Sometimes Secrets are Hidden in Plain Sight

Over the past few months much has been made of the possibility of the enactment of immigration reform by the current Congress. The President has promised on numerous occasions to make immigration reform a top priority, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), has assured that he has the votes to move legislation forward, and the Chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who will take the lead on crafting any new legislation, has laid out a seven-point blueprint for new legislation.

Against this backdrop, advocacy groups are ramping up campaigns to lobby legislators and mobilize activists to aid in the upcoming battle. And while the effort to coalesce a unified front by the pro-reform forces is unprecedented, having both a level of organization and outreach unseen in past legislative battles, the campaign thus far has been long on familiar sloganeering and promises to trust the DC establishment to do the right thing, and very short on the specifics of what any new legislation will look like.

As those of us who have engaged in past reform battles know, (albeit more as outsiders and observers than real participants at the table), the devil really is in the details of any legislation, and those details are, more often than not, kept secret until the very last moments.

During the 2007 battle, much of the "compromise" part of the Grand Compromise was kept under wraps until the legislation was about to be moved to the Senate floor for the amendment process. In fact, a strategy to revise the legislation after passage in both houses, while in Conference Committee, or through legal challenge, was only revealed by DC insiders after the bill had already crashed and burned.

Those advocacy groups who have been privy to the past efforts to craft legislation have often acted unilaterally, without the knowledge of friends, allies, and those they claim to represent, to decide what principles and policies they believe are negotiable and expendable in the quest of compromise and consensus.

With that past history in mind, the current ambiguity surrounding the coming legislative battle becomes all the more troubling.

To say we have received mixed messages from both the administration and Democratic leadership would be a gross understatement. While talking about substantive change and reform that will be practical and truly humane on the one hand, we hear much familiar rhetoric and jargon that reinforces the failed enforcement centric policies of the past.

In fact, in just the past week we saw the passage of enforcement-only amendments in the Democratic lead Senate, and a reaffirmation of the administration's commitment to the failed Bush- era programs like E-Verify and (287)G. And while some argue that the political posturing and grandstanding we witnessed last week are just that … only political theater …. it is clear that without presenting clear principles, and a vision of what real meaningful reform will look like, we are left with little more to judge these actions by than the usual DC tendency to talk out of both sides of their mouths simultaneously.

Even in cases where the political leadership has laid out a rough blueprint for reform, it has raised more concerns and questions than reassurances and answers. Senator Schumer's seven-point guideline is a case in point:

In all, Schumer announced seven principles that he said would form the basis for the legislation he intends to introduce by the fall:

1. Illegal immigration is wrong, and a primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.

2. Operational control of our borders--through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology, and border personnel--must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.

3. A biometric-based employer verification system—with tough enforcement and auditing—is necessary to significantly diminish the job magnet that attracts illegal aliens to the United States and to provide certainty and simplicity for employers.

4. All illegal aliens present in the United States on the date of enactment of our bill must quickly register their presence with the United States Government—and submit to a rigorous process of converting to legal status and earning a path to citizenship—or face imminent deportation.

5. Family reunification is a cornerstone value of our immigration system. By dramatically reducing illegal immigration, we can create more room for both family immigration and employment-based immigration.

6. We must encourage the world’s best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but must discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers; and finally

7. We must create a system that converts the current flow of unskilled illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable and controlled flow of legal immigrants who can be absorbed by our economy.


Sen. Chuck Schumer

Schumer's reliance on increased border control and "tough enforcement" offers little new insight or leadership and owes more ideologically to the failed efforts of the past than any constructive model to actually effect meaningful change. And while he has clearly offered a more substantive picture of future reform than the administration, Schumer still leaves more questions than answers about legislative specifics.

The fact that this "new" initiative was welcomed by the DC advocacy establishment with few questions asked leaves one to wonder exactly how much has been learned from past failures, and perhaps more importantly, how much real change are they willing to fight for.

Yet, it is just this ambiguity and lack of specifics about future legislation that has allowed DC advocates and their Democratic allies to build an impressive new coalition and organizational infrastructure.

Playing a game of "we'll just have to wait and see what the legislation looks like", has allowed them to be all things to all people. Making promises that will never be kept and playing on the hopes of those seeking real change.

But luckily for us, an actual comprehensive blueprint for what the "middle ground" on immigration reform will look like was published last week by The Council on Foreign Relations.

The almost 150 page study, written by a panel headed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Clinton Chief of Staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty III gives us perhaps the clearest indicators of where the triangulation on immigration reform will end up. … A secret clearly kept in plain sight.

And while the report makes some very sound and promising observations and recommendations, it also makes some that are highly troubling and others that are downright dangerous.

It divides the immigrant population into two segments; those deemed highly desirable (skilled, educated, English-speaking) and those deemed less desirable (unskilled workers) and suggests setting up a two tiered system whereby "desirable" immigrants are not only welcomed, but actively recruited, while the unskilled are subject to quotas, or must enter as guest workers. It endorses biometric data collection on workers to assure eligibility to work legally in the country, calls for increased enforcement both at the border and workplace, and supports increased enforcement cooperation between state, local and the federal government.

Many of the mainstream advocacy groups welcomed this report last week citing its clear call for comprehensive reform as a sign of progress and forward movement … but none addressed some of the more troubling recommendations it contained. ….But don’t worry … I'll be covering them in depth later in the week

If this study represents a starting point … the middle ground … from where the debate will proceed, we'll be in deep trouble again going forward.

We have already heard the same rhetoric contained in the report parroted by Reid, Schumer, and the administration.... Leading one to believe that it represents a consensus view.

And if those advocacy groups in Washington who supposedly represent the interests of the migrant population believe that this too is an acceptable "middle ground" from which negotiations should proceed it might be time for them to reexamine their priorities.

Read More.....

Summary only...

Reid offers up more of the same

As hundreds of activists from over 200 different organizations were converging on Washington yesterday in an unprecedented campaign to push for immigration reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) announced his intent to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.

Reid, at a press conference with Latino leaders to discuss Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomajor, announced a renewed commitment to making reform a top priority.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday issued the most direct call yet by a Congressional leader for action this year on comprehensive immigration reform.

“As far as I’m concerned, we have three major issues we have to do this year if at all possible: No. 1 is health care; No. 2 is energy, global warming; and No. 3 is immigration reform,” Reid said after a meeting with Hispanic leaders.

Reid ruled out a gradual approach to overhauling the immigration system. And he said comprehensive reform should happen this year.

“I’m not going to deal with immigration on a piecemeal basis; it’s comprehensive reform,” Reid said.

Any legislation that comes to the Senate floor, Reid said, must address border security, expand the guest worker program so it addresses “more than agriculture,” include a pathway to legalization for illegal immigrants and include stronger penalties for companies that employ illegal workers.

Roll Call

While it's good to know that Reid intends to make good on the Democrat's campaign promise to address the issue sooner rather than later, it's hard to believe that he thinks that dredging up the same old failed policies of the past will mollify those gathered in DC this week to work for real change in a failed system.

Deaf to both the political realities on the ground, and human costs of failed enforcement policies and exploitive guest worker programs, Reid's new vision for "comprehensive reform" is no different from that pushed in the past by Bush or McCain/Kennedy.

He offers up nothing new, instead Reid falls back on the familiar triad of enforcement first, more guest worker programs, and legalization with conditions like stiff fines and English acquisition.

The leader suggested that if undocumented residents pass a series of requirements, they should be allowed to stay in the country without threat of arrest but must wait for citizenship consideration behind current applicants who have not immigrated illegally.

“I believe that what you need to do is have penalties and fines. I think they have to learn English, stay out of trouble, pay their taxes and then they don’t go to the head of the line, they go to the back of the line," Reid said.
The Hill

As always, the devil will be in the details when the legislation begins to emerge from committee, but if Reid's vision is the starting point from which this process will proceed, nothing has been learned from the failed efforts of the past.

Change is not more militarization of the border
Change is not more detention in prisons for profit
Change is not more families separated
Change is not more exploitive guest worker programs
Change is not more penalties and fines

If those in Congress and the Administration believe they can simply repackage the same old policies wrapped in a pretty blue "sí se puede" wrapper, and sell them to a public that wants real solutions to real problems, I fear they're in for a rude awakening.

And if those charged with speaking for the immigrant community believe, as they have in the past, that they must accept crumbs left on the table, they too will find that change has past them by.

There is a growing movement demanding real change, and those working towards that goal will lead the way. Those stuck in the past, tied to failed ideas, fearful of rocking a sinking boat will ultimately be left behind.

Read More.....

Summary only...

The Sanctuary Speaks Out Against Verdict in Luis Ramirez Case

From the Editorial Board of The Sanctuary comes not only a condemnation of a miscarriage of justice ... but a call for substantive change.

The Luis Ramirez Murder: A Logical Step in the Process of Establishing a Subhuman Class

Three things immediately shock the conscious soul upon learning about the murder of Luis Ramirez. The simple manner in which he died is the first of those.

Ramirez, a father of three, was beaten to death in the streets of Pennsylvania by as many as seven young men who were at the end of a night of drinking. The motive? Judging by the slurs heaped upon him along with the many blows to his body: apparently nothing more than being out at night while Mexican. The teens who ganged up on Ramirez came upon him walking with a young woman, reportedly his girlfriend’s sister. Obviously bringing threat, they asked him what he was doing out at that time of day. Then they set upon him. In the end it was a final hard kick to the skull which left the 25-year-old father convulsing on the concrete with fatal brain damage.

...snip ....

The murder of Luis Ramirez—like the murders of Marcelo Lucero and Wilter Sanchez and Jose Sucuhañay—are but logical steps in the process of defining a subhuman class of ALIEN and inciting anti-Latino violence, which will continue unless marked changes are made in our society. Changes in the immigration dialogue. Changes in the way pundits frame and discuss the issue. Perhaps even more importantly, changes to the fashion in which both Republicans and Democrats pitch and move legislation. The entire “Enforcement Agenda” that directly links immigration status (and thus all Latinos) to criminality, discussed coolly by seemingly rational voices on both Right and Left, is but the socially and politically acceptable umbrella which shields crimes like the murder of Luis Ramirez. The ubiquitous message resonating from coast to coast of this continent, across which peoples of Latin American descent have been migrating back and forth for thousands of years, is that we are in the crosshairs. And that we deserve to be in those hair-trigger sights.

...snip...

Continuing to reinforce and advocate for the image of a permanent criminal and essentially subhuman class of people by maintaining Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in its current form; the raids that rake psychological gashes into entire communities, the booming detention center industry, stopgap measures like 287g, virulently anti-Spanish language and anti-Mexican rhetoric blasted out over acceptable media outlets, as well as continuing to build up a heavily militarized border—this can end in nothing but more violence against and deaths of Latinos/as in the US, and on a growing scale.


Read complete statement from The Sanctuary

Read More.....

Summary only...

Sheriff Joe to March Immigrant Detainees to Tent City in Chains

Tomorrow afternoon, Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to parade 220 chained immigrant detainees, carrying their own bedding, through the streets of Phoenix from the county jail to their new home in a newly expanded area in Arpaio's infamous "Tent City"

Having expanded his tent facility to house 2500 of the 10,000 inmates currently incarcerated in the county jail with a newly authorized $1.6 million dollar grant from the state, Arpaio vows to fill it with immigrant detainees.

Surrounded by an electrified fence that Joe jokes will be one that immigrants "won't want to scale," the tent facility will eventually become the new home for those caught in Arpaio's racial profiling roundups.

As usual, Arpaio has invited the press to document the hour long march in order fuel his colossal ego and need for constant media attention.

PRESS RELEASE

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
Deputy Lindsey Smith
Media Relations – M.C.S.O.
Spokeswoman
Office: 602-876-1802
L_Smith@MCSO.Maricopa.Gov

ARPAIO ORDERS MOVE OF HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS TO THEIR OWN TENT CITY

Electric Fence to Minimize Escape Risk

(PHOENIX, AZ.) At 1:00 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, 2009, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will order of approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched into a separate area of Tent City, their new place of incarceration until their sentences are served and the illegal aliens are deported to their home countries.

The move to Tent City frees up much needed space in the Sheriff's hard facilities serving as a management tool for potential jail overcrowding, Arpaio says.

More importantly, the move is a financially responsible alternative to taxpayers already over burdened by the economic drain imposed by a growing number of illegal aliens on social services like education and healthcare.

The move also facilitates security and transportation issues as well as provides easier and quicker access for foreign government visits to these inmates, the Sheriff says. The move to Tent City also makes room for the future. Now that the Arizona state government has given Arpaio back his $1.6 million dollars slated for fighting illegal immigration, more arrests by the Sheriff's human smuggling unit and crime suppression operations are anticipated.

"We have expanded the tents to be able to house as many as 2500 inmates out of the 10,000 currently incarcerated in the jails," Arpaio says. "As we planned the expansion, I decided to have a special area to house this particular population of inmate more effectively and safely. Starting tomorrow, Tent City will be their new address," Arpaio says.

Tent City is Arpaio's canvas incarceration compound which he opened in August of 1993. Since then, it has been a safe and cost effective way of housing inmates and has gained worldwide attention as a model jail program. The consolidation of a large number of illegal aliens into Tent City, Arpaio says, should pose no substantial security problems as the area where they will be housed is protected by an electric fence.

"This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape," the Sheriff says. "But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock - literally."

Tomorrow's move is expected to take about an hour as the illegal aliens make their way from the Durango Jail complex to Tent City on Gibson Road. Traffic will be rerouted during the transfer, Arpaio says.

The inmates will enter Tent City through the west gate and pick up their bedding before making their way to their section of the tents.

They will be treated like all other inmates incarcerated here with two exceptions. Arpaio wants them to be instructed in American immigration laws, as a way to help them understand that the violation of these laws has serious consequences not only to them but to society as a whole. And anyone found to violate jail rules, may end up on a chain gang. This chain gang will work to clean the areas of the valley, which have been impacted by human trafficking trade.

The inmate march begins at 1:00 PM on Wednesday beginning at the entrance gate of Durango Jail on Gibson Street. The 220 inmates will march east to Tent City. Interested media are asked to park on the access road west of Estrella Jail at 2939 West Durango. SEE MAP ATTACHED. Sheriff Arpaio will answer questions at 1:30 PM from inside Tent City. Call the on call Media Relations person for more information.

How much longer is this racist clown going to be allowed to continue his one man war on the undocumented.

Forced marches in chains, outdoor tent cities surrounded by electrified fences, forced labor on chain gangs as punishment for misbehavior ... all that's missing from this nightmare scene are the search lights and trained attack dogs....but who knows, maybe Arpaio has those also.

Why not give Joe a call, or drop him an e-mail to let him know just how much you appreciate the fine work he's doing out there in Maricopa Co

Digg This Story

Get the facts of Sheriff Joe

Learn about the costs of Sheriff Joe's antics

Sign a petition demanding a Justice Department investigation into Joe's tactics

Read More.....

Summary only...

More evidence of dysfunctional immigration policy - REDUX

Recently on progressive websites, like Daily Kos, there have been a spate of hyperbolic, anti-immigrant, stories depicting a scourge of H1b visa holders stealing American high-tech jobs and replacing US workers in times of economic uncertainty.

Taking advantage of current economic anxieties, anti-immigrant allies like the Progammers Guild and their allies have seized the opportunity to promote their zero-immigration agenda by depicting foreign workers as the cause for rising unemployment rates.

Of course this would be nothing new if it were coming from the usual right-wing anti-immigrant websites. But by candy-coating their xenophobic message in outrage against evil corporations, and painting themselves as advocates for working Americans, these groups and their followers have managed to find some resonance on progressive websites.

Of course, those who have followed immigration issues for some time are well aware of the nasty streak of xenophobia that permeates the H1b visa debate.

One look at the Programmers Guild Blog, published by Guild President, Kim Berry, reveals just how much this "tech workers union" has in common with the likes of hate groups like FAIR and NumbersUSA.

Legalizing 12 million illegal immigrants will substantially increase our population: Chain-migration occurs when an immigrant becomes a citizen. Citizens have a legal right to bring in family members other than spouses and children. They can bring in their parents, their adult siblings and the spouses and children of their adult siblings.

...Amnesty is not in the U.S. economic interest:

* The plan would flood in cheap labor that, not only would not pay federal income tax, but would often be entitled to the earned income credit.

* Recent immigrants send over $56 billion back to their home countries each year. Over $15 billion bleeds to Mexico, $25 billion to South America and $16 billion to Asia. (Frosty Woodbridge “America's Death by a Thousand Cuts” March 2007)

* The massive population increase would increase demand for imported oil and consumer goods, further exasperating our energy dependency and trade deficit with China.

...The comprehensive approach permit(s) birthright citizenship anchor-baby to continue. Women from as far a China are making tourist trips to the U.S. to drop an anchorbaby, assuring themselves of a path the U.S. citizenship in the future.

Programmers Guild

But with that said, there are in fact huge problems with H1b program.

So with that in mind I figured it might be a good time to re-visit this issue and republish a story from a while back that looked at the H1b issue in a rational and reasonable way without all the immigrant-bashing so prevalent in the current wave of web posts:

MORE EVIDENCE OF DYSFUNCTIONAL IMMIGRATION POLICY
originally published April 4, 2007

While most Americans spent this past weekend relaxing and enjoying the first days of spring, in the personnel offices of Microsoft, and Infosys and in countless immigration attorney's offices across the country, the yearly frenzy of the H-1b work-visa filing deadline was fast approaching. Many, like San Francisco attorney Gali Schaham Gordon, spent Saturday putting the final touches on the up to 50 pages of forms sometimes required for each applicant.

By the end of the Monday deadline, representatives of the USCIS said the agency had received a record 150,000 applications for the 65,000 visas available for the 2008 federal fiscal year.

Since the yearly cap was hit in one day, immigration officials announced they would accept all the applications filed Monday and Tuesday and place them in a computer-generated lottery to determine who will receive the visas, which are reserved for architects, engineers, computer programmers and other high -skilled workers.

The visa program, which claims to insure that the "best and brightest" from around the world have an opportunity to work in America and eventually become citizens, was reduced in less than 24 hours to a random lottery.

Herein lies an example of the underlying dysfunctional nature of the current immigration system.

Programs, which at face value look totally rational and in fact beneficial, turn out, due to incompetence, abuse, and a lack of true regulation and oversight, to be ineffectual to the point of being detrimental to both the immigrants and the American people.

Started in 1990, the H1b visa program was supposed to allow those with special skills, higher education, and technical expertise to enter the country legally to work and eventually receive permanent residency and citizenship. It was touted as the best way to assure that a future Einstein would not be turned away at the border. This is particularly true in the case of those foreign students who make up half of the graduates of US universities with degrees in engineering and mathematics.

But what has happened in the years since it's inception has nearly insured that the truly "best and brightest" would in fact be turned away, or at best be placed in an immigration limbo of endless paperwork, long waits and lotteries. Utilizing a first-come first served system to issue the visas, last years quota ran out in eight weeks... this year...it took less than a day.

In the meantime, an ever increasing number of corporations use the program, and it's lack regulation and oversight, to pad their workforce with temporary workers earning lower wages with little or no legal recourse. Despite claims of portability and competitive wages, many H-1b holders are locked into jobs that pay below market standards with little chance of mobility to find other employment. They are in essence "owed" by those who sponsor them since changing employers forces those trying to get green cards to start the whole process over again with a new sponsor, a process that can take years of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape.

Yet some businesses love the program. Bill Gates regularly makes pilgrimages to Washington to lobby for increased guest-worker for Microsoft even though about one-third of his 46,000 U.S.-based employees have work visas or are former H1b holders who are now legal permanent residents with green cards, according to company spokeswoman Ginny Terzano. Other tech companies are estimated to use guest workers to fill nearly half their employment needs. Since both the H-1b visas, and the employment based green cards that result from them, are limited each year by quotas, the companies that over-utilize them in effect hold a monopoly over the immigration system.

Surely the intent of the program was not to concentrate larger and larger numbers of temporary workers in an ever-decreasing pool of employers. We have no idea yet how many of the 150,000 applications that flooded the USCIS offices on Monday came from Infosys Technologies, Microsoft and Deloitte & Touche, three of the largest users of H-1Bs according to the Department of Labor's office of foreign labor certification, but it's safe to assume they were once again well represented.

Besides the inherent inequity in the program for the immigrants who rely on H-1b visas to live and work in the country, opponents of the program claim that abuses of the system have allowed corporate sponsors to eliminate older, high-paid US workers to be replaced by cheaper foreign labor. Similarly, smaller US companies see the program as not meeting their needs due to its inefficient implementation.

The current H1-B quota is 65,000, but a series of exemptions make that a soft number. In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, the U.S. approved 116,927 H1-B visas.

By law, such temporary work permits are normally issued to persons who hold at least a bachelor's degree. Government data show roughly half of people holding H1-Bs meet that minimum. The other half have master's degrees or better, although high school dropouts with vital experience can qualify -- which happened in 2003 when 117 fashion models won H1-B visas.

H1-B work permits run on a fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Immigration officials say Monday is the soonest they'll accept applications, and employers fear that if they don't file their applications as soon as possible, this first-come, first- served system will exhaust its quota quickly.

...snip...

A similar rush last year forced Seth Sternberg, chief executive of Meebo, to delay some hiring plans. Meebo, a Mountain View developer of a Web site for instant messaging from anywhere, had hoped to add two foreign programmers to its 15-person staff last year. On May 27, the startup filed the paperwork to hire the two people, one from the United Kingdom and the other from Italy. But it turned out that last year's quota had been exhausted the day before Meebo's requests arrived.

"We'll have those applications ready to go day one," Sternberg said last week. He plans to resubmit the visa requests to hire those two same code warriors starting this October

Such frustrations have made an overhaul of the H1-B system a top priority of high-tech leaders.
...snip...

But H1-B critics -- led by older American-born programmers and their academic allies -- say even if U.S. high-tech firms need employees from overseas to stay competitive, the program is flawed in a way that leads to the loss of jobs through outsourcing.

...snip...

... those opposed to lifting the H1-B cap say the present program gives employers all the tools they need to absorb the highly skilled foreign graduates that tech officials talk about, and complain -- with justification -- that the so-called cap of 65,000 is a fiction.

A November report from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services puts the basic quota of H1-Bs at 65,000. But the law also says the first 20,000 H1-B applications filed for any masters' degree candidate or higher do not count against that quota. So that gets the number to 85,000. The report adds that "petitions for new H1-B employment are exempt" for foreigners hired to work at universities, nonprofit research institutions or governmental laboratories, and that would push the cap above 85,000.

According to the report, the United States approved 103,584 H1-B visas in fiscal year 2002; 105,314 in 2003; 130,497 in 2004; and 116, 927 in 2005.


San Francisco Chronicle

Both the H-1b program and its companion, the H-2A agricultural guest worker program, have thus far been dismal failures.

The fatal flaw in all these temporary work programs is a glaring lack of regulation, government oversight, enforcement of labor laws and safety regulations, accountability and administration. Thus far the programs already instituted have been abused and misused by employers to the detriment of both immigrant and US workers.

On Monday, as USCIS sorted through an avalanche of H-1b applications, in Washington, Senators Richard Durbin and Chuck Grassley introduced the "H-1B and L -1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007", a bipartisan effort to address the problems of the guest worker program.

The 32-page Senate bill would impose a host of additional obligations on employers. They would be required to pledge that they made a "good faith" effort to hire an American before taking on an H-1B worker and that the foreigner was not displacing a prospective U.S. worker.

Employers would also have to advertise job openings for 30 days on the Department of Labor's Web site before making H-1B visa applications, and they would be prohibited from advertising positions only to H-1B holders.

In addition, companies with 50 or more workers would not be allowed to employ more than half of their staff through H-1B visas.

In an attempt to discourage employers from hiring foreigners at lower wages than their American counterparts would command, employers would have to pay all H-1B workers the "prevailing wage," as calculated by a different method that raises the minimum to a higher level than it currently stands.

The proposal also aims to beef up the Department of Labor's authority to investigate abuses, giving the department the power to conduct random audits on employers, to review applications for "clear indicators of fraud," and to hire 200 additional employees to administer, oversee and enforce the H-1B program.

Grassley described the bill as aimed at "closing loopholes that employers have exploited by requiring them to be more transparent about their hiring and...ensuring more oversight of these visa programs to reduce fraud and abuse."
Cnet.com

Although a step in the right direction, Senators Durbin and Grassley's proposal still falls short of the kind of real protections needed if any guest worker program is to work. Its worker protections, and employer requirements still leave much to be desired.

If in fact we must accept the idea that immigrant workers must be "tried out" on a temporary basis before they are allowed to join the workforce permanently in order to put together a political coalition willing to address immigration reform in any meaningful way, then we must demand that it be done correctly. If in fact our leadership is correct in their assumption that guest workers are key to passing meaningful reform, the protections afforded by the Durbin bill are a good starting point...but far more needs to be done.

Enforcement of ALL labor laws MUST go beyond 200 inspectors looking for guest worker violations.

Any company applying for as little as one guest worker should be required to meet and/or exceed all labor, occupation safety, and workplace regulations.

Just as many businesses must have yearly licensing and inspections by agencies such as the health department or other regulatory bodies, any business employing guest workers should be required to undergo periodic inspection and licensing by the DOL, OSHA, and all other pertinent labor regulatory agencies in order to continue utilizing the program. Those who do not comply should not only face the penalties already in place for workplace violations but have additional harsh penalties placed upon them in regards to guest worker abuse.

Enforcement of labor standards must be the cornerstone on which any sort of guest worker program is accepted.

If we must accept compromises in order to intact meaningful immigration reform, then those compromises must be made by ALL concerned. To ask workers, both immigrant and native-born to accept guest worker programs without true oversight and regulation, while business is allowed to continue as usual should be deemed unacceptable.

If in fact, businesses need these workers on a temporary basis to fill labor needs as they claim, they should be more than willing to assure that they are doing so within the guidelines of new tough, but fair, regulation.

If they oppose such regulation and oversight it can only be because they wish to exploit workers. ... It's as simple as that.

Read More.....

Summary only...

A Final Spit in the Face from Bush

It's only fitting that in the closing moments of the most lawless administration in our nation's history, President Bush chose as his final act, to grant clemency to two rogue Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed man in the back, then attempted to cover up their crime. From its inception, this administration has always been based on the assumption that those in positions of authority are beyond the constraints law and that cover-ups, secrecy, and lies are acceptable means to an end.

In a move aimed to appease the anti-immigrant base of his party, Bush commuted the sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting suspected marijuana smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, in the back as he fled back across the Mexican border. The agents then attempted to cover-up their actions by filing false reports and hiding evidence.

Their case became a proxy for the greater debate over immigration and border security and a cause celebre for every far-right blowhard from Rush Limbaugh to Lou Dobbs who used it to rally the anti-immigrant right.

Appeals for leniency were generally based on the premise that "these brave men were only doing their job to protect our borders." And that their punishment far outweighed their crimes. Dobbs often called the case "an outright travesty of American justice."

But what was lacking in much of the hyperbolic rhetoric and grandstanding surrounding this case was any regard for the truth.

In their zeal to paint Ramos and Compean as heroes, and use them as pawns in the bigger immigration battle, many of their supporters neglected to explain exactly what the two agents did to eventually be convicted of a crime.

There is a reason a jury found these two men guilty, and it has nothing to do with the politics of immigration reform or the fight against "our broken borders." It has to do with two rogue cops who overstepped the boundaries, then tried to cover up their crime.

It's a story no different than that of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, or more recently Sean Bell where law enforcement officers have used undue and unnecessary force resulting in injury or death. The fact that these particular officers patrolled the border rather than the Bronx or Compton doesn't make their actions any less odious, and it certainly doesn't make them heroes.

When the story first broke, it was presented to the American public as the story of two innocent men persecuted by a government run amuck. The agents claimed that while pursuing a suspected drug smuggler a "scuffle" ensued and the "suspect ... made a motion as if to fire a gun". The agents then fired in self defense in the line of duty. The story as presented by Ramos and Compean and their supporters then became the definitive narrative accepted as fact by the vast majority of the American people

But a statement about the case from the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Johnny Sutton, presented a VERY different picture.

According to evidence presented by the Justice Department, Ramos and Compean were far from the innocent victims of an out of control government set on prosecuting innocent law enforcement agents for simply doing their job.

In response to misstatements and misinformation being reported in the media regarding the prosecution of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, relating to a shooting that occurred while they were on duty as U.S. Border Patrol agents on February 17, 2005, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas releases this advisory summarizing the evidence presented at defendants’ trial.

As will be demonstrated by the summary below, the defendants were prosecuted because they had fired their weapons at a man who had attempted to surrender by holding his open hands in the air, at which time Agent Compean attempted to hit the man with the butt of Compean’s shotgun, causing the man to run in fear of what the agents would do to him next. Although both agents saw that the man was not armed, the agents fired at least 15 rounds at him while he was running away from them, hitting him once.

On February 17, 2005, Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were on duty along the U.S./Mexico border, working out of the Fabens Border Patrol Station. At approximately one o’clock in the afternoon, Agent Compean observed a van near the border about two and a half miles west of Fabens. According to the testimony, the driver of the van, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, failed to yield to Agent Ramos’ attempt to stop him, jumped out of his vehicle and attempted to run back to Mexico. After Ramos told Aldrete-Davila to stop, Ramos drew his service revolver and pointed it at Aldrete-Davila. Aldrete-Davila jumped into a steep ditch filled with dirty water and when he tried to climb the steep incline out of the ditch, he was confronted by defendant Compean, waiting for him with a shotgun pointed directly at him.

During his testimony, Compean acknowledged that at that time Aldrete-Davila held his hands up, as if to surrender, with his palms open, and no weapon was in either hand, or evident on his person. Another agent, who had arrived by this time and observed the scene, heard someone yell “hit him.” Aldrete-Davila, who was at one time a legal resident alien of the United States and speaks some English, also heard someone yell “hit him, hit him,” and specifically heard Compean yell: “Parate, parate, Mexicano de mierda.” (“Stop, stop you Mexican shit.”) According to testimony, Compean swung his shotgun around in an attempt to hit Aldrete-Davila with the butt of his weapon, but lost his footing and fell face down into the dirt and brush. Aldrete-Davila began to run to the river and did not look back. Agent Ramos also testified that when he saw Aldrete-Davila in the ditch, he had an opportunity to look at Aldrete-Davila’s hands, which he is trained to do for self defense and defense of another, and did not see any weapons in either of Aldrete-Davila’s hands. When Aldrete-Davila almost reached the river, but while he was still out in the open vega area, he heard numerous gun shots. Compean fired at Aldrete-Davila at least fourteen times and Ramos fired at Aldrete-Davila once.
…snip…

At the time of the shooting, neither agent Compean nor agent Ramos knew that the van driven by Aldrete-Davila contained 743 pounds of marijuana. The evidence was un-controverted that, at the time the victim was shot, neither agent knew whether the driver was illegally in the United States or whether a crime had been committed. The only information they had was that the driver had failed to pull over to be identified.

DOJ, Western District Texas

Then the crime was followed by attempts by the agents to cover it up.

At the scene, Ramos told a supervisor that as the suspect fled from the vehicle, agent Compean was on the levee attempting to apprehend him. Defendant Ramos said that as the suspect tried to flee Compean either tried to grab the suspect, or did a “side to side” movement, but fell to the ground and got dirt in his eyes. Ramos did not mention the shooting, and said nothing about the suspect having a weapon. At the scene, when asked why he was so excited, Ramos told another agent that it was just the adrenalin that had him all pumped up.

An agent who encountered defendant Compean sometime later, away from the scene of the incident, testified that Compean told him, “That little bitch took me to the ground and threw dirt in my face.” Compean did not indicate that he felt threatened, that his life was in danger, or that the driver had a weapon at any time. Compean did show the agent nine shell casings that he had collected at the scene and indicated he was “probably missing five more casings.” Compean told the agent he had “fired some rounds...did a magazine exchange and fired some more rounds,” and asked the agent to look for the additional casings. The agent proceeded to the scene of the shooting, located the additional five casings, threw them into the drainage ditch and called defendant Compean, using his cellular telephone, to tell him he had found five rounds and threw them away.The removal of the shell casings from the scene made it impossible to do a complete investigation of the shooting.

Testimony elicited at trial clearly established that, until an investigation initiated at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General began on March 4, 2005, no written report had been filed, no oral report had been made, and no person in any official capacity was cognizant of the fact that a shooting had occurred or a firearm had been discharged by any Border Patrol Agent in the direction of an individual fleeing into Mexico after having failed to stop for immigration status identification on February 17, 2005. The only report of any law enforcement activity on file for the Fabens Border Patrol Station on that date was an Immigration and Naturalization form I-44, Report of Apprehension or Seizure, authored by both defendants and signed by Jose Alonso Compean.

DOJ, Western District Texas

Obviously the US Attorney painted a very different picture of the "hero" Border Patrol agents. It's a picture of bad cops abusing their power.

Had they not found Aldrete-Davila's marijuana after the fact, this would have been a clear-cut case of excessive force that even Lou Dobbs could not spin otherwise. Yet the right-wing has used the fact that Aldrete-Davila later turned out to be a criminal as a way to try to justify the agents action.

But it must be remembered that at the time, Alderte-Davis's only crime as far as the agents were concerned was that he tried to run away back over the border.

The facts clearly showed that neither agent had any reason to believe that Aldrete-Davila was any more than your garden variety economic migrant crossing the border to find work.

It is that fact that the jury chose to take into consideration when they convicted the two agents.

Based on all of the evidence admitted at the two week trial, including the lengthy testimony of both of the defendants, the jury of twelve citizens heard all of the testimony, judged the demeanor and credibility of the witnesses and unanimously found both defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of eleven of the twelve counts alleged in the indictment, including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury, discharge of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence and willfully violating Aldrete-Davila’s Constitutional, Fourth Amendment right to be free from illegal seizure, as well as obstructing justice by intentionally defacing the crime scene, lying about the incident, and failing to report the truth.

DOJ, Western District Texas

At the end of the day, this case and the publicity it garnered was never really a referendum on border security or immigration; it was just another case of the right-wing allowing their political goals to trump the law and respect for Constitutional rights.

Now with his clemency for Ramos and Compean, Bush has once again demonstrated his disregard for the law.

Just as he's been willing to defend the treatment of those in Guantanamo or illegal wire-taps for political reasons, or allow the incarceration of American citizens in detention centers because of the immigration status of their parents, his choosing as his final act to commute the sentences of these two Border Patrol demonstrates that even as he is shutting the lights and closing the door he remains just as contemptuous of the true rule of law as he's ever been.

Digg This Story

Read More.....

Summary only...

2009 Call Out To All Pro-Migrant Bloggers

It's a time of great change.

After eight miserable years of The Decider, and Republican reign in Washington, a breath of fresh air is on it's way.

For the first time in years, those who fight for human-rights, civil-rights, and the oppressed can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The struggle will not be easy. But years in the political and social wilderness have only strengthened and hardened us for the battle ahead.

In the last few years our numbers have grown exponentially and we have organized on a scale not seen in decades.

But things have moved quickly and many new allies and friends have sprung up in the last year.

So, if you have, or know of a pro-migrant blog or website, write about migrant and/or immigration issues, human rights, or other issues of concern to the broader immigrant community - leave a link in the comments, or e-mail me and give me some info on your site so I can add you to the blogroll

I'd eventually like to have as complete a listing as possible of the pro-migrant blogsphere.

Thanks
Duke

Read More.....

Summary only...

Maybe FOX should show this video on the new Sheriff Joe Arpaio Show

Sheriff Joe Arpaio loves his new reality show, "Smile ... You're Under Arrest!" He claims it's "a great merge of entertainment along with law enforcement." … a humorous cross between "Punked" and "Cops."

Perhaps Fox would like to show this really hysterical clip from a recent episode of the real-life Sheriff Joe show.

VIDEO LINK

What could be more entertaining than watching two small children cry as their mother is taken away forever because she has a broken headlight and an un-paid traffic ticket?

What could be funnier than watching them clutch the stuffed animals that sheriff's trade for their mother in an attempt to quite them down?

What could be more humorous than the fear and horror on their faces as they plead to be returned to her?

Come on FOX, this is the real "reality" of Joe Arpaio. This is what goes on day after day for those who are forced to live in Joe's reality.

Show this video to the American public. Let them see the true face of "America's toughest sheriff"

Come on, don't you think they'd be rolling in the aisles over the funny antics of this modern day Bull Connor.

Get the facts of Sheriff Joe

Learn about the costs of Sheriff Joe's antics

Sign a petition demanding a Justice Department investigation into Joe's tactics

DIGG THIS STORY

hat tip to The Indigenous Xicano

Read More.....

Summary only...

Mark Krikorian attempts to put lipstick on a pig.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, has taken to the pages of the National Review to outline what he claims is a new GOP approach to immigration.

Pointing out that for too long Republicans have argued about immigration in terms of "lawbreaking" and illegality, Krikorian suggests instead that a new framing is needed … a framing he views as a more welcoming and in line with public opinion.

Taking a page from the same playbook that brought us the great Bush oxymoron: "Compassionate Conservatism "... Krikorian does The Decider one better and frames out a new right-wing paradox for mass consumption: "Anti-immigration but Pro-immigrant"

With Republicans shut out of power, now is the time to take a new look at their approach to immigration, to develop a new and distinctive alternative to the majority party. In other areas, such as health care or the environment, such a reassessment might conceivably yield different policies than in the past. But on immigration, what is needed is not so much a reversal in specifics but a different framework within which to fit the specifics.

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.

Krikorian, realizing that the blatantly hateful and racist rhetoric of the anti-immigrant movement has turned off so many to his message, and cost Republicans dearly, he now tries to re-frame his message with kinder and gentler rhetoric that sounds more reasonable and rational for public consumption ... that is if you don't actually THINK about what he's saying of more than a nanosecond.

But if you actually get past the touchy-feely buzz words about wanting to be more "welcoming", you realize that it's just a clever re-packaging of the same old message.

One must remember the Krikorian has been a chief architect and vocal proponent of the "deportation through attrition" policy of the far-right that looks to force the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the US to "self deport" by making their lives so miserable in this country they will simply pack their bags and go. The policy has led to increased raids, local legislation restricting housing and employment opportunities, attempts to revoke the 14th amendment, and a myriad of other punitive measures.

The bottom-line is he's still arguing for less immigration, less legal-immigration, fewer green cards, less family reunification, tighter borders, expulsion of the undocumented, etc. ...but he masks it in a "welcoming" message.

The final option is the one most Americans (of whatever party) intuitively support — a pro-immigrant policy of low immigration, one that seeks a smaller number of future admissions but extends a warmer welcome to those admitted.

Ironically, such reductions in immigration could actually drain away some of the venom from the immigration debate by allowing a more relaxed approach to those immigrants we do let in. For instance, something called “cancellation of removal” can be used by a judge to allow a legal immigrant to stay despite a deportation order, because of hardship to his family. Because of mass immigration, causing the system to be a sieve, Congress raised the bar in 1996, from “extreme hardship” to “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.” A lower level of immigration, allowing us to reestablish control, would permit Congress to trim back a couple of adjectives, because the problem wouldn’t be as acute. The same could apply to other areas, such as welfare eligibility, where tough standards are required in the face of massive numbers, but more flexibility is possible when the tide ebbs

Basically he's saying:

"We'll be much nicer to you, as long as there are far fewer of you coming.....BTW it would be really nice if you weren't an unskilled farmer from Central or South Americans also.

We'd really prefer a very limited number of skilled, highly-educated, preferably English-speaking immigrants if you don't mind....and then we wouldn't be quite so belligerent.

Oh, and we'd even be willing to cut those kind of immigrants a little slack as far as stuff like welfare goes as long as that other kind of immigrant stops coming here"

Like the saying goes: You can put lipstick on a pig … but it's still a pig. And for all the talk of welcoming new immigrants and "draining away the venom of the immigration debate", Mr. Krikorian is merely painting over his very nasty streak of xenophobia and nativism with a pound of cheap dime store lipstick.


Digg This Story

Read More.....

Summary only...

Hold DHS Accountable!

With only days left until the end of the Bush administration, two new rules have been hastily enacted that strike at the heart of the civil liberties of immigrants and asylum seekers. One denies immigrants legal representation in deportation cases, the other mandates DNA tests for all detained immigrants and US citizens who have been accused of a crime, but not convicted.

The American Immigration Law Foundation had this to say about Attorney General Michael Mukasey's last minute decision to deny legal council in deportation cases:

On January 7, 2009, in the waning hours of a departing Administration, Attorney General Michael Mukasey unraveled decades of legal precedent guaranteeing due process to people facing life-changing consequences-namely, deportation. With less than two weeks left in office, this Administration apparently could not resist the temptation to take one more stab at undermining fundamental Constitutional principles.

In a decision issued Wednesday… the Attorney General declared that henceforth, immigrants, asylum seekers, and all others in removal (deportation) proceedings do not have any right under statute or the Constitution to representation by a lawyer before they can be ordered deported. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and most federal courts have for decades operated under the premise that immigrants DO have such rights. The Attorney General has reversed many years of precedent and operation by simply declaring it so….. his declaration will wipe out the rights of all but a handful of people with one stroke of his pen.

AILF (PDF)

Another Justice Department rule, which took effect Friday, directs federal agencies to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained by U.S. authorities.

...the U.S. government will collect DNA samples from people arrested and detained for suspected immigration violations, despite concerns that the move violates their privacy rights.

The new Justice Department policy also will expand DNA collection to people arrested on suspicion of committing federal crimes. Previously, the government only obtained DNA from people convicted of certain crimes.

LA Times

The American Civil Liberties Union has voiced "grave concerns" about this expansion of governmental DNA collection to include immigrant detainees and those who have not been convicted of any crime.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program said, "People who are merely accused of a crime or a civil violation of law but haven't been convicted of anything are being subjected to the most invasive sort of testing."

These decisions reflect the total disregard for basic Constitutional rights we have come to expect from this administration.

From the warrant-less arrests and detention of not only immigrants, but US citizens, by the DHS, to the kangaroo courts of Postville that denied basic Constitutional protections, our current immigration enforcement system has become so far divorced from the rule of law, it now resembles more the system of a rogue failed-state than the worlds leading liberal democracy.

But we can start to do something about it ... we can demand a return to the true rule of law... One that respects the Constitution and the rights it guarantees.

Rights Working Group, a national coalition of more than 250 community-based groups and policy organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights is urging President Obama to place a moratorium on current immigration enforcement practices in order to conduct a full review of DHS policies and programs to ensure that they are compliant with both Constitutional protections and internationally recognized human right standards.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

I am signing this petition to ask your Administration to address the violations of human rights and civil liberties resulting from ill-conceived immigration enforcement policies pursued by the Bush Administration. I believe our government should be committed to upholding due process and civil liberties for all people in the U.S., especially when enforcing the law. Therefore, I urge you to hold the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accountable to protecting the human rights of citizens and non-citizens alike.

Currently, DHS' immigration enforcement policies use extreme measures to lock up undocumented workers, legal permanent residents and, at times, even U.S. citizens. Raids of homes and businesses, often without a warrant, have not only steamrolled over Constitutional protections, but also torn apart communities and families. Conditions in immigration detention facilities are overcrowded and dangerous and have deteriorated to the point where people are dying in custody from treatable ailments, and people with chronic conditions are not getting the basic medical care they require. While DHS has taken commendable measures to process numerous naturalization applications delayed by security background checks, over 30,000 such applicants are still waiting to be granted citizenship. Efficient and transparent mechanisms are needed to ensure that, in the future, all eligible immigrants can attain citizenship in a timely manner.

DHS policies which prioritize the appearance of enforcement over this nation's founding principles of liberty and justice for all do not serve the national interest. I am asking your administration to set clear, enforceable legal standards for DHS operations - standards that uphold the dignity and Constitutional rights of all people in the U.S. - and hold DHS accountable to these standards. I join the Rights Working Group in urging you to place a moratorium on current immigration enforcement practices in order to conduct a full review of DHS policies and programs to ensure that they are compliant with Constitutional protections and internationally recognized human right standards.

You can join the fight to restore the rule of law and respect for the Constitution by signing RWG's petition to end the raids and make the DHS and Justice Department respect and uphold the rights all people living in the US.

Sign Petition

Read More.....

Summary only...

Support a DREAM at Change.org

Each year approximately 2.8 million students graduate from US High Schools. Some will go on to college, join the military, or take other paths in life, hopefully all becoming productive members of society.

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

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

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

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

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

Even for those living in states that do allow them to complete their higher education, working low paying jobs just to make ends meet and pay their own college costs, many of these students, once completing their educations, face an uncertain future where advanced degrees are all but worthless without the legal documentation to join the workforce as productive members

Without proper documentation and social security numbers they are unable to move from the "underground economy" of their parents' world into the mainstream workforce that their educations give them the ability to participate in.

.
One would think that legislation that would allow thousands of high school graduates yearly the opportunity to pursue higher education could garner pretty widespread support in Washington.

And if these graduates came from a segment of society which the right-wing continually claims under-performs academically, and eventually becomes a burden on society, one would think winger politicians would be falling over themselves to support legislation that would enable these ethnic scholars to become more productive members of society ... even if to only supply more to the tax base.

OK .. just kidding .

We all know that wingers see immigrant kids yearning for an education and say:

"No way, your American dream ends right here, we don't care that you were raised and schooled in this country, we don't care that despite all odds, you've succeeded, we don't care that you're just as 'American' as the next kid."

...all they see are "illegal aliens"


For these students, opportunities that most children take for granted will never be available. They cannot live up to their potential, because they lack the legal documentation to do so. Children that grew up on American soil, respected the laws of this country, and want nothing more than to be recognized for what they are; Americans .... despite the "sins of there fathers."


But it doesn't have to be this way

A simple little bill can change the situation.

At seven pages long it's got a few simple provisions that would allow thousands of kids who've worked hard and played by the rules to qualify for the exact same rights afforded every student in the nation. ... the right to continue their educations and make a better life for themselves and there families.

Wingers call the legislation "just one more shamnsty" bill, because it allows those who have lived here most of there lives, and know no other home, a conditional reprieve from arrest and deportation. It allows them a chance to temporarily shrug off the yoke of their parents "misdeeds" and provides them an opportunity to prove themselves "worthy" of their adopted home.

The DREAM Act would provide nothing more than a path to legality for persons brought illegally to the United States by their parents as children, or whose parents attempted to immigrate legally but were then denied legality.

To qualify, the immigrant student would have to meet certain requirements:

• Proof of having arrived in the United States before reaching 16 years of age;



• Proof of residence in the United States for a least five (5) consecutive years since their date of arrival.



• Having graduated from an American High School, or obtained a GED.



• "Good moral character," essentially defined as the absence of a significant criminal record (or any drug charges whatsoever).

After meeting the above requirements students would be eligible to apply for a temporary six year "conditional" residence permit which would allow them to live legally in the United States. They could obtain driver's licenses, attend college as in-state residents where applicable, work legally (including obtaining a social security number), and apply for special travel documents which would allow for travel outside of the country for limited amounts of time.

During the six years of conditional status, the eligible immigrant would be required to either:

1. graduate from a two-year community college,


2. Complete at least two years towards a 4-year degree, or


3. serve two years in the U.S. military.

After the six year period, an immigrant who meets at least one of these three conditions would be eligible to apply for legal permanent resident (green card) status. During their temporary time, immigrants would not be eligible for federal higher education grants such as Pell grants, though they would be able to apply for student loans and work study.

If the immigrant does not meet the educational or military service requirement within the six year time period, their temporary residence would be revoked and he or she would be subject to deportation.

During the six years, the immigrant must not commit any crimes other than those considered non-drug related misdemeanors, regardless of whether or not they have already been approved for permanent status at the end of their six years.

Being convicted of a major crime or drug-related infraction would automatically remove the six year temporary residence status and he or she would be subject to deportation.

If the immigrant meets all of the conditions at the end of the 6-year conditional period, he or she would be granted a permanent green card with the same rights as a permanent resident alien, including the right to apply for U.S. citizenship.

It's a simple enough bill. No hundreds of pages of legal-speak and loopholes like most immigration related legislation.

The qualifications are simple and cut and dry, The "benefits" and obligations easily understood. You can read a copy here (PDF) to see for yourself.

But there's not much to debate here.

For progressives this choice should be clear. One either sees these children raised and schooled in America as future Americans ...or sees them as nothing more than the products of their parents "misdeeds" who must be punished the rest of their lives as such.

Please show your support for the 2.5 million DREAMERS whose only hope of ever breaking out cycle of undocumented status is the passage of the DREAM Act.

Go to CHANGE.ORG and vote to make the DREAM Act a priority in the upcoming legislative session.

Read More.....

Summary only...

Hearts of Darkness: A journey into the nativist lair.

A couple of days ago I received an e-mail from one of my blogmigas about an upcoming press conference hosted by anti-immigration group, The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to discuss "the implications of the recent elections and (their) agenda for immigration reform in the 111th Congress."

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

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

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

As we've come to expect from far-right ideologues, Stein opened up his presentation with a statement intended to stir up maximum resentment and fear. He spoke at length about the changing political climate due to economic instability and how only strict enforcement and severe limiting of all new immigration would be accepted by the American people.

Against this backdrop of economic uncertainty, he couldn't resist the temptation to blame the nation's entire economic collapse on "illegal aliens" and their allies who managed to force well-meaning bankers into giving them mortgages they had no intention of ever paying:

"We see in areas like the housing crisis, where immigration has played an important role. Organizations worked very hard to encourage Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac to get into financing mortgages for people who had ...didn't even have the right to work in this country.. Didn't even have the right to be in this country ..um.. the same political interests that argue we should allow people to work in this country who lack work authorization...

This effort to push banks to underwriting mortgages that were...uh.. essentially based on faulty financial analysis ..Why do you want to give a mortgage to someone who doesn’t have a lawful income in this country...and yet many of those same people seem to be getting rewarded in this administration with political appointments...so..ah...I don't think the issue is going to go away"

This theory of course has been roundly discredited by both economists and the press.

Even fellow conservatives like UCLA professor Stephen Bainbridge, said that these kind of "ravings ...should be taking place in a padded room in Arkham Asylum not in the public discourse.... the freezing up of the credit markets doesn't have anything to do with either affirmative action or illegal immigration, and people who believe it does are on a par with the conspiracy theorists who think fluoridation is a Chicom plot....."

But more importantly, it's been long rejected by the American public, who know that it was the unmitigated greed and incompetence in both Washington and corporate boardrooms that robbed the public of billions and their financial security.

But the statement did provide insight into Steins twisted worldview, and set the tone for what would be a journey through the FAIR looking glass.

Next, Stein moved on to his interpretation of the election results.

Once again, "contrarian" would be a polite term to describe Stein's take on this past election cycle.

Despite overwhelming evidence that anti-immigrant candidates have had their clocks cleaned in both local and federal elections, he claimed that overwhelmingly, the public supported anti-immigration candidates.

He went on to contradict one of the biggest stories of the election cycle where the unprecedented growth of political power of Latino voters and a huge shift to the Democratic Party played a major role in many key races, claiming that Latinos had no discernible effect on "any election outside of California's Prop8" (nice touch there Dan ...always looking to fuel divisive fires).

Stein of course is border-line delusional in these claims:

Facts on Latino Vote in 2008:

As post-election analysis from pundits moves from discussing how the Latinos turned out in favor of Democrats at historic levels in 2008 to analyzing why this shift occurred, many have recognized that immigration was the driving factor behind Latino mobilization and their break towards Democratic candidates.

The Latino vote comprised 9% of the electorate nationwide in 2008, a figure that totals over 11 million voters. This turnout represents a jump of over 3 million voters since 2004, when 7.6 million Latinos cast ballots, and is approximately double the Latino turnout of 2000. Ominously for Republicans, the Latino vote broke overwhelmingly Democratic in 2008. After supporting Democratic candidate John Kerry by a 56-44% margin against George W. Bush in 2004, Latinos gave Democratic candidate Barack Obama their support at a 67-31% margin against John McCain. As the New York Times showed, Latinos' movement towards Democrats was one of the biggest demographic shifts from 2004 to 2008.

The reason behind this shift, according to political pundits and strategists of both parties, was the Republicans' tarnished brand related to the issue of immigration. As Latino polling expert Sergio Bendixen stated, "the debate over immigration started driving Hispanic voters toward the Democratic party, and the economic black hole clinched it."

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), stated on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "the very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans...there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we're going to be relegated to minority status."
link

Facts on Anti-Immigrant Success at the Polls:

Following (is an analysis) of competitive House and Senate races in 2008 where the Republican candidate tried to use illegal immigration as a wedge issue against a Democratic challenger. The ... analysis focused on the “swing districts” that the Cook Political Report considered in play as of October 2, a month before the elections.

Based on our review, 20 of 22 winners advocated immigration policies beyond enforcement-only. This includes 5 of 5 Senate races and 15 of 17 House races listed in the “toss-up,” “leans Republican,” or “leans Democratic” categories of the Cook Political Report. Clearly, the Republican illegal immigration wedge strategy has proved a spectacular failure in these competitive districts and states.

Until now, the conventional wisdom has been that illegal immigration is a wedge issue that works to mobilize “the base” in the Republican Party, win over swing voters frustrated with the problem, and hurt Democrats who support comprehensive immigration reform. Conventional wisdom has also held that the number of Latino voters who could hold anti-immigrant politicians accountable for their rhetoric is too small to make a difference outside of Democratic strongholds.

This election stands that conventional wisdom on its head. Swing voters chose Democrats overwhelmingly, including many candidates that stood up for a more comprehensive approach to immigration reform than their hard-line opponents. Latino voters turned out in record numbers and fled the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Republican Party in droves. Their participation in the 2008 elections contributed to Senator Obama’s wins in key battleground states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Florida, and also helped Democrats win contested House and Senate races in these states and more. Meanwhile, the anti-immigrant forces that have all but hijacked the Republican Party proved to be inconsequential at best, except for their role in potentially driving the GOP into the political wilderness

link

At this point Stein turned the discussion over to Julie Kirchner for further analysis....or as any rational person would call it... grasping at straws.

Kirchner, following Steins lead, tried to prove his claim that anti-immigrant rhetoric actually won many elections for strong restrictionist candidates.

Her examples to prove this undeniable fact:

• Incumbent, Sen. Jeff Sessions managed to win his run-off election in one of the most Republican states in the union.



• Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn managed to beat a weak opponent in Texas



• Rep. Duncan Hunter JR was able to capture his father's seat in California's most right-wing district



• Incumbent, Rep. Brian Bilbray managed to eek out a five point win in a +5 Republican district.

This is hardly an overwhelming display of anti-immigrant power given the devastating loses the anti-immigrant caucus has suffered in the last three cycles.

Then there was Kirchner's unique analysis of the failed attempt by Hazzelton mayor, Lou Barletta, to take Pennsylvania's 11th district.

A restritionist poster boy, who was the darling of the anti-immigrant movement, Barletta received hours of free air-time from blowhards like Lou Dobbs yet still came up short. But according to Kirchner, his loss can be attributed to the fact that the Democrats threw all their heavy guns at the hometown favorite.

She claimed it took the combined efforts of Barack Obama, and both Clintons to defeat Barletta:

"They pulled out all the stops. It took two Presidents and a future Secretary of State to beat Barletta." Said Kirchner.

But of course she failed to mention that John McCain, Cindy McCain, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani all made numerous appearances in Barletta's district.

As a key presidential battleground, both parties spent enormous resources trying to win it.....none of which had anything to do with Barletta...whose own party pretty much ignored him.

But then again, in FAIR's alternative universe....anything is possible.

Eventually, Stein and friends finally got around the meat of their presentation....their strategic plan for the coming Congressional session. .. which seemed to consist of one thing ...renewing the government's E-Verify employee verification system.

No mention was made of any new legislation or initiatives ... just E-Verify, which Stein characterized as the "first battle of the new administration"

The renewal of the controversial system, which requires the use the Social Security Administration's error-ridden database, that contains 17mil faulty entries, as a method to verify employment eligibility for millions of workers, has stalled out in the Senate and will expire in March of 2009. Stein, looking to expand its use through legislation like last years STRIVE Act, sees the renewal as key towards forwarding his enforcement-only immigration policies.

But Steins wishful thinking doesn't change the fact that the E-verify system is so unreliable that it's opposed by employers and unions alike and the veracity of the database has been challenged successfully in federal court.

Errors in the database that E-Verify checks to determine work authorization status impact millions.

• 4.1%: error rate in the SSA database



• 17.8 million: number of discrepancies in the SSA database



• 12.7 million: number of database discrepancies pertaining to native-born U.S. citizens



• 1 in 25: number of new hires that would receive a tentative nonconfirmation based on error rates



• 55 million: approximate number of new hires per year in the U.S.



• 11,000: number of workers per day who would be flagged as ineligible for employment if E-Verify were mandatory for all employers



• 25: workers per work day per congressional district who would be flagged as ineligible for employment if the Shuler or Johnson bill passed, making E-Verify mandatory for all employers

But outside of that, Stein seemed mostly content to spend the next four years playing defense, doing his best to make sure that no actual reform gets enacted.

"We're going to be extremely vocal if we see at a time when hundred of thousands or millions of Americans are losing their jobs the administration is pushing legislation that’s going to dramatically increase labor completion...

We would anticipate that certainly house republicans are going to be more vocal on the restrictionist side ..ah.. because .. they were reined in first by the Bush folks and then by McCain folks... "

Lastly, he touched upon workplace enforcement. ...and once again wandering off into realm of the ridiculous ...making up his own facts and reality:

"In our view this would be a very divisive move to simply end workplace enforcement when the President elect said that enforcement and employer sanctions were one of the cornerstones of his reform policies,,,

There is evidence, and I think its pretty substantial, that where the meatpacking operations have taken place for example, lawfully admitted immigrants, refugees, ...refugees in need, have stepped forward to take these jobs. Wages have gone up, bargaining leverage and unionization rates have increased ,,, and this is what the American dream has always been about, and so we will very vigorously denounce that move if that’s something he's going to do"

I guess Stein must be talking about Postville Iowa, where the plant has been shut down and all the workers left jobless...including the "refugees in need" that Agriprocessors flew in from the island nation of Palau.

Or maybe it was it was Pilgrims Pride that just filed for bankruptcy after it's plants in five states were raided last April.

Or was it the Smithfield, where they still used prison labor to fill the ranks of missing workers

Or Crider, where they were busing in felons on probation from a state prison and residents of a homeless mission from nearby Macon, and later tried to bring in Laotian Hmong immigrant workers and their families from Minnesota and Wisconsin to fill jobs no locals would take.

Yeah...these raids have created a workers paradise according Stein....but then again he seems to live in a reality of his own making.

Unfortunately, he has enough money and a big enough megaphone to try to make others believe in his reality also.

DIGG this story

Read More.....

Summary only...