Judge rules on Cubans who landed on "wrong" bridge

The story of the 15 Cuban refugees who were deported back in January after they landed on the Old Flagler Bridge in the Florida Keys only to find out that the DHS on longer considered the bridge "dry land" under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, took another turn today when a federal judge ruled that US government had acted unreasonably.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ordered the federal officials to "use their best efforts" to help the Cubans return to the United States.

The judge went on to explain that his ruling was not one on the legality of the policy, but rather specific to this case. "In this holding, the Court is not ruling on the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, of the 'wet foot/dry foot' policy," Moreno wrote in a 12-page ruling.

In this case none of the parties concerned claimed the refugees were stopped at sea, the debate revolved around the status of the dilapidated Flagler Bridge, which according to the government was no longer connected to land due to missing spans.

Although Cuban exile leaders claimed the decision as a victory, it's unclear if the Castro government in Havana has any intention of returning the refugees.

AP
CNN


More on the bridge refugees from Migra Matters:
Wet Foot policy may cost Republicans Florida
Conch Republic seizes Florida bridge
Wet Foot, Dry Foot

Tag: immigration

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Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

It has long been speculated that much of the motivation that has fueled the increased anti-immigration rhetoric coming from certain political leaders, and their calls for more restrictive policies to protect our "broken borders", has had far more to do with political expediency than actual concern for national security, job loss, or economic stress put on society by increased immigration. Although the aforementioned rationales are commonly given by these "closed border" advocates, a new analysis of Congressional voting patterns by The American Immigration Law Foundation shows that those representing districts least likely affected by the influx of undocumented immigrants are the first to champion restrictive immigration policies.

An analysis of the Congressional representatives who supported HR 4437 reveals that those representing districts with the fewest number undocumented immigrants generally supported the restrictive immigration plan, while those with large numbers of undocumented immigrants in their districts were more apt to oppose it.

more below the fold
Tag: immigration

Representatives From Districts With Fewer Than 5,000 Undocumented Immigrants Were Most Likely To Support The Bill

There are 96 congressional districts that have fewer than 5,000 undocumented immigrants. Most of these districts are largely rural and located in sections of Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Mississippi Valley that are experiencing little economic growth and low levels of immigration in general. Constituents in many of these districts face tough economic times, but the cause is not immigration. Immigrants are attracted to regions of economic dynamism and job expansion. This is why greater numbers of undocumented immigrants are found in western states that have agricultural, livestock, fishing, and tourist economies that need the kinds of less-skilled labor that undocumented immigrants often provide.

Undocumented immigrants in the 96 lowest-immigration districts make up no more than 0.8 percent of the population (each of the 435 congressional districts has roughly the same total population: about 650,000 as of 20001). The votes on H.R. 4437 in these districts tell you something about immigration politics in the United States today. The supposed threat from undocumented immigration is enough to rally voters and move levers of power even in areas where the actual impact is miniscule. Among representatives from districts with the smallest populations of undocumented immigrants, 74 percent (71 out of 96) voted for the bill: 90 percent of Republicans (56 out of 62) and 44 percent of Democrats (15 out of 34)

Representatives From Districts With More Than 50,000 Undocumented Immigrants Were Most Likely To Oppose The Bill

The voting pattern of the representatives from the 61 congressional districts with 50,000 or more undocumented immigrants tells a different story. These districts for the most part are located in densely populated urban areas such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and are relatively small in geographic size compared to rural districts that include many counties. In these high-immigration districts, the undocumented alone can account for as much as one-fifth of the total population. As a result, representatives who hail from these areas are familiar with undocumented immigrants and their impact on local communities. Among representatives from districts with the largest populations of undocumented immigrants, a mere 5 percent (3 out of 61) supported the bill: none of the 53 Democrats and only 3 of the 8 Republicans.

The inverse relationship between support for H.R. 4437 and the actual presence of undocumented immigrants in a representative’s district represents a widespread voting pattern. Among all Democrats, those who voted in favor of the bill had roughly 10,000 undocumented immigrants in their districts. Democrats who opposed the bill, on the other hand, had about 37,400. Among all Republicans, the same pattern holds: those voting for H.R. 4437 had an average of 14,500 undocumented immigrants in their districts, while those who voted against the bill had an average of 30,800

Overall 67% of all those who supported the bill from both parties came from districts with fewer than 15,000 undocumented immigrants while 62% of those opposed came from districts with more than 15,000.

As this pattern illustrates, the constituencies of most representatives who supported H.R. 4437 experience relatively little impact from undocumented immigration. As a result, these representatives are free to ignore the need for genuine immigration reform and focus instead on fostering a public image of being “tough” on undocumented immigrants.

Given these statistics, it becomes obvious that those who are most likely to take a hard line on immigration are doing so more out of a need to find a new "enemy" on which to scapegoat the failures of the present administration and its policies. Those from these generally rural and economically depressed areas find it much easier to blame the nonexistent undocumented immigrants in their districts for the economic woes of their constituents than to deal with the macro economic issues of globalization and loss of manufacturing jobs due to shifting economic realities.

Just as the right wing created a phantom boogieman out of the Gay community in the last election cycle to supply themselves with a wedge issue on "family values", they are once again setting up a divisive issue to distract and misdirect the American people away from the real issues that effect them.

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First Mark-Up of Senate Immigration Bill Completed

[UPDATE]: For Latest News On Senate Immigration Deliberations See Text-Box Below.

To veiw the final version of the Judiciary bill the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of2006" passed on 3-27, that will now go to the Senate floor for debate click HERE

This past Friday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), introduced his “Chairman’s Mark” of . This first draft of the Senate's version of an immigration reform proposal will be moving to the full committee for debate on March 2.

Although a marked improvement over the earlier version passed by the House, James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) 'Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005"(HR4437) , this preliminary mark-up still contains some of the more draconian provisions from that bill, including the criminalization of "illegal presence", essentially making all undocumented immigrants subject to felony prosecution. It also contains new criminal penalties for the use of a fraudulent identification or passport even for asylum-seekers and others without the ability to obtain the paperwork legally, and calls for the further militarization of the border and the building of a "wall" across the border.

This preliminary proposal also calls for the following:

• A temporary guest worker program limited to three years with an additional three year extension.


• Increase in the current quotas for both employment and family reunification.


• A limited "amnesty" for those here since Dec.2004

But the devil is in the details:
more below the fold
Tag: immigration


As currently proposed, the guest worker program makes little provision for worker protections to ensure that foreign-born workers receive just wages and benefits, and provides no means for the workers to gain "earned" credit toward permanent residency.

The proposal to increase the current quotas does call for an adjustment to the per-country ceilings for both employment-based and family-based immigrant visas but does not go into any detail as to how. Currently no more that 7% of total immigrates admitted in any given year can come from a single country. Unless provisions are made to have a flexible ceiling that acknowledges the differing circumstances of various regions and countries, the quota system will remain a stumbling block to a practical immigration policy.

The provisions in this proposal to confer "Nonimmigrant Work Authorization and Status" to those living and working in the country prior Dec. 2004, while a step in the right direction, contains no provisions to place these workers and their families on a path to citizenship. Without a guaranteed path for those who wish to take it, the possibility of relegating these workers to a permanent underclass without full legal rights is possible.

This is just an early draft of the Senate proposal and much debate and compromise is bound to occur before it reaches the floor. You can contact the Senators of the Judiciary Committee to let them know your concerns at:

Justice for Immigrants
American Immigration Lawyers Assoc.

MORE ON SPECTER - SENATE JUDICIARY BILL

First Mark-Up of Senate Immigration Bill Completed
2/28/06

First day of Senate deliberations on immigration uneventful
3/9/06

Senate Judiciary Committee to finish work on immigration bill this week
3/14/06

Senate Judiciary makes eleventh hour immigration compromise: Frist furious
3/20/06

Senate Judiciary passes immigration bill
3/27/06

Senate Judiciary Committee immigration bill: update
3/28/06

Today's Senate Immigration activity
3-30-06

More compromises in Senate on immigration
4-4-06

Republicans unveil compromise on immigration
4-5-06

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Your friendly neighborhood white supremacist

I saw the first of these ribbons on a car a few months ago, since then I’ve come across them a couple of other times. It’s a picture we’re all familiar with. You pull up to a light, and start to read the messages displayed on the back of the cars stopped in front of you, and you begin to get a mental picture of its occupants. You can tell a lot about a person by reading the messages proudly exhibited on their bumpers.

This particular sticker was accompanied by the usual cast of characters; the W sticker, a few for some local Republicans, the flag sticker, a support or troops ribbon,, maybe even one about killing the unborn or taking away our guns. Frankly I’ve grown immune to them. My outrage meter, now unable to take the constant barrage of inflammatory rhetoric. But this one stuck out in my mind, not because it was so blatantly racist, but because for a moment I had that sinking feeling that perhaps I was one of a small minority of people who would find it so. This kind of racism seems accepted by many in today’s post 9-11 world, where Lou Dobbbs can nightly lecture millions on the “broken borders” and invasion from the south.

But I wonder if those who display this little gem would do it so proudly if they knew who was behind this ribbon campaign?
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

The “Bring Them Home and Put Them On The Mexican Border!” ribbon campaign is coordinated by the 15,000 member National Alliance, a white supremacist group out of West Virginia.

( I must warn readers that what follows contains reproductions and links to hate speech and inflammatory racist rhetoric. I reproduce it not to provide any further platform for this kind of bile, but rather to demonstrate how effectively these kinds of groups and their platforms have been embedded into more mainstream ideology. I believe that if those who display the “Put Them on the Mexican Border” stickers were aware of just what kind of people they are actually supporting, they would be repulsed. )

From the National Alliance’s description of the campaign:(PDF)

Bring Them Home and Put Them On The Mexican Border!

The brave men and women who serve in our armed forces are the victims of a deadly conflict of interest. Millions of Third Worlders are invading the US through Mexico, while the blood of our sons and daughters is spent protecting the borders of a hostile country.
-Snip-

Why invade a sovereign country that never attacked us? The answer: The desire to secure Israel by powerful Jewish lobbyists and advisors who wormed their way into the Bush administration.
-Snip-


The Arabs wage war through desperate, primitive terrorism and the Jews wage war through high-tech terror and corruption of the US government. We want no part of their war. Millions of Third Worlders invade the US, through Mexico. But our government is being run by people who are more concerned about Israel’s borders than our own.

From the National Alliance’s Statement of Principles :

Our world is hierarchical. Each of us is a member of the Aryan (or European) race, which, like the other races, developed its special characteristics over many thousands of years during which natural selection not only adapted it to its environment but also advanced it along its evolutionary path. Those races which evolved in the more demanding environment of the North, where surviving a winter required planning and self-discipline, advanced more rapidly in the development of the higher mental faculties -- including the abilities to conceptualize, to solve problems, to plan for the future, and to postpone gratification -- than those which remained in the relatively unvarying climate of the tropics. Consequently, the races vary today in their capabilities to build and to sustain a civilized society and, more generally, in their abilities to lend a conscious hand to Nature in the task of evolution.

There’s no ambiguity in the message, no mention of usual rationale for closing up the borders. They don’t allude to terrorist or security threats, job loss by native workers or economic pressures put on the system by immigrants, they don’t even revert to the old standby about the illegality of entering the country with proper paperwork. They go right to the core of their beliefs: immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America are bad because they’re brown, plain and simple. Do you think the bumper-sticker guy knows that his funny little racist joke sticker actually comes from people who believe that Jews secretly control our foreign policy and Aryans are evolutionarily predisposed to run civilization? I would hope not.

The immigration issue is one that’s highly divisive. Many people of good conscience see the issue differently, but to have groups like National Alliance spearheading the issue only muddies the waters. They play upon the fears and concerns of the American people in order to move forward their warped agenda.

The movement to close the borders has long had roots in the racist underbelly of American culture. Long before the average American was concerned about “Broken Borders”, “Clash of Civilizations” or “Death of the West”, white supremacists were targeting Hispanics and using the failures of US immigration policy to whip up racial animosities. Many of the border vigilante groups that have gained notoriety post 9-11 actually spun off out of the white supremacist movement in the early 1990’s. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the preeminent watchdog organization for hate groups has profiled over twenty top anti-immigrant leaders and spokesmen with ties to racist and white supremacist groups. Many of these leaders, now sanitized for public consumption, show up on TV news and opinion shows as pundits and experts on immigration reform.

The American people must be very careful as we engage in this debate about immigration reform. We must not let those with hidden agendas and evil motivations set the tone of discourse. The next time you see that pundit or advocate on TV spouting out “statistics” and “facts” be very careful. Read the little scroll under his or her name, see what group they really represent. They might not be who you think they are. You might want to think twice before sticking that ribbon on your car. It might say far more than you think..

I want to thank XicanoPwr at ¡Para Justicia y Libertad! for uncovering this story

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Approaching Zero-Hour to McCain-a-Palooza

Crossposted from Man Eegee - Latino Politico

If you've been wondering why the focus around here has picked up regarding immigration reform, it's because the time has arrived for the Senate to initiate the long-awaited debate on the bi-partisan bill sponsored by Ted Kennedy and John McCain. I hope Teddy is vocal in the media, because McCain is going to milk this opportunity to set up his Presidential campaign for 2008. Trust me, he'll deny it to till he's blue in the face, but it's obvious.

It begins on Tuesday

The Arizona Republican will headline a series of rallies organized by immigration advocates and immigrant-service groups beginning Thursday in Miami before moving on to New York and Los Angeles and possibly other cities. The goal: to push the Senate to approve his guest-worker proposal rather than the narrow approach focused on border security already passed by the House.

If Congress puts off immigration reform for another year, "quite frankly, it would be an abrogation of our duty," McCain said during a telephone news conference from Arizona, adding that he believes "the overwhelming majority of the American people support our proposal."

I haven't seen the poll numbers on the plan, so I can't verify the claim of support by McCain, but I do know that his counterpart here in Arizona, Jon Kyl, has co-sponsored a bill with John Cornyn (R-TX) with a more hardlined stance that focuses on deportation and militarization of the border. If the Republican base is whipped into a frothy rage, the better bet is that they will support Kyl and Cornyn over the bi-partisan option.

So what are the details of Kennedy/McCain?

more below the fold
Tag: immigration

Here is a snippet of the guest-worker portion that will cause the most outrage from the crazies, along with a link to a fuller look.

Title VII: Adjustment of Status for H-5B Non-Immigrants

• Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. on date of introduction can register for a temporary visa (H-5B), valid for six years
• Applicants have to show work history, clean criminal record, and that they are not a security problem to be eligible for a temporary visa
• They will receive work and travel authorization
• Their spouses and children are also eligible
• In order to qualify for permanent status, workers will have to meet a future work requirement, clear additional security/background checks, pay substantial fines and application fees ($2000 or more per adult) as well as back taxes, and meet English/civics requirements

It is important to note that this issue has the potential to split the left end of the political spectrum. The labor unions are already in disagreement over how to deal with a guest worker program, while ensuring that wages and jobs are not hemorrhaged.

Eliseo Medina, who is the Vice-President of the Service Employees International Union supports the bi-partisan bill, but he is meeting resistance from other unions.

If such a plan is passed by Congress, it could result in the largest reshaping of immigration policy and the workplace in decades. The A.F.L.-C.I.O., which fiercely opposes the guest worker proposal, says it would result in the disappearance of thousands of permanent jobs and create an underclass of poorly paid foreign workers.

[snip]

In decades past, labor unions have often viewed immigrants as the enemy, accusing them of depressing wages and breaking strikes. That view has changed as the number of immigrants in the work force has surged. In 2000, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. reversed course and called for the legalization of illegal immigrants and an end to most sanctions against employers who hire them.

But the question of a temporary guest worker plan remains thorny.

linkage (free registration required)

Regardless of where you stand on immigration reform, it's important to start beefing up on the details of the competing Senate measures that will do battle in the committees and the floor. To this day, Duke1676 has provided for me the clearest breakdown of camps: Open Border advocates, Economic Development advocates and Closed Border advocates, details can be found here on the delineation.

I am obviously in the Open Borders camp because a) this country has always been a nation of immigrants, b) I'm sick of hearing racist wingnuts like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Tom Tancredo and Russell Pearce demonize my people, c) I'm practical enough to recognize that our country would shut down without immigrant labor and d) there's no way they are going to round-up all of the current immigrants and ship them off to the various corners of the world.

It's time, my friends. This legislation has a chance at causing a major shift in the political, economic, and ethnic winds of the United States.

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States grapple with driver’s licenses for immigrants

This week three states are looking into the issue of how to deal with the problem of issuing drivers licenses to those immigrants without documentation. New Jersey, Tennessee and Maryland are all dealing with bills addressing the situation, albeit from differing perspectives and ultimate outcomes.

Currently 11 states allow for some provision for those without documentation of legal residency to obtain some sort of a driver’s license of permit. But it looks like that’s about to change. While New Jersey is looking to eases restrictions, Maryland lawmakers want to stop the practice and Tennessee has suspended their program after five years.

more below the fold
Tag: immigration

New Jersey

Two state assemblymen have partnered to offer legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain special driving certificates in an effort to tackle rising concern about unlicensed, uninsured motorists on New Jersey's roadways.

Undocumented immigrants and others who aren't able to meet the state's enhanced identification requirements are currently barred from obtaining driver's licenses. Some officials say that forces the immigrants to sidestep the law and take to the road without insurance or basic safety instruction in order to get to work.
-snip-

“We have a growing population of people who are basically just trying to go to work and trying to do their jobs that employers are clamoring for and they have to circumvent the laws,” said Assemblyman Douglas C. Fisher, D-Salem,Gloucester, Cumberland, who said he began to study the issue more than two years ago. “This will just allow people to drive.”

Fisher voluntarily withdrew a similar bill last year after deciding it needed to be reworked.

Now, the Bridgeton assemblyman plans to re-introduce provisions of his original bill aimed at increasing enforcement of insurance regulations while lending his support to a separate driving privilege card bill advanced Wednesday by Assemblyman Joseph Vas, D-Middlesex.

The driving privilege card — which would expire annually — would allow undocumented aliens to drive, and more importantly, purchase insurance and register their cars provided they complete the same safety program as licensed drivers. But the cards, which would bear special markings, would not be acceptable for use as identification, addressing homeland security concerns.

Maryland

For the past three years, Maryland lawmakers have debated bills that would prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses. Each time, the measures have failed.
Yesterday, legislators took up the issue again, with what some called a renewed urgency to meet an impending federal requirement.

Del. Herbert H. McMillan, an Anne Arundel County Republican and sponsor of the bill, said that the state should restrict licenses to illegal immigrants because a federal law would require Maryland to revise its drivers license statute by 2008.

McMillan said his bill is essential for security reasons.

-snip-

The federal law, known as the Real ID Act, requires states to overhaul the way they administer driver's licenses. It requires additional security procedures and prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining standard licenses.

But the law allows states to decide for themselves whether to issue driving certificates to temporary workers and people with pending immigration cases.

Advocates for immigrants turned out in force yesterday to show their concern for the proposed state legislation, which they said would prevent the state from devising a compromise such as a two-tier system -- standard licenses for citizens and temporary permits for some immigrants.

Scores of supporters seated in an auditorium wore yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Immigrants build this country," as immigrant advocates told the House Judiciary Committee that passing the bill would be premature.

They said soon-to-be-published federal guidelines will help states administer the changes and that preventing immigrants from driving now would only create headaches for undocumented workers.

Tennessee

Tennessee stopped issuing driving certificates to illegal immigrants Friday after investigations found they were being shuttled from other states, using fake residency papers and sometimes bribing state workers to get the cards.

Safety Commissioner Jerry Nicely said the program was being suspended while his department and state investigators reassess it "to ensure we're doing what's best for Tennesseans."

"This program was a good idea in theory, but there have been issues with implementation," Nicely said.

The certificates, which are stamped "not valid for identification," were meant to improve driving safety by making sure immigrants living in the state knew traffic rules. Recent federal investigations found that illegal immigrants were traveling hundreds of miles from other states to get the certificates illegally.

-snip-

In early 2001, the state started issuing full driver's licenses without requiring a Social Security number, and more than 180,000 people obtained licenses. The driving certificates were created in 2004 to satisfy homeland security concerns; about 51,000 were issued.

Applicants are now required to provide two documents, such as a utility bill or lease, to show they live in Tennessee, along with a Social Security number or a sworn affidavit if there is none. They also must pass an eye exam, a driving rules test and a road test.

Nicely said the department was flooded with certificate requests, and employees were overwhelmed trying to determine which documents were acceptable to show residency

Like everything else involved in the immigration issue, the drivers license problem is one that has no quick fix given the current immigration policies in this country. Until a we have a national policy that comes to grips with the realities of immigration and a practical, humane and most importantly, realistic program to allow people to enter this country legally is formulated, the sates will continue to be the ones to argue out this most complex issue. And that’s not exactly a winning plan for anyone concerned.

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Lou Dobbs: Broken Record

On a nightly basis, CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs warns viewers of the ever increasing threat our "broken borders" present to the average working American. Relentlessly pursuing his cause, Dobbs parades a plethora of "experts", activists and scholars out to back up his assertions and claims that our nation is being invaded by hordes of illegal immigrants who are causing economic ruin for "average" Americans.

His message is compelling, so compelling in fact that even many progressives(see comments) seem to have fallen under his spell. But … Now from the Southern Poverty Law Center comes this look at CNN’s Lou Dobbs, the accuracy of his reporting ,and the nature of some of the guests he chooses to feature on his nightly show
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

Broken Record
Lou Dobbs' daily 'Broken Borders' CNN segment has focused on immigration for years. But there's one issue Dobbs just won't take on.
By Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok

Lou Dobbs is a genial sort, a pleasant-faced CNN anchorman who regularly presents himself as standing up for American working men and women against those who would injure them. Hosting "Lou Dobbs Tonight" for a prime-time hour every weekday, he is also well known and powerful. So when Dobbs focuses on an issue, millions of Americans learn just what it is that Dobbs thinks they should know.

For more than two years now, Dobbs has served up a populist approach to immigration on nightly segments of his newscast entitled "Broken Borders." He has relentlessly covered the issue, although hardly from a traditional news perspective -- Dobbs favors clamping down on illegal immigration, and his "reporting" never fails to make that clear. He has covered the same issues, and the same anti-immigration leaders, time after time after time. In recent months, Dobbs has run countless upbeat reports on the "citizen border patrols" that have sprung up around the country since last April's Minuteman Project, a paramilitary effort to seal the Arizona border.

But there's one thing Lou Dobbs won't do. No matter what others report about the movement, Dobbs has failed to present mounting and persistent evidence of anti-Hispanic racism in anti-immigration groups and citizen border patrols.

Link

And now for a little dose of reality: Many of Lou's " American patriot " guests who represent organizations that help protect our "broken borders" have ties to various white supremacist groups, racist organizations and recognized hate groups. Lou often presents his "minutemen" guests as the bulwark against the rising tide of illegal immigration, when in fact these guests are in fact no more than racist vigilantes.

GLENN SPENCER, head of the anti-immigration American Patrol, has been interviewed at least twice on the show, on Jan. 7 and June 4, 2004. Spencer's Web site is jammed with anti-Mexican vitriol and he pushes the idea that the Mexican government is involved in a secret plot to take over the Southwest -- facts never mentioned on Dobbs' show.
-snip-
Spencer has spoken at least twice to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, which has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity," and once to American Renaissance, a group that contends that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. Dobbs has never reported those ties…

Link

BARBARA COE, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, was quoted on a show last March bitterly attacking Home Depot for "betray[ing] Americans," apparently because Hispanic day laborers often gather in front of the store looking for work. Not mentioned were her group, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, or the fact that she routinely refers to Mexicans as "savages." Coe recently described herself as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a "white pride" group formed from the remnants of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that were once described by Thurgood Marshal as "the uptown Klan." She also told The Denver Post in November that she had given a speech to the group.

A man named JOE MCCUTCHEN was quoted last April as part of a feature on the Minuteman Project, described by Dobbs as "a terrific group of concerned, caring Americans." No mention was made of the fact that McCutchen, who heads up an anti-immigration group called Protect Arkansas Now, had written a whole series of anti-Semitic letters to the editor and given a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens -- facts revealed the prior January by SPLC, causing Arkansas' Republican governor to denounce McCutchen's group.

In fact Dobbs regularly praises the excellent work done by the Minutemen and the other "border security" militias that patrol our southern borders. This, despite the fact that many of these groups are following in a long tradition of racist border vigilantism.

Although Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist are seen as the fathers of the Minuteman movement, citizen vigilante border patrols are not a new concept. Simcox and Gilchrist are following in the footsteps of other anti-immigrant activists before them, and it is well-trodden ground.

Klansmen were on the Mexican border 28 years before the Minutemen co-opted the concept. And they were talking about the Hispanic immigration threat more than five decades before that. Southern Poverty Law Center

The article goes on to profile many more of Dobbs’ guests along with analyzing some of Dobbs’ reporting, particularly his tendency to present misrepresentations, and sometimes downright lies as fact.

… according to Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media monitor. In 2003, FAIR added, a reporter on Dobbs' show grossly mischaracterized a National Academy of Sciences report. The report found that immigrants provided a net gain of $1 billion to $10 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product, but the CNN reporter said the report had found the economic impact of immigrants worked out to a net loss of up to $10 billion.

Link

Your mother always warned you that you would be judged by the company you keep, This is perhaps some advice Mr Dobbs should take to heart.

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The Nativists

The Southern Poverty Law Center has released an Intelligence Report on a number of extremist anti-immigrant advocates.

The report, entitled: The Nativists looks at twenty of the most prominent anti-immigrants leaders and spokesmen. Some of them might be familiar faces, as they often turn up on news and opinion shows and pass themselves off as pundits and experts. Also included in the list are well known politicians like Tom Tancredo.

The investigation highlights some of these “leaders” rhetoric, policies and beliefs, and uncovers just how far they are from any mainstream ideology. With ties to white supremacists and other racist groups, these leaders who often try to pass themselves off as concerned citizens simply trying to “protect “ the American people, are exposed for what they really are - nothing more racist xenophobes.

Here's a look at the introduction:
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

The Nativists
Around the country, an anti-immigration movement is spreading like wildfire. An array of activists is fanning the flames.
By Susy Buchanan and Tom Kim


One of them says he'd like to bring nuclear weapons to the border. Another vows to stop the alleged Mexican invasion of Idaho. Several have links to white supremacist hate groups; others are given to dire warnings of horrible diseases, "barbaric" practices, and secret Latino conspiracies to "reconquer" the American Southwest. These are the nativists -- the new crop of activists who are driving the movement that exploded last spring with the Minuteman Project in Arizona, a month-long effort by armed civilians to seal the border with Mexico. Along with a whole array of media enablers (see Broken Record and Nativism On Air), they have barged into the nation's consciousness with remarkable success. Some of them, like Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist, have made attempts to win high political office. Others have contented themselves with trying to build a mass movement. Not all those who have joined the movement are extremists -- many are legitimately concerned about the ability of the nation to absorb large numbers of immigrants, particularly the undocumented. But one thing seems clear: A dangerous mix of nativist intolerance, armed and untrained civilians, and wild-eyed conspiracy theories could easily explode into violence.

Read Complete Report

This is a must read for anyone following the immigration debate. Understanding these Nativists, and just how dangerous they are is the first step in addressing any debate on immigration and immigration reform. These people continually misrepresent and sugarcoat their xenophobic and racists beliefs in order to garner favor with the American public. The only way to combat them is turn on the light and expose them for what they really are.

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Texas Border Wars

Crossposted from Man Eegee - Latino Politico


Blogger XicanoPwr has a new entry up regarding the situation in Texas. Here's a section regarding propaganda and its usage in the xenophobic fires raging in the borderlands.

The mass media is not the only one to portray, a possible border war, the local media as well. Midland's KWES has done a three part series on the Border Sheriff's Coalition's "Operation Linebacker," which also could be found on South Texas Chisme. (See here, here and here). It is interesting how the talking heads at KWES can make things sound so ominous.

It's a place that appears to have no boundaries ... an area so vast and so isolated, that most would have no idea an everyday war is being waged, right here, in Brewster County.
...
Dodson and his deputies are on a mission ... to stop illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from getting into the United States ... a mission known as 'Operation Linebacker.'

"Operation Linebacker is an operation dubbed by the Border Sheriff's Coalition," Dodson explained. "'Linebacker' meaning, just like a football team, we're trying to help out the Border Patrol."

Is it really that simple to manipulate the American public? Apparently so. Sure, we don't think of ourselves as being susceptible to propaganda, or that we are even exposed to propaganda. But we are, it is called advertising. In this case it is not only trying to shoehorn people's attitudes in a particular direction, towards a certain product, but also towards a vision of a culture where the product and the company selling it can flourish.

Go read the whole thing, it's worth it.

Tag: immigration

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The Unending Cycle of Death

I want to welcome a new member to Migra Matters - Mann Eegee. He'll be posting here with immigration related news and views. You can read more from him on other topics at his site: Man Eegee-Latino Politico



By Man Eegee

Crossposted from Man Eegee-Latino Politico

The Arizona Daily Star (based out of Tucson, in southern Arizona) reports the year's first of many Cochise County casualties resulting from failed immigration policies

Border Patrol agents found the body of the first illegal border crosser known to have died this year in Cochise County, the county Sheriff's Department said.

The body was found about 10 a.m. Monday at a spot near Parker Canyon seven miles south of Arizona 83, about 70 miles southeast of Tucson, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said they believe the man, estimated to be in his late 40s found wearing jeans, gray socks, a black belt and with no shirt or shoes died from hypothermia, Capas said. The official cause of death is pending an autopsy.

linkage

This brings the death total to 19 for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2005. Fiscal year...doesn't that make it sound so business-like? as if these human lives are akin to transactions in the market?

There are two forces at war in the borderlands. On one side you have an army of workers, willing to risk everything to ensure the survival of their family. It's a basic human instinct, if you think about it, the need to care for your own.

On the other side are racist hate-mongers like these groups.
Now do you see why I am frustrated with ambiguous positions by Democrats? Look at the unholy alliances they are considering by taking a closed-border stance. These are groups that hate Latinos, even American-born Latinos.

It's so unnerving.

Tag: immigration

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Immigration policy may cost Republicans Florida

What started out a few days after the New Year as a routine coast guard intervention off the coast of Florida may turn out to be the Republican's Achilles heel in the heavily contested Sunshine State. The exile Cuban community, who have long been solid GOP supporters, are starting to look at other alternatives in light of the administration's recent tough stance on immigration. The deportation of 15 Cuban refugees plucked off the Flagler Bridge in the Florida Keys in January is just the latest in a long series of events that have exiles concerned that the current immigration policies of the Administration coupled with the increasing rhetoric to "closed the borders" coming from certain elements within the party have left them no choice but to rethink their positions.

It all started in the early morning darkness of Jan. 5, when at 4a.m. the ramshackle boat containing 15 Cuban refuges began to sink just feet from the dilapidated remains of the Old Seven Mile Bridge that used to link the mainland to the Keys. Clamoring onto the bridge abutment, the refugees began making frantic calls to friends and relatives in Miami to come rescue them, believing they had set foot on US soil and safely made it to their destination. According to the current "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cuban refugees who manages to reach dry land in the United States are usually allowed to remain in the country, while those caught at sea are sent back.

But before relatives could arrive, a Coast Guard cutter showed up and began processing the refugees for deportation. Apparently, the old bridge, which runs parallel to its current replacement, had fallen into disrepair over the years and due to missing spans, is no longer is considered “connect to land” according to Coast Guard Officials. This is despite the fact that bridges, piers, abutments and rock outcroppings are considered land under current rules.

``The `bridge' is kind of a misnomer,'' said Coast Guard Lt. Commander Chris O'Neil, spokesman for the department's Southeast region. He said officials in Washington determined the Cubans should be considered ``feet wet,'' because they were not able to walk to land from where they landed.

In any other place, the incident might have gone down as just another example of how the Bush administration has gotten tough on immigration. But not here in Miami, home to the million-strong and politically potent Cuban exile community, where many people say the "wet foot, dry foot" rule is ambiguous and unfairly applied. Outraged, South Florida's Cubans are directing their anger squarely at President Bush, who carried Florida largely on the strength of their vote in the last two presidential elections.

At least one influential Cuban, Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), said it might be time for the Cubans to do the unthinkable -- reconsider their unwavering loyalty to Republican candidates.

"This community must face the realization that politicians, especially national politicians, come here to Miami when they need our votes and forget their promises," he said. "President Bush came here and said he would review this policy, and nothing has happened. Cuban voters will be looking into this reality a little bit when they cast their votes."

Washington Post

more below the fold
Tag: immigration

This incident comes on the heels of controversial policy changes in Dec. 2003 and June 2004 that put new travel restrictions on exiles wishing to visit Cuba. The new restrictions:

*limited Cuban-Americans to family visits only every three years (no humanitarian or emergency exceptions);
*redefined "family" to include only immediate members;
*eliminated the "fully-hosted" category of legal travel entirely;
*restricted travel for education to semester-long for-credit full-time college or graduate students

Cuba Solidarity

Exile leaders also complain that the Coast Guard has gotten more aggressive in policing the border. "Cubans have watched in horror as Coast Guard workers tackled Cubans like linebackers when they leapt from boats and made a dash from surf to sand.

Cubans have also been shocked by television footage of Coast Guard cutters bumping rickety handmade craft as refugees wafted toward land, sometimes causing people to tumble out of boats and drown."

As the exile community reassesses its place in the Republican Party, Florida's Republican leadership has been scrambling to shore up support. Gov. Jeb Bush along with Sen. Mel Martinez put in calls to the White House on behalf of the 15 bridge deportees, while South Florida's Cuban- American U.S. House members launched a lobbying campaign to convince the Bush administration to change the controversial ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy.

But the Florida Republicans will come up against some resistance from within their own party as the immigration issue begins to move closer to the center of political debate. Next month, the Senate is expected to start debate on various immigration bills, including the anti-immigrant - HR 4437, the Kennedy/McCain bill, John Cornyn's bill and quite a few others. Many Republicans are lobbying for legislation that will have much stricter restrictions on immigration and harsher penalties for undocumented immigrants.

In this climate, and given the Presidents reluctance to address the issue beyond his calls for guest workers, it might be impossible for the Republicans to reach any sort of compromise that would alleviate the concerns of Florida's Cuban community. If that is the case, the state that was already the most electoraly volatile in the nation may become out of reach for future republican candidates.

( authors note: The newest WaPo article reports the incident at the bridge as taking place on Dec. 26. All other reports, including those coming out of Havana have the refugees leaving Cuba on 1-2, and arriving at the bridge in the early morning hours of Thurs 1-5. The final deportation was on 1-9. I have contacted WaPO to see if they can confirm the 12-26 date, If they are in fact correct it would mean that the refugees were held in custody for fourteen days before deportation. That would change the story considerably… as it would mean that there was more than enough time for the Administration to intercede on the refugee's behalf if they wanted to. I will update accordingly)

Addition references:
Miami herald 1-9-06
Guardian 1-11-06
Miami Herald 1-10-06
Cuban American National Foundation
Miami Herald 2-07-06
San Diego Union Tribune 12-18-05

Other stories from Migra Matters on the bridge refugees:
here
here

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Local immigration news round-up of from Arizona

Man Eegee has an excellent round-up of local immigration news coming out of Arizona. The anti-immigrant legislation seems to be coming out fast and furiously in the Grand Canyon State. Most of these stories rarely make the national news, but from what I've been seeing lately, the anti-immigrant movement has been concentrating on the local and state levels all over the country to get their legislation passed. Man Eegee gives us a good example of what's going on in his part of the world.

Immigration News from the Front Lines

Living in the Borderlands of the Southwest U.S. provides an interesting outlook on the immigration battles being waged in Washington, D.C. There are currently two dueling bills in the Senate alone, both with Arizona lawmaker-support. President Bush has taken a somewhat moderate position on any future reform packages, but it is clear that many members of his base are not willing to budge from their hardlined stance.

Here on the homefront, the state legislature has been working to actively encroach on the rights of undocumented immigrants. The ideological split is decidedly conservative, so it is frustrating for me as a Latino liberal to read the headlines whenever they decide to combat their fear of the eeeeeevil aliens crossing the border.

For example, yesterday a bill was passed that would allow local law enforcement agents to get in on the human round-up action

The Arizona Senate approved a bill yesterday that would expand a trespassing law so local authorities could arrest illegal immigrants.
Supporters say the approach would help communities catch illegal immigrants who manage to slip past federal authorities in Arizona, the busiest illicit entry point along the nation's porous southern border.

It's not easy maintaining a cool temper when you stop to realize that you are a member of the only group of people who are actively hunted in the United States. Hunted!

This follows on the heels of two proposals passed on Wednesday that will increase penalties for employers who hire undocumented immigrants

A committee of the Arizona Legislature approved two proposals Wednesday that would create a state law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Some advocates for lessening Arizona's role as the nation's busiest illegal entry point said employers are fueling the problem by giving construction, agricultural and service industry jobs to immigrants.

Illegal immigrants account for 10 percent of all Arizona workers and more than 4 percent of all workers in the U.S. economy, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates.

[snip]

While both state proposals would prohibit illegal hirings, the key distinction between the two is that one bill would protect businesses from prosecution if they trained their human resource employees to comply with federal hiring rules and if they followed other requirements.

linkage

To read the complete roundup from Man Eegee click here

Tag: immigration

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There's no US monopoly on wingnuttery

I have spent a lot of time investigating the native wingnuts of the US, particularly in regards to their opinions regarding immigration and immigration reform. Up until now I have been laboring under the misconception that the phenomenon - although not limited to US - had reached a zenith of ignorance and bigotry in the likes of Tom Tancredo, Pat Buchanan, JD Hayworth, Jim Sensenbrenner and Lou Dobbs that could not be matched in other civilized nations. Especially in Canada, that friendly place up north.

But now from our neighbors to the north comes an example of wingnuttery that comes close to surpassing anything our native variety have been able to come up with.

From the Coalition for a Humanistic Euro- British Canada

The coalition believes it is crucial that the founding cultures and peoples of Canada be given their rightful recognition in the affairs of the nation in all respects. We believe that British culture needs to be promoted and enhanced.

In view of this, we must ask that immigration cease to be discriminatory against those who originate from the continental European area as that is where we think the protections we are seeking for founding cultures of Canada can be best demonstrated. If we continue as we are to have more immigrants who are not from these areas we are in fact demonstrating that we are being unfair to those who have founded this country and given it what has made it a “paradise on earth” for all to see and desire for themselves as an example of how to live. We must be fair to all concerned. We ask no more! We’d like the Euro as our currency.

Many of the US variety of wingnuts call for "English only" legislation to try to ensure that English remains the "official language" of the country. Our friends from the Coalition for a Humanistic Euro- British Canada do them one better …they call of English to become the "official language" of ….THE ENTIRE WORLD.
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

We suggest that the English language has been universally adopted as the official language of the world because the culture from which it comes continues to exhibit a fairness and judiciousness, rationality and kindliness that all peoples all over the world think right to accept. We would like to have a kindly approach taken to teaching this culture completely to those who will be altogether accepting of such great ideals. To those whose capacities are maximized and done justice to universally if we only preach the kindly message of true generosity, true fairness and kindness so that it comes from the heart to begin with, and is improved and actualized by showing the beauty of Jane Austen and Upstairs Downstairs

While Tancredo and his ilk would be quite content to build a wall to keep out the kind of people they do not want in the US …. The Euro-Brit Coalition is willing to put their money where their mouths are and provide free housing and cash bonuses to the "right people" to come in.

To this end, we advocate a pro-active approach to immigration… We would like incentives such as a free home, furniture and cash rewards to those who we should therefore be much more completely welcoming of in this country and elsewhere.

And just who would get these cash bonuses… who are the "right people"…white Europeans and South Africans, of course.

A massive influx of (especially) European,Russian, Ukranian & Mediterrenean immigration with classes to ensure cultural assimilation….We would like to see recognition for the credentials of those professionals such as Doctors from Russia, Ukraine, Romania, etc.

NO discrimination against White South Africans wishing to flee to Canada. We'd accept very high quotas indeed to alleviate suffering under new circumstances.

Some people whom the Coalition finds highly desirable actually receive personal invitations to emigrate to Canada. Most of them are of course celebrities that the founder of the group finds very appealing :

We'd dearly love to see people of the calibre of Ms. Emma Thomspon, a sensitive intelligent beautiful soul with the greatest sense of Christianly goodness. She'd be a wonderful role model for the many people we hope to attract from the continent.

Likewise the great Mr. Anthony Hopkins for whom we have the greatest regard.

Senator Hillary Clinton. A beautiful soul.

(and some others in this eclectic mix;) Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Diane Keaton, Ann Archer, Rep. Mary Bono (Sonny's wife)

The website also makes recommendations on cars, electronics, movies TV shows and even furniture that “right thinking “ Canadians should show interest in. ( mostly very British or European)

OK .. at this point your probably thinking… this has to be some sort of small, way-out, fringe group who managed to throw up a website… no big deal, wakos throw up websites all the time. Well you're partially right, it looks like the group does not have widespread support and seems to be mostly the pet project of it's founder, Michael E. Chessman, a South Asian gentleman born in Tanzania. (yes …that’s right … an immigrant of South Asian descent… This guy not only drinks the kool-aid, he must own an entire kool-aid factory)

But….

I found out about the “coalition” because it just ran a full page ad in the current issue of Newsweek. They've also taken out full-page ads in over fifty newspapers worldwide in the last five years, including the New York Times and the Daily News.

So they might be small, (like one guy probably) but they have a pretty large war chest.

The Coalition has some other "interesting" policies besides those about immigration:

Middle Eastern Policy: We have long advocated that Palestine might be settled entirely by Jewish peoples given the limited amount of available land to them. We think Israel should allow the Palestenians to continue their lives over in Jordan

Education: Boarding schools in the British style

Trade: Cultural imperatives make European (car) models a much better choice for Canadians. Perhaps Mr. Lee Iacocca could be drafted to help build Euro cars right here for us.

Child Poverty: An end to child poverty in Canada with direct supplements and school meals. Quality toys such as "Anne of Green Gables" dolls and quality metal train sets and the like.

Federalsim: An end to checkerboard style of Federalism in Canada. A strong central government as envisaged by the right honourable Mr. Pierre Elliot Trudeau during his time as Canadian Prime Minister

Code of Chivalry: A return to the recognition of the importance of the family unit. A recognition that feminism is unnatural and hurtful to children, as is the entire concept of disposables (from diapers to children). A return, basically, to the time when men were men and women knew their place in the order of things

Affirmative Action: An end to discriminatory practices which deny the best candidate for the position in favour a lesser qualified candidate… Private Clubs should feel free to be discriminating as to who they wish for their own members (freedom of association)… We would encourage, for example, men and women from universities forming their own private clubs where they may sip a brandy, attired in formal uniform and discuss the future of our nation.

In the end it appears as if the Canadian wingnut wingnuti canidus, although not as widespread or numerous as it's US cousins wingnuti americanus, is far more colorful and flamboyant than anything we have down here in the continuous forty eight.

Disclaimer: This diary is in no way intended to besmirch the people or nation of Canada. I hold the nation and it’s people in the highest regard … besides, we all might be moving up there soon and I would hate to wear out my welcome before I even arrive. So please take this dairy in the manner in which it was intended… with tongue firmly implanted in check .

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Immigration Wars: Open or Closed Borders for America?

A comprehensive discussion of US immigration and border policy hosted by The Independent Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank, entitled:

Immigration Wars: Open or Closed Borders for America?

is a must read for anyone interested in progressive immigration reform. Featuring Peter Laufer former NBC News correspondent and author of "Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border ", along with economist Benjamin Powell, Director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation, The Independent Institute, the presentation covered numerous topics relating to border reform.

From Mr. Laufer:

Some (people) are proponents of open migration. Others want the border secured in various ways. But everybody agrees that the status quo is no good.
-snip-

The next step that I come up with is that pretty much any(one) who wants to come north, comes north. That’s the status of affairs currently. That’s one of the reasons why the border is out of control. …

Then the third part of this thing is we want them to come north. Whether we admit it or not, we want them to come north. That’s why they’re coming north. And this is (what) we’ll be (discussing) here in a minute.

… since everybody’s coming anyway that wants to come, since we want them to come, since we all agree the status quo doesn’t work, why don’t we try something radically different. And what could that be? Well, we just regularize what’s going on anyway.

Because we’ve got ancillary problems on the border.

There are people we don’t want to have come up here... Drug traffickers maybe, crazed terrorists, rapists, murderers, robbers. And we can’t stop these people, because it is so chaotic currently on the border that those that we would like to keep out just are in the shadows of those that we’re embracing…

-snip-

But the way I see it, people come through the border. The reason they’re not coming through the border now is because we’re not letting them in. So if they have some thing like national driver’s license …(some) kind of a card, a passport, whatever it is, and they come walking in and they wave it, and our guys say yeah, yeah, yeah at all these different checkpoints we have. We’ve got dozens of them along the southern border…

And so, they’re no longer running across the desert. They’re no longer dying in the desert. … They are coming through in some kind of an organized manner, and they’re having to show something. So the really bad guys are the ones that are still out in the desert, and they’re no longer in the shadow of this hoard of people that’s coming up.

Mr. Powell covers the topic from a more conventional perspective, arguing that an open border policy would eventually force the Mexican government to enact reforms that would cut down and eliminate the root causes of the mass migration of Mexican citizens to the United States:
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

… an open immigration policy where we allow all workers in who don’t have demonstrated criminal records or are a known terrorist threat would be beneficial compared to the status quo.

-snip-

Why do they come here? They obviously come here because the job opportunities and the wages they can get here are better than what they can get at Mexico--even though they currently face a Border Patrol that’s pushing them through the deserts, risking their lives with dangerous “coyotes,” the name of the people who are transporting them across the border, and having to stay for a long time in the U.S. because they can’t freely cross back to visit their family. With all these hardships factored in, and admittedly not getting so many benefits along with their job, they’re still willing to come for these wages because it’s better than their next best alternative: staying in Mexico.

-snip-

Well, that problem is not fundamentally one of American immigration policy. That’s one of bad policies in Mexico. Mexico taxes too much, spends too much, regulates too much, inflates too much, and is too corrupt. All of these things have to end to have better opportunities in Mexico.

So, why do I bring this up? In part, I think the open-border policy would contribute to making Mexico’s policies better in the long run, hopefully. There’s a well-known model of competition between governments, the Tiebout model in economics, where basically jurisdictions are concerned with their citizens leaving when they’re free to migrate to other areas because they lose their tax base, they lose workers, they lose potential defenders of their country. Well, look at what happened in eastern Europe: you had a whole bunch of bad policies there. They literally built walls to keep their people in. Mexico hasn’t built a wall, to keep people in, with bad policy; we built it for them. Let’s take it down so as they move there’s more pressure on the Mexican government to have to reform in order for it to keep its people there.

Then as they do reform … people tend to move back as they do better. Look at Ireland, a country that for years had net out-mitration. They had a fiscal crisis, they had to reform in the 1990s and 1980s. When they did, all of the sudden since the mid-1990s they’ve had net immigrant inflows into their country, something unheard of in Ireland. It could happen in Mexico, too.

Powell then goes on to dispel many of the common arguments and misconceptions about the economic effects of immigration:

…immigrants have no net social costs over the course of their lifetime. When they first come they might be a little more like that than later, or it might depend more on individual cases, but on net they find they don’t suck up the social services.

-snip-

—estimates that about $22 billion in net gain to current United States people, not to the immigrants themselves coming here—a $22 billion net gain from current levels of immigration. Now, that gain can be bigger if more people are coming in in the future

-snip-

“Despite the popular belief that immigrants have a large adverse impact on wages and employment opportunities on the native-born population, the literature on this question does not provide much support for this conclusion.”

-snip-

A report just came out for this fall’s crop estimated in the Central Valley that between 70,000 and 80,000 workers short of what we need to harvest the crop. That means about $1 billion in projected losses. This isn’t trivial and it isn’t crazy speculation, because something similar happened in Arizona last year. In Arizona last year the winter lettuce crop—they only enough labor to harvest 30 percent of it. They only harvested about 30 percent of it and they lost about $1 billion there too. Now of course, your response might be, sure there might be more American workers if the work was easy and the pay was better, but the fact of the matter is, the farming in parts of the United States often doesn’t justify paying the workers more and giving them more benefits to attract them there. It would mean the loss of farming if we don’t have the labor willing to work under those conditions, and that’s what was happening here when they lost the crops. It simply was even going to be less profitable to go ahead and hire people for higher wages to get the work done. So we need them here for the crops

The transcript contains far more information than can be covered here, including question and answer segments between the audience and both experts. This was an excellent lecture, and should be read by anyone interested in progressive immigration reform.

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Interview with No More Deaths volunteers about arrests of Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss

Click the picture of Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss to view an interview with No More Deaths volunteers about the plight of migrants as they try to cross the desert and the arrest of Sellz and Strauss. (Realmedia/ 5min)

Tag: immigration

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Faith based immigration resource

The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform has an excellent website up with information and actions on the "Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (HR4437) and "The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" (S1033/ HR2330), introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

Their organization Justice for Immigrants is an umbrella group for numerous Catholic charities and faith based groups working for immigration reform and providing immigrant aid and services.

Along with information and actions, the site provides links to immigrant legal services, media links, and links to all member organizations.

For action on S1003 click HERE

Tag: immigration

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HR 4437: King promised changes, but none made

Back in late December, in reaction to an outpouring of concern from church groups and humanitarian aid organizations, co-sponsor of HR 4437 , Rep. Peter King (NY) promised that the bill would be reworded to guarantee that aid workers would be free from prosecution.

It appears that Mr King has changed his mind.
more below the fold
Tag: immigration

KING SAYS HE'LL REWORD BILL
Says he didn't mean to target humanitarian groups after outcry over measure aimed at illegal immigration

Newsday Dec 31, 2005
By Bart Jones and J Jioni Palmer
Staff writers

After an outpouring of criticism from churches and relief groups, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said Friday he is willing to reword the legislation he co-sponsored that would have made it illegal to assist undocumented immigrants.

The bill calls for building a 698-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, turning undocumented immigrants into felons and permitting "deputization" of local and state police officers as immigration agents.

But it also included a provision that makes it a crime for anyone to assist undocumented immigrants to "come or remain" in the United States.

Immigrant advocates and officials from churches and relief agencies said this could lead to the imprisonment of priests, nuns, social workers, doctors and Good Samaritans who may provide these immigrants with anything from counseling to a ride to the grocery store.

King said that was never the intention of the provision, which he said targets gangs that smuggle undocumented immigrants into the country.

The measure "is not aimed at humanitarian groups at all," said King, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "If there are any specific words they want changed, I can assure you that will be done."

King said the groups were misinterpreting the bill and that "the church is developing a persecution complex here ... If an alien smuggling ring gets a guy into the country and he stops at St. Brigid's at a soup kitchen, we're not going to lock up the pastor of St. Brigid's. They're not part of the smuggling ring."

Some church workers greeted King's words with relief Friday, although they said they were still outraged by the bill in general and do not believe they were misinterpreting its broad language.

"If we can discuss it, excellent," Yanira Chacon, a church outreach worker at St. Brigid's in Westbury, said in Spanish. "The ideal for me is that this bill doesn't pass at all."

Church and immigrant groups call the bill the harshest piece of anti-immigrant legislation in 70 years. Supporters say it would help bring under control a situation of anarchy at the border that has swelled the number of undocumented immigrants in the country to 11 million, including an estimated 100,000 on Long Island.

King said the bill is unlikely to be passed in its present form by the Senate, which he expected to add provisions for a guest-worker program granting temporary visas mainly to low-skilled workers.

However, he did say "a significant portion of it has to become law otherwise no immigration reform bill will pass the House

Newsday (pay link)
alternate link

An examination of the modified bill that was presented to the Senate on January 27, 2006 reveals that no changes have yet been made, and in fact it puts many humanitarian workers in great legal jeopardy.

SEC. 202. ALIEN SMUGGLING AND RELATED OFFENSES.
(a) IN GENERAL- Section 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324) is amended to read as follows:

`ALIEN SMUGGLING AND RELATED OFFENSES
`SEC. 274. (a) Criminal Offenses and Penalties-

`(1) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES- Whoever--

`(A) assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person to come to or enter the United States, or to attempt to come to or enter the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to come to or enter the United States;

`(B) assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person to come to or enter the United States at a place other than a designated port of entry or place other than as designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security, regardless of whether such person has official permission or lawful authority to be in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien;

`(C) assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States, or to attempt to reside in or remain in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to reside in or remain in the United States;

`(D) transports or moves a person in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to enter or be in the United States, where the transportation or movement will aid or further in any manner the person's illegal entry into or illegal presence in the United States;

`(E) harbors, conceals, or shields from detection a person in the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to be in the United States;

`(F) transports, moves, harbors, conceals, or shields from detection a person outside of the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien in unlawful transit from one country to another or on the high seas, under circumstances in which the person is in fact seeking to enter the United States without official permission or lawful authority; or

`(G) conspires or attempts to commit any of the preceding acts,

shall be punished as provided in paragraph (2), regardless of any official action which may later be taken with respect to such alien.

`(2) CRIMINAL PENALTIES- A person who violates the provisions of paragraph (1) shall--

`(A) except as provided in subparagraphs (D) through (H), in the case where the offense was not committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain, be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(B) except as provided in subparagraphs (C) through (H), where the offense was committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain--

`(i) in the case of a first violation of this subparagraph, be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both; and

`(ii) for any subsequent violation, be imprisoned for not less than 3 years nor more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(C) in the case where the offense was committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain and involved 2 or more aliens other than the offender, be imprisoned for not less than 3 nor more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(D) in the case where the offense furthers or aids the commission of any other offense against the United States or any State, which offense is punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year, be imprisoned for not less than 5 nor more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(E) in the case where any participant in the offense created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person, including--

`(i) transporting a person in an engine compartment, storage compartment, or other confined space;

`(ii) transporting a person at an excessive speed or in excess of the rated capacity of the means of transportation; or

`(iii) transporting or harboring a person in a crowded, dangerous, or inhumane manner,

be imprisoned not less than 5 nor more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(F) in the case where the offense caused serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of title 18, United States Code, including any conduct that would violate sections 2241 or 2242 of title 18, United States Code, if the conduct occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States) to any person, be imprisoned for not less than 7 nor more than 30 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;

`(G) in the case where the offense involved an alien who the offender knew or had reason to believe was an alien--

`(i) engaged in terrorist activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B)); or

`(ii) intending to engage in such terrorist activity,

be imprisoned for not less than 10 nor more than 30 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both; and

`(H) in the case where the offense caused or resulted in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for not less than 10 years, or any term of years, or for life, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both.

`(3) EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION- There is extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over the offenses described in this subsection.

`(b) Employment of Unauthorized Aliens-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Any person who, during any 12-month period, knowingly hires for employment at least 10 individuals with actual knowledge that the individuals are aliens described in paragraph (2), shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.

`(2) ALIEN DESCRIBED- A alien described in this paragraph is an alien who--

`(A) is an unauthorized alien (as defined in section 274A(h)(3)); and

`(B) has been brought into the United States in violation of subsection (a).

Thomas/Library of Congress

As written, the bill would make activities such as providing undocumented immigrants with food, medical care, counseling, or even transportation to a doctor or grocery store a crime punishable with up to five years imprisonment.

We obviously should not accept Mr. King at his word. Hopefully church groups and humanitarian aid services will not be lulled into a false sense of security by Mr. Kings assertions

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Former AZ Supreme Court Chief Justice Joins Defense for Indicted Humanitarians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6th, 2006
Former AZ Supreme Court Chief Justice Joins Defense for Indicted Humanitarians

Tucson, AZ: Following a 1:30 hearing in which supporters of No More Deaths once again filled the courtroom, former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Stanley Feldman announced that he will join attorneys Bill Walker and Jeff Rogers as Council of Record for defendants Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss.

Justice Feldman (who is not related to prosecutor Irene Feldman) decided to join the case after acting as an independent consultant for Shanti and Daniel, who had been ordered by Magistrate Bernardo Velasco to speak with outside attorneys in relation to a potential conflict of interest for defense attorney Bill Walker.

After supporting Walker?s role as counsel for defendant Shanti Sellz, Justice Feldman expressed interest in joining the defense and will now serve pro-bono as co-counsel.

Shanti and Daniel were arrested on July 9th, 2005 while medically evacuating three sick migrants to Tucson. At the time of their arrest they were acting on the advice of two physicians and a nurse, who had directed them to seek emergency medical care. They
have since been charged with two felonies and face a maximum of fifteen years in prison, all for attempting to save lives in the midst of the deadliest month on record along the Arizona border.

In response to the charges against Shanti and Daniel No More Deaths has launched the campaign Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime. More than 50,000 petitions have been sent to U.S. prosecutor Paul Charlton calling on him to drop the charges, Seventy-five hundred yard-signs are distributed across southern Arizona, and various community leaders and groups have come together to voice their outrage at this wrongful
prosecution. More than 2,000 individuals and organizations have endorsed the campaign.

Some of these endorsers include:

• Amnesty International


• the American Civil Liberties Union


• Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 16th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA


• Sister Kathleen Mary McCarthy Esq., Senior Vice President of Missions, Carondelet Health Network


• Episcopal Bishop Kirk Smith, Arizona Diocese


• the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People


• the AFL-CIO (Pima County)


• Dozens of local and national elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva


• More than 50 churches and 100 religious leaders nationwide

Since 2003 the No More Deaths coalition has worked to mitigate the human toll of Americas failed border policies. Hundreds of medical professionals, church
volunteers and community leaders have provided humanitarian assistance along the border, encountering thousands of people in need and providing direct medical assistance, as well as advocating for policies that will resolve the border crisis and provide real security.

No More Deaths continues to call on the United States to cease the wrongful prosecution of Shanti and Daniel, and to come to the table to define legal avenues for humanitarian assistance. Every year hundreds of children, women and men die needless deaths along our border. We must work together to end this human tragedy. Humanitarian aid isnever a crime!

For more information, please visit
No More Deaths.org or call (520) 882-5466.

Tag: immigration

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One more piece in the "Immigration Reform" puzzle

One of the underlying problems with the recently passed "Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (H.R. 4437) has always been the shear impracticality of it. Let's set aside the questions of constitutionality, infringement on basic human rights, lack of judicial checks and balances and inherent racism of HR 4437, and simply examine it from a practical point of view. The bill, as written, would appear to be totally unenforceable.

But leave it to the Bush administration to turn to a familiar "friend" to remedy that situation: Halliburton
more below the fold
Tag: immigration


The bill, in theory, calls for the arrest and possible detention of millions of undocumented immigrants.

Mandatory Detention
Under current law, individuals who arrive without documents, including asylum-seekers, are subject to mandatory detention. Again this applies mainy to those arriving at airports or by sea. 60% of detainees are held in local jails under contract to the federal government, where they are generally not segregated from the criminal population even if they are asylum-seekers and others with no criminal record.

Under this new bill, the mandatory detention policy would be extended to all non-citizens who are detained at any port of entry or anywhere “along” the border for any reason.

“Illegal Presence” and “Aggravated Felonies,”
Section 203 of HR 4437 calls for the creation of a new federal crime of “illegal presence”. As defined in the bill it includes any violation, even technical, of any immigration law or regulation. Even if the immigrant was to fall “out of status” unintentionally, or do to paperwork delays. In essence, the bill makes every immigration violation, however minor, into a federal crime. As drafted, the bill also makes the new crime of “illegal presence” an “aggravated felony” for immigration purposes. This classification would have the further effect of restricting ordinary undocumented immigrants (including those with pending applications) from many forms of administrative or judicial review. Those convicted of an "aggravated felony" would be subject to indefinite detention and/or expedited removal.

Indefinite Detention
Indefinite detention currently applies to non-citizens ordered removed from the United States whose countries refuse to accept them or who have no country because they are stateless. Most often they come from countries without good relations with the United States.

HR 4437 would permit indefinite detention of an increased broad class of non-citizens, including:

• those with a contagious disease
  
• any non-citizen convicted of an “aggravated felony,” (see above)
  
• non-citizens whose release would pose foreign policy problems
  
• non-citizens charged even with very minor immigration violations who, based on secret evidence, are deemed a national security risk.

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So how does the DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement plan to hold the possible millions of undocumented immigrants that HR4437 would place into the detention system? At the present time ICE runs only fifteen detention facilities throughout the continental US. Certainly if HR4437 were to pass, this small number of facilities would be overwhelmed within the first months, if not weeks of enactment.

This has always been one of the great practical stumbling blocks in this ill-conceived bill. It would take a monumental shift in ICE's capabilities to incarcerate the immigrants charged with the various new crimes as outlined in HR4437.

Thanks to Halliburton, this capability is about to grow significantly.

Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers
New York Times

A spokesman for the corps, Clayton Church, said that the centers could be at unused military sites or temporary structures and that each one would hold up to 5,000 people.

"When there's a large influx of people into the United States, how are we going to feed, house and protect them?" Mr. Church asked. "That's why these kinds of contracts are there."

-snip-

In recent months, the Homeland Security Department has promised to increase bed space in its detention centers to hold thousands of illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. In the first quarter of the 2006 fiscal year, nearly 60 percent of the illegal immigrants apprehended from countries other than Mexico were released on their own recognizance.

Domestic security officials have promised to end the releases by increasing the number of detention beds. Last week, domestic security officials announced that they would expand detaining and swiftly deporting illegal immigrants to include those seized near the Canadian border

Advocates for immigrants said they feared that the new contract was another indication that the government planned to expand the detention of illegal immigrants, including those seeking asylum.

"It's pretty obvious that the intent of the government is to detain more and more people and to expedite their removal," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. .

Once again Halliburton looks to become the direct beneficiary of Republican sponsored legislation and policy.

Halliburton's involvement in HR 4437 also raises numerous questions:

As we have already seen in Iraq, KRB has not only a terrible track record in regards to billing issues and its ability to actually accomplish its missions; many of its contracts appear to be nothing short of sweetheart deals made with the DOD. Was this another example of that?

Additionally, a serious examination of Halliburton's future effect on this legislation must be watched. As it moves through the Senate will KRB's involvement place undue pressure on legislators to prevent the more draconian measures in the bill from being thoroughly debated?

Once again it looks like we're about to see policy being formulated more for the benefit of the corporations with ties deep inside the Whitehouse, rather than for the benefit of the American people. Unfortunately it looks like millions of hard working immigrants, whose only wish is to make a better life for themselves and their families, will become the next pawns in the big money games being played in Washington.

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