Weekly Diaspora: A Return to Reason

by: The Media Consortium

Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 12:16:38 PM EDT

By Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger

After the shadowy Bush years, the emergence of reasonable policy can be a little surprising. Immigration law has suffered from a lack of planning and is often influenced by fear rooted in the Sept. 11 attacks. But the national dialogue on immigration has begun to grow healthier. Activists, immigration advocacy groups and Latino and Asian American communities dug in and are working toward reform. Right wing and anti-immigration voices have less sway. This week we see two tangible and positive developments on this front: An announcement from the White House regarding detention policy reform and a letter against aggressive enforcement sent to the White House from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Weekly Immigration Wire: Silence Strengthens Opposition

by: The Media Consortium

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 12:52:13 PM EDT

By Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

President Obama is citing the Healthcare debate as a reason for postponing immigration reform until 2010. But in the interim, the White House is laying the groundwork for an enforcement agenda by expanding programs such as 287(g), Secure Communities and e-Verify, amidst a growing matrix of detention centers. Anti-immigration factions are taking advantage of the lull in legislative action to push their own agenda.

The Progressive takes the unequivocal stand that "President Obama is wrong to postpone immigration reform." Author Ed Morales makes it clear that while healthcare and economic issues are "understandably urgent," the choice to delay reform "de-prioritizes" people who have paid their taxes but have not been given a path to citizenship.

The problem is, immigration reform and healthcare reform are inextricably connected. WireTap cites a central tenant of healthcare reform's "artificially amplified 'public' opposition" to immigration, as reported by the Los Angeles Times: It's "the notion that 'Congress would give illegal immigrants health insurance at taxpayer expense.'"

Is the racially charged core of this "chameleon colored outrage" being purposefully left out of the general dialogue? The ugly facts are that a "third of all 'Hispanics' in the U.S., almost half of the undocumented, and a fifth of African Americans" lack health insurance today. And yet, only "one in eight whites" lack health care.

After all, "Not all immigrants are alike." New America Media's David Hayes-Bautista compares the experiences of two immigrants named Jean-Claude and Juan Carlos. Hayes-Bautista effectively illustrates the Good Immigrant/Bad Immigrant paradigm and asks "Why do some immigrants move quickly and swiftly up the educational and professional ladder, while others appear to remain stymied at the bottom?" Ultimately, "both segments of immigrants deserve to be included in the future healthcare system that their presence will help to fund."

RI4A: Finding the right Dr. Seuss metaphor for our movement

by: Sneetch

Wed Jun 10, 2009 at 13:28:01 PM EDT

Unified Labor Movement Supporting "Rights-Based" Immigration Reform

by: nezua

Tue Apr 14, 2009 at 16:40:14 PM EDT

LOOKS LIKE THERE'S SOME ORGANIZING going on behind the scenes. This is pretty big. And overall, it's very exciting news.

The nation's two major labor federations have agreed for the first time to join forces to support an overhaul of the immigration system, leaders of both organizations said on Monday. The accord could give President Obama significant support among unions as he revisits the stormy issue in the midst of the recession. ...

The accord endorses legalizing the status of illegal immigrants already in the United States and opposes any large new program for employers to bring in temporary immigrant workers, officials of both federations said.

-Immigration Accord by Labor Boosts Obama Effort

I've already offered my feelings on that angle (illustrated below).  But follow me behind the cut for a liveblog of most of the call.

Immigrant Rights Activists March on ICE on Day After Inauguration

by: MATTorg

Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 13:33:40 PM EST

From the story-

The pro-immigrant activists, many immigrants themselves, marched on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters to remind the fledgling administration of their demand for a "just and humane" immigration policy.

"It's an opportunity to celebrate, but also to point forward to the great need for immigration reform in the months ahead," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

Immigrant advocates believe Pres. Barack Obama will stick to his promise to begin work on comprehensive immigration reform in his first year in office. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the immigration system is "broken." And even before a major overhaul is proposed, activists hope for changes to some of the most criticized aspects of current immigration policy.

These may include the huge backlog in naturalization requests, the workplace raids that have sown chaos in immigrant communities, inhumane detention centers, or the "287(g)" program, which delegates immigration enforcement to state troopers, county sheriffs or local police.

The activists that gathered outside ICE headquarters were guided by interdenominational religious leaders in a "ceremonial cleansing," marking what they hope will be the agency's shift away from what they deem an "enforcement-only" approach.

The event was organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a coalition of state-level and national groups working for comprehensive immigration reform. FIRM also ran an ad campaign on signs atop Washington, D.C. cabs that showed real immigrants' faces and said: "Mr. President, count on me." Also distributed were T-shirts and signs bearing the slogan, "I am immigrant America."

FIRM's blog on Inauguration Day noted that in his inaugural address, Obama "spoke of a country that ensures freedom for all ... Now, it's our time to make sure that the same freedom and the same values include the immigrants of America."

http://www.matt.org/english/bl...

Obama's inaugural speech focuses on responsibility, change

by: MATTorg

Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 13:31:33 PM EST

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

What do you want most changed? What are you going to do about it?

http://www.matt.org/english/bl...

Op/Ed: A sense of who we are

by: MATTorg

Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 15:00:47 PM EST

We heard far too little about the need for immigration reform from President-elect Barack Obama during the general election - and virtually nothing from the nation's leaders since then. But the United States cannot afford to put immigration on a back burner and merely continue with the existing enforcement regime. The costs are too high for the country's values. And they are too high for the economy.

Defending immigrants' rights defends standards in all workplaces. Workers who are terrorized into submission, in families that are destroyed by deportation and raids, are more likely to undercut other workers by tolerating low pay and miserable job conditions.

Restoring proportionality and good sense to the criminal justice system also would free up resources for fighting serious crimes. Most important, repairing a system warped by political priorities into hunting down and punishing the wrong people - like those bringing their suffering to a Pentecostal church - would help restore a sense of what the country stands for, and remind us of who we are.

http://www.matt.org/english/bl...

Op/Ed: GOP Needs a Rethink on Immigration

by: MATTorg

Mon Jan 12, 2009 at 00:23:44 AM EST

From the article-

For too long the Republican story line has been "Too Much Lawbreaking," when instead the real problem is "Too Much Immigration" - only one part of which involves lawbreaking. This exclusive focus on illegal immigration - opposing amnesty and pushing for more enforcement - is both incomplete and counterproductive. Incomplete because the effects of illegal immigration aren't that different from those of legal immigration - an illiterate Central American farmer with a green card is just as unsuited for a 21st-century economy as an illiterate Central American farmer without a green card. And it's counterproductive because the focus on criminality can seem punitive and serve to polarize the debate, potentially aliening not just immigrant voters, who really aren't that numerous, but the native-born, who want less immigration but don't want to feel bad about themselves for holding such a view.

A new approach would retain the widely popular, and morally compelling, support for more consistent application of immigration laws and opposition to legalization - but make them part of a broader push for a more moderate level of future immigration overall. If the debate focuses solely on legality, ultimately there's no real argument against amnesty and open borders. You just legalize the whole thing and the issue goes away - no illegals, no problem. In the appropriately larger context, amnesty is bad not only because it rewards lawbreaking (which it does), but also for the same reason that the Visa lottery is bad: it leads to excessive immigration.

A new GOP approach to immigration would also recognize that there are two components to the debate - immigration policy and immigrant policy, the first governing who and how many we take, the second how we treat people once they're here.

If you think of these two elements as axes on a graph, immigration levels are the x axis and treatment of immigrants the y axis. That gives rise to four general approaches, one for each quadrant. The first is a pro-immigrant policy of mass immigration - what Kennedy and McCain and Bush and Obama imagine themselves supporting, though it's questionable whether tomorrow's mass immigration helps yesterday's immigrants.

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE

http://matt.org/english/blog/1...