Article dispels myths of comprehensive immigration reform

by: ragemail

Tue Jan 06, 2009 at 20:58:49 PM EST

Gittleson articulates the gist of his position:

In the article, I identify four of the most prominent and divisive myths. First, That CIR is bad for our national security. Second, that Immigrants cost our country more in social services then they contribute in tax revenue. Third, the CIR is basically just code for amnesty, and that if it passes, it will just make the problem worse, by encouraging increased illegal immigration. And fourth, that because these undocumented immigrants came here illegally, the U.S. has no moral or ethical obligation to legalize their status and allow them to stay.

Support a DREAM at Change.org

by: Duke

Tue Jan 06, 2009 at 14:45:38 PM EST

But for approximately 65,000 of them, these opportunities will never be available. Not because they lack motivation, or achievement, but because of the undocumented status passed on to them by their parents.

Lacking legal status and social security numbers, these students, raised and schooled in the US, cannot apply to college, get jobs other than those at the bottom of the economic ladder, or otherwise follow their dreams.

They grew up on American soil, worked hard and succeeded in spite of all odds, and want nothing more than to be recognized as individuals and not just the holders of a status they had no part in acquiring.

In Washington, politicians have debated the fate of these kids for more than seven years, holding lives and futures in their hands while vying for political advantage.

For these kids, and thousands more who have already managed through sheer force of will to complete their higher education, but now face a life of uncertainty and alienation, the DREAM Act is the only answer

Support the DREAM Act at Change.org

by: Manuel

Tue Jan 06, 2009 at 13:48:43 PM EST

What is Ideas for Change in America?

Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven project that aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies.

The project was created in the wake of the 2008 Presidential Election in response to President-elect Barack Obama's call for increased civic participation in America. It is not connected to the Obama campaign or the administration.

Promigrant/pro-human rights activists were able to mobilize in great numbers to vault the DREAM Act to this next round, but we need your help to make sure it gets to the final list.  Here is an excerpt of the submission:

Pass the DREAM Act - Support Higher Education for All Students

The problem: Many American students graduate from college and high school each year, and face a roadblock to their dreams: they can't drive, can't work legally, can't further their education, and can't pay taxes to contribute to the economy just because they were brought to this country illegally by their parents or lost legal status along the way. It is a classic case of lost potential and broken dreams, and the permanent underclass of youth it creates is detrimental to our economy. Former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has said: "In short, although these children have built their lives here, they have no possibility of achieving and living the American dream. What a tremendous loss for them, and what a tremendous loss to our society."

The solution: The federal DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), is a bipartisan legislation that would permit these students conditional legal status and eventual citizenship granted that they meet ALL the following requirements:

• if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16, are below the age of 30,
  
• have lived here continuously for five years,
  
• graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED
  
• have good moral character with no criminal record and
  
• attend college or enlist in the military.

Read the full entry and vote here

On the Death of a Little Man

by: ragemail

Sat Dec 27, 2008 at 23:28:41 PM EST

The Power of One

by: Nightprowlkitty

Fri Dec 26, 2008 at 21:11:31 PM EST

Give Bush and Cheney a fair trial -- something they have not bothered with since they stole office.

It's funny how the powers that be in the media and government are running around with their big fat excuses as to why we can't hold these criminals accountable for their crimes.  It all boils down to "It's too hard!!!"

It's too hard.  It would affect too many people.  It would interfere with the crucial work of restoring our economy.  Blah blah blah.  Not one of these folks say, however, that no crime has been committed, no law has been broken.  No one says that.

I find that stunning.  We all know, at least those of us who have been paying attention, that Bush and his crew of crooks have broken the law over and over again.

And Cheney says "What you gonna do about it?"  And Cheney says "oh, the Dems knew about this and approved it, hell they wanted us to be even tougher than we were!"

And we should believe Cheney ... why?

I don't want speculation any more.  I want the truth, the facts, what really happened.  Only a special prosecutor can get that information, someone who is inured to the politics of Washington D.C. by being given the independent power to investigate.

What I like about this petition is that it shows the power of the individual citizen.  This is not a grassroots effort decided by committee.  A couple of folks got together and came up with the text and others jumped in to work further on it and spread it around.

A Date with Eric Holder and Barack Obama (by Edger from Docudharma)

by: Nightprowlkitty

Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 11:47:48 AM EST

With that sentence begins the documentary film "Torturing Democracy", a documentary to be aired on PBS television stations nationwide on January 21st, 2009, one day after President Bush leaves office.

One day after President Bush leaves office will be the first day of President-Elect Barack Obama's new administration.

Between today and that day, we have a date with Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder and President-Elect Barack Obama. Everyday.

As netizens reading this at the founding site of the Citizens Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate and Prosecute Bush War Crimes we have a date every day with those two men as we work to generate as many signatures to the petition that we can possibly generate to bring the war criminals in the Bush administration to justice. Principally Mr. Bush himself, Vice President Richard Cheney, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They were the leaders. The instigators. And the approvers. But there are many others as well, and they all deserve fair trials. it is the very least we can do for them, and for the world.

These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as "abusive interrogation techniques" by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that led to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.

It's official-- Bush Administration Slashes Wages, Worker Protections for Nation's Farmworkers

by: Farmworker Justice

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 10:50:46 AM EST

The DOL's many harmful revisions to the H-2A visa program include reducing obligations for growers to effectively recruit U.S. workers before applying to bring in guestworkers, lowering the wage rates by changing the program's wage formula and eliminating government oversight of the program.  

Holding Sheriff Joe Arpaio Accountable

by: Manuel

Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 12:57:00 PM EST

As you may know, Joe Arpaio was re-elected this past November as sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, the most heavily populated county in the state, encompassing most of the Phoenix metro area.  Supporters of Sheriff Joe would have you believe that he was given another term based on competence, but really, his reelection was due to "Get 'Em" politics.  

Those of us who follow immigration headlines and live in communities affected by hardlined tactics know Arpaio's name very well.  He has morphed the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in to a full-time immigration enforcement posse at the expense of doing his real job as Maricopa County's top law enforcement agent.  Racial profiling is par for the course under Arpaio's leadership and he does it unapologetically.

"Get 'Em" politics, as in "Let's Get 'Em" is made possible by media sources who give nativists like Arpaio open platforms to spew xenophobia, racism and hate.  This dark wave is not something that members of immigrant or latino communities are imagining, the numbers tell the tale.  Hate crimes against latinos have surged recently, prompting grassroot movements to demand action from the government.

These tragic killings are evidence, the [National Hispanic Leadership Agenda] NHLA says, of the growing wave of hate gripping the United States, where in July a group of young people beat 25-year-old Mexican Luis Ramirez to death in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

Because of the crimes, the NHLA, the National Council of La Raza and other groups said that Congress and the incoming Obama administration should "make passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act a priority."

That bill provides federal assistance to the states and local jurisdictions to bring hate crimes to trial.

This national coalition, which encompasses 26 Hispanic organizations, also condemned at the press conference the violent rhetoric that various U.S. media outlets use to refer to undocumented immigrants and certain minority groups.

Latin American Herald Tribune

With news that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is being given his own reality television show on the FOX network, it is clear that pro-migrant and pro-human rights people of all colors, creeds and political ideology need to unite to say, "Enough!"  There is blood being shed in the streets, and this latest example of nativist celebrity worship will only guarantee more violence against latinos and migrant workers.

America's Voice has launched a petition calling for the Department of Justice to investigate the tactics and malfeasance that has given Sheriff Joe such notoriety.  Instead of being rewarded with more media attention (which he loves), here is an opportunity to demand accountability:

Should "America's Toughest Sheriff" get a TV show for Christmas?

We think he should get investigated for his controversial tactics.

With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while hard-working immigrants live in fear. America's Voice is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into his tactics, giving Sheriff Arpaio the attention he really deserves.

America's Voice - click to sign the petition

(full text of the petition is below the fold)

When A U.S. Citizen Is Deported From Mexico

by: kyledeb

Sat Dec 13, 2008 at 07:35:21 AM EST

He said he was taken away and later found himself in a police lineup. He said he had been told that a woman had been robbed in Acapulco by a blond man with a goatee. Looking at the other men in the lineup, Crash said they could have been his brothers, all of them blond and with goatees.

Chertoff Raids own House

by: jackie @ americasvoice

Thu Dec 11, 2008 at 21:29:26 PM EST

Cross-posted at America's Voice.

No not really, but the Washington Post is reporting that Department of Homeland Security Head Michael Chertoff has had undocumented workers cleaning his home for over four years:

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants. 

Coupled with last week's announcement that a high-ranking New England Border Patrol official had undocumented workers cleaning her home, hypocrisy at DHS now seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. In "Chertoff hired company that used illegal workers," the Associated Press points out just how hypocritical the situation is:

Speaking Oct. 23 on the state of immigration, Chertoff boasted about his department's record year for worksite enforcement cases - which led to more than 6,000 arrests.

He also said, "We need to make sure our own house is in order," referring not to his own home, but to the federal government, which now is required to use a federal online database to check whether the workers are in the country legally.

This stunning piece of news is yet another piece of evidence pointing to our need for a change of direction at DHS and the passage of real, comprehensive immigration reform.

Bush's Midnight Attack on Farmworkers

by: Farmworker Justice

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 08:53:19 AM EST

The changes, proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were revealed on the DOL website late Monday evening but have not been officially published in the Federal Register yet.

The H-2A program is a temporary agricultural guestworker program that permits employers to apply for permission to hire foreign labor for jobs lasting ten months or less.  To bring in H-2A guestworkers, employers must show that they cannot find U.S. workers who want the jobs.

These will be the most far-reaching changes in the laws regulating agricultural guestworker programs since 1942.  They will return us to an era of agricultural labor exploitation that many thought ended decades ago.

The changes cut wage rates and wage protections for both domestic and foreign workers, minimize recruitment obligations inside the U.S. and curtail or eliminate much of the government oversight that is supposed to deter and remedy illegal employer conduct.
 

60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

by: kyledeb

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 05:50:46 AM EST

Hearts of Darkness: A journey into the nativist lair.

by: Duke

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 02:16:34 AM EST

Figuring that it's always good to know what the opposition is up to, I decided to sign on to the conference call to get a feel for what strategies they were planning for the upcoming congressional session.

Little did I know that listening to the world according to FAIR President, Dan Stein, would be like falling down a rabbit hole where black is white and white is black.

Backed up by media spokesman, Ira Melman, and Executive director, Julie Kirchner, Stein managed in his 45min presentation to rewrite recent history, rehash long-discredited talking points, ignore or misinterpret reams of factual evidence, and flat out fabricate his own alternative reality.
 

Marcelo Lucero's Murder - A Reflection One Month Later

by: LMVT

Tue Dec 09, 2008 at 14:26:42 PM EST

It's hard to believe that it has been a month since the tragic murder of Marcelo Lucero. I have found myself the last four weeks being asked where I was when I heard about his death, much like the conversation so many New Yorkers have had about September 11th.

The truth is that I spend so much of my work week reading the news, that I try to avoid the news at all costs on the weekends....usually unsuccessfully. However, the weekend of November 8th, I had spent quality time with my husband and away from my computer and the tv. Late that Sunday night, I heard my cell phone ringing after 10pm, which was unusual for a Sunday night. When I answered it was my fellow-blogger Pat...poor guy didn't realize I didn't know yet and he was the bearer of very sad news.

My stomach sank. I threw-up, my worst fear being realized. An innocent man was murdered by a group of teens because of the color of his skin....in a community I love and have lived in....in an area I have walked dozens of times late at night and never felt unsafe. And then I felt sick again as I realized that my safety was ensured mostly because my skin color matched most of the young men who committed this dispicable crime.

That night and for two weeks after, my sleep was restless from endless nightmares.

Welcome to the World Paloma .. 12/8/08

by: The Sanctuary

Tue Dec 09, 2008 at 01:51:49 AM EST

We promise we'll work as hard as we can to make this world a more loving and just place with each passing day ...    

... from all of us at The Sanctuary

Two Words

by: NLinStPaul

Sat Dec 06, 2008 at 13:35:42 PM EST

Herrera was out one night with friends. He drove three of them to the home of Thomas Martinez, a boyfriend of one of the young men's mother. The men wanted to confront Martinez, who had allegedly abused the mother, and retrieve her belongings from the house.

Herrera stayed in the car while his friends entered the home. Martinez fled the scene and later claimed that one of the defendants had a shotgun. According to court testimony, Martinez was assaulted by one of the defendants, Richard Rodriguez. According to police reports, the young men returned to the car with a safe and two ounces of methamphetamines.

After dropping off his friends, Herrera was pulled over by police three blocks from his family home. His car, it would later be revealed, had been under surveillance by detectives investigating one of Herrera's friends. He was arrested on the spot.

So what are the two words that, were it not for the heroic efforts of his mother, family and community, would have landed Herrera in jail for life with no prior criminal record? Gang member.  

Realizing the Promise: Tomorrow is the Day, Let's Make some History

by: rachelfirm

Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 12:29:47 PM EST

Tomorrow, December 4th, over 1500 grassroots leaders will gather in DC to talk directly with members of Congress and Obama's transition team, to help shape the agenda for the new administration. "Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith and Democracy" will mark the first large-scale progessive event since last month's historic elections. No longer are our communities on the outside looking in at the powerful decision-makers: we have become the decision-makers. And YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT!

Tomorrow, watch the LIVE WEBCAST of the event from 3PM to 6PM at http://www.realizingthepromise.org/ and check out the LIVE-BLOG.

Community members, REAL PEOPLE, will be sharing open dialogue with people as powerful as Valerie Jarett, who aims to be on of the 3 to 5 people IN THE ROOM WITH OBAMA when major policy decisions are made, AND Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who is the 3rd most powerful Congressman in the House. This is our time to be heard, this is our time to make sure that the agenda for the next administration is the agenda OF THE PEOPLE.

And IMMIGRATION is sure to be on that agenda. Prior to the Forum, there will be a press conference on the Hill, where Rep. Luis Gutierrez will push immigration to the forefront of the country's political landscape, and ask the new Congress and new Administration for an immediate moratorium on the raids and a renewed effort for comprehensive immigration reform. In the afternoon, Rep. Gutierrez will join "Realizing the Promise" to engage in more dialogue around these demands.

This is truly a historic moment in our Nation's history and YOU can participate. Tomorrow, visit http://www.realizingthepromise.org/ from 3PM to 6PM to watch the entire event LIVE on our WEBCAST. We will be live-blogging the event at Standing FIRM, so be sure to check back for that too.

Goldwater Institute Goes After Sheriff Joe

by: Manuel

Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 13:47:25 PM EST

"The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is tasked with the important job of keeping crime rates low," said Clint Bolick, author of the report and Goldwater Institute litigation director. "Judged by its own statistics, MCSO appears to be falling seriously short of fulfilling its core law enforcement duties."

Among the areas Mission Unaccomplished analyzes is MCSO's record keeping and reporting. The study finds MCSO record keeping inadequate and inaccurate. For example, each year when the Sheriff's Office provides crime clearance statistics to the county, the figures are accompanied by the disclaimer that the data "is not considered accurate."

The paper also examines the 166-percent increase in homicide rates between 2004 and 2007, the same period that MCSO began diverting resources to other priorities, such as trips by high-level employees to Honduras for ambiguous law enforcement activities.

Arizona Capitol Times

What's puzzling about this lengthy report is not so much its content or origin, but rather the timing.  In the Executive Summary, Bolick writes:  "We find that MCSO's effectiveness has been compromised for the past several years by misplaced priorities that have diverted it from its mission."

Compromised?  Can't argue with that.

Unfortunately, the credibility of the Goldwater Institute is suspect since Arpaio was up for reelection less than a month prior to the public unveiling of this document.  If Bolick was really concerned about Sheriff Joe's leadership, he would have placed this indictment on the table prior to November 4th.

What we have now is Arpaio doing his infamous big stick wave to the media, doing nothing to further the recommendations outlined by the report.

"This guy doesn't know what he's talking about," Arpaio said. "All the garbage he puts in there he got from the newspapers or a few critics."

abc15.com

With Republicans expanding their control of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in November alongside Arpaio's re-election with sidekick Andrew Thomas in tow, accountability is not something that should be expected.  The Goldwater Institute has offered the public too little, too late.

A quick bit of housekeeping

by: The Sanctuary

Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 23:51:38 PM EST

If you have registered and not received a confirmation e-mail immediately with your temporary password and log-in info ... please check your spam folder ... If there's no confirmation there from The Sanctuary, please contact us at:

TheSanctuary.Editors(at)gmail.com

so we can complete the registration process

For more info on how to register, post diaries or comments, see our Quick FAQ for all the info you need to participate at The Sanctuary

mil gracias
The Sanctuary

The Rise of the Online Undocumented Youth Movement

by: DreamActivist

Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 14:17:40 PM EST

Cross-posted at DreamACTivist.

After the defeat of the DREAM Act last year, William Gheen, the leader of ALIPAC, who deplores undocumented youth and wants to deport all such students, issued a call for us to stay down: “we should never gloat, but it is time to rub these losses in to our opposition. They need to stay down, instead of forcing us to knock them down again and again.”

These are the values of ALIPAC—immense hatred towards children that were brought here through no choice of their own, American children who want to serve this country, who are the future leaders of this land.

The subaltern has answered Gheen’s coarse demands. In one year since the failure of the DREAM Act, undocumented students have come together in larger numbers than ever before, setting up organizations, networking online, making videos, blogging and petitioning for change.

Youth in the usually-somber waiting rooms of history are bustling with renewed enthusiasm and energy. Trapped as a marginal status, ignored by the mainstream media, with their backs to the wall and everything to lose, undocumented youth are emerging as leaders in their own movement. Take a look at the Ideas for Change campaign at Change.org–the DREAM Act is ahead by a landslide (don’t forget to register and vote), thanks in no part, to the efforts of undocumented students and allies. Following the early success of the Change.org organizing, DreamACTivist and Co. will be back with a spree of actions very soon so remember to get on their twitter or join the new BAMN DREAM fanpage.

In a paper on alternative nationalisms this past year, I wrote:

The ‘politics of waiting’ initiated by stringent United States immigration laws has indeed spurred the rise of a community of undocumented students. United in their desire to be recognized as Americans who deserve the chance to apply for citizenship, they question the ‘alien’ assumption of their character, the ‘otherness’ label that is given to them as an ‘a priori.’

The beneficiaries of the federal DREAM Act are anything but alien—from their slight to unaccented discourses, their spirit to fight their own battles, survival in the face of great opposition and obstacles, these students are American in every way besides a piece of paper: a piece of paper, a green card, that would confer the arbitrary privilege of ‘citizenship’ on these students, a social construct that students are organizing and fighting to achieve by all means. As the Oscar Wilde quote goes “we live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” In effect, these students are fighting to inherit a large tax burden, serve and die for a country that refuses to acknowledge them, pay hefty loans and mortgages, and to be the force of change and innovation in an eroding Pax Americana. ‘Freedom’ does come with its burden of ironies.

When and how did this happen? Roberto Gonzales traces the emergence of undocumented youth organizing to the immigration marches in 2006. This is not to say that undocumented youth organizing did not exist prior to that movement, but that they cemented a place and social category for themselves. Gonzales writes,

“Civic activity has been on the rise among undocumented youth on college campuses and in communities. New generations of activists are being born out of the very struggle to become ‘American’ and in the process, they are rewriting their own stories.”

Branching out across the United States and the web, undocumented students are now using emerging media technologies to organize for the DREAM Act. And the subaltern is not monolithic but it is united in its goals — Take a look at SIM from Massachusetts, New York Student Youth Leadership Council, the UCLA-based Underground Undergrads, BAMN on the DREAM Act, A DREAM Deferred, DreamACTivist, One DREAM 2009 and the main online social network–DAP. This small list is just scratching the surface of the many student groups that exist. These are youth based movements—online and offline—led and charged primarily by undocumented students. The subaltern is speaking, telling her/his stories and logically putting forth arguments for change.