. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/features/news-analysis/1371.html
By Jacob Goodwin, Government Security News
January 16th, 2009
The roster of leading suppliers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during fiscal year 2008 seems to have solidified, with seven of the Top 10 companies from last year's list re-appearing on this year's Top 10 list as well.
The corporate faces may be familiar, but their sales successes seem to have swelled in FY2008, with total revenues received by each of the Top 10 positions showing a marked increase over the amount of money the same position took in during the previous year. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/features/news-analysis/1371.html
Sunday, January 25, 2009
NAFTA Boosted Mexican Immigration: Study
World War 4 Report
January 24, 2009
The largest surge ever in legal and unauthorized Mexican migration to the US began after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, according to sociologist James W. Russell, who studied migration patterns between 1910 and 2008 for his new book, Class and Race Formation in North America (University of Toronto Press, 2009).
In 1990, before NAFTA went into effect, 13.6% of Mexican-origin persons in the three countries of North America—the US, Mexico and Canada—lived in the United States. By 2000, after the entry into force of NAFTA, that percentage jumped to 17.5—the largest ever ten-year increase. [...]
Read the full article:
http://ww4report.com/node/6728
January 24, 2009
The largest surge ever in legal and unauthorized Mexican migration to the US began after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, according to sociologist James W. Russell, who studied migration patterns between 1910 and 2008 for his new book, Class and Race Formation in North America (University of Toronto Press, 2009).
In 1990, before NAFTA went into effect, 13.6% of Mexican-origin persons in the three countries of North America—the US, Mexico and Canada—lived in the United States. By 2000, after the entry into force of NAFTA, that percentage jumped to 17.5—the largest ever ten-year increase. [...]
Read the full article:
http://ww4report.com/node/6728
Friday, January 23, 2009
Immigration Reform Debate Must Regain a Moral Compass
If we have learned anything from the civil rights struggle we are about to commemorate on Martin Luther King, Jr. day, it is that sometimes we have to go against what pundits and pollsters say and simply do what is right.
Roberto Lovato, New America Media
January 15, 2009
NEW YORK — The buzz filling Blackberrys, busy halls and spacious deal-making rooms in Washington appears to signal that spring arrived early this year for immigrants. In the last week alone, several prominent figures—outgoing President Bush, incoming President Obama, Mexican President Calderón, Los Angeles Cardinal Mahoney, to name a few—have discussed the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform. And, as in the previous failed attempts at reform in 2006 and 2007, legalization for the more than 12 million undocumented among us occupies the center of forums, speeches and other public statements of Democratic and civic leaders in the beltway. [...]
Read the full article:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f4c6687549e8418e3343581de62b3ecd
Roberto Lovato, New America Media
January 15, 2009
NEW YORK — The buzz filling Blackberrys, busy halls and spacious deal-making rooms in Washington appears to signal that spring arrived early this year for immigrants. In the last week alone, several prominent figures—outgoing President Bush, incoming President Obama, Mexican President Calderón, Los Angeles Cardinal Mahoney, to name a few—have discussed the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform. And, as in the previous failed attempts at reform in 2006 and 2007, legalization for the more than 12 million undocumented among us occupies the center of forums, speeches and other public statements of Democratic and civic leaders in the beltway. [...]
Read the full article:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f4c6687549e8418e3343581de62b3ecd
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