Over 500 Groups Demand End To Local Immigration Checks

Since taking office, the Obama Administration has been doing a carefully choreographed dance with both sides of the immigration debate in an attempt to place itself in a "sweet spot" where it believes it will be able to appease all concerned parties when the thorny issue of immigration reform finally moves up the legislative agenda.

Taking a cue from past administrations who tackled immigration legislation, like Reagan in 86, and Clinton in 95, Obama has chosen to pave the way for negotiations by launching a pre-emptive strike against opposition from the right by engaging in increased crackdowns and heavy-handed enforcement to prove that he's "serious about enforcing the law". Both Reagan and Clinton engaged in increased workplace raids and ramped up deportations before coming to the table to negotiate. Bush, did the same after the failure of reform legislation in 06.

But Obama, being much more attuned than his predecessors to the potential negative PR ramifications of pictures of crying children, or parents being paraded around in shackles, plastered across the pages of the New York Times or the Nightly News, has chosen to send his dog-whistle messages to the right in far more subtle ways.

Since taking office he's increased the number of deportations and detentions through the use of roundups of "criminal aliens" (and anyone within proximity to them), and increased use of local law enforcement to single out undocumented immigrants at traffic stops and routine misdemeanor calls. Additionally he's ramped up the use of the provisions of Clinton's 1996 legislation that allows the deportation of legal residents who've run afoul of the law (even years ago on minor charges.)

While both he, and his Homeland Defense Secretary, have promised to review it's agreements with local enforcement agencies and revise their detention policies to make them more "humane", neither has been willing to totally abandon the enforcement policies that fill those detention centers.

Finally last week, 521 immigrant-rights and human-rights organizations threw down the gauntlet and demanded that the Administration immediately terminate the Department of Homeland Security's 287(g) program that allows over 66 different local law enforcement agencies to run roughshod over the constitution

August 25, 2009

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We, the undersigned civil rights, community, and immigrant rights organizations, urge you to immediately terminate the 287(g) program operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The program has come under severe criticism this year because local law enforcement agencies that have been granted 287(g) powers are using the program to target communities of color, including disproportionate numbers of Latinos in particular places, for arrest. Racial profiling and other civil rights abuses by the local law enforcement agencies that have sought out 287(g) powers have compromised public safety, while doing nothing to solve the immigration crisis.

We applaud your recent remarks acknowledging, that “there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.” However, DHS’s continued use of the 287(g) program exacerbates exactly this type of racial profiling. In light of well-documented evidence that local law enforcement agencies are using 287(g) powers to justify and intensify racial profiling, Secretary Napolitano’s July 10, 2009 announcement that DHS has expanded the 287(g) program to include 11 new jurisdictions is deeply alarming.

Since its inception, the 287(g) program has drawn sharp criticism from federal officials, law enforcement, and local community groups. The program, largely recognized as a failed Bush experiment, relinquishes the power to enforce immigration law to local law enforcement and corrections agencies and has resulted in the widespread use of pretextual traffic stops, racially motivated questioning, and unconstitutional searches and seizures primarily in communities of color. In a country where racial profiling by law enforcement agents has led to massive arrests of people of color, these efforts to push immigrants into the criminal justice system is not surprising, but absolutely counterproductive to increasing public safety.

A March 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report criticized DHS for program mismanagement and insufficient oversight of the controversial program. The DHS Inspector General is currently conducting an audit of the 287(g) program, and the Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, whose 287(g) program has been widely criticized for engaging in racial and ethnic profiling. The Police Foundation, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Major Cities Chiefs Association have expressed concerns that deputizing local law enforcement officers to enforce civil federal immigration law undermines their core public safety mission, diverts scarce resources, increases their exposure to liability and litigation, and exacerbates fear in communities.

Reports of abuse in local communities have been widespread. In Davidson County, Tennessee, the Sheriff’s Office used its 287(g) power to apprehend undocumented immigrants driving to work, standing at day labor sites, or while fishing off piers. One pregnant woman---charged with driving without a license---was shackled to her bed during labor. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, even without formal 287(g) powers, over 350 individuals were detained and deported from the jail this February after being arrested for driving without a license, a county ordinance violation, or on traffic or misdemeanor charges. The Gwinnett jail is triple-bunked, with one person in each cell sleeping on the floor, and the jail’s internal SWAT team is known for appearing in ski masks to subdue detainees it deems uncooperative. Yet, Gwinnett County is among the 11 jurisdictions granted new 287(g) approval by Secretary Napolitano earlier this month.

In a recent research report, Justice Strategies, a nonpartisan research firm, found evidence that links the expansion of the program to racial animus against communities of color. According to FBI and census data, sixty-one percent of ICE-deputized localities had violent and property crime indices lower than the national average, while eighty-seven percent of these localities had a rate of Latino population growth higher than the national average.

The abusive misuse of the 287(g) program by its current slate of agencies has rendered it not only ineffective, but dangerous to community safety. The program has worked counter to community policing goals by eroding the trust and cooperation of immigrant communities and diverted already reduced law enforcement resources from their core mission. DHS’s proposed changes to the program not only fail to correct its serious flaws,
but also create new ones.

We know that you are committed to tackling our nation’s most complex issues, for these reasons we ask that you examine the damaging impact the 287(g) program is having on immigrant communities across the country and terminate the program. We would be pleased to provide additional information or recommendations regarding current programs and operations of DHS.

Thank you for your consideration. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Marielena Hincapié, executive director, National Immigration Law Center

Sincerely,
Marielena Hincapie
National Immigration Law Center
Executive Director

Kudos to those organizations standing up for human and civil rights for all:

National Organizations:

9 to 5, National Association of Working Women
Action Committee for Women in Prison (ACWIP)
Adrian Dominican Sisters
African American Ministers in Action (AAMIA)
All of Us or None
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
American Arab Forum (AAF)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American G.I. Forum (AGIF)
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Asian American Justice Center (AAJC)
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
ASISTA Immigration Assistance
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)
Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR)
BRAC
Breakthrough: Building Human Rights Culture
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
Center for Media Justice
Center for New Community
Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO)
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ)
Church World Service, Immigration and Refugee Program
Citizen Orange
Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrant (CAAAELII)
Colombian American Cultural Society
Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamerica (COFEM)
Council on Crime and Justice
Defending Dissent Foundation
Deported Diaspora
Detention Watch Network (DWN)
Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPA Network)
Drum Major Institute (DMI)
Equal Justice Society
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA (FOR USA)
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC)
Foundation for Change
Foundations for Our New Alkebulan/Afrikan Millennium (FONAMI)
Gamaliel Foundation
Guatemalan Immigrant Movement (MIGUA)
Global Action Project (GAP)
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Grassroots Leadership
Gray Panthers
Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional
Hispanic American Association
Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
INCITE! Women of Color Against Domestic Violence
International CURE
Irish Apostolate USA
Jobs with Justice (JWJ)
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Network (JPIC)
Justice Strategies
La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)
Latino Justice PRLDEF
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR)
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR)
Legion of Mary
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM)
March 25 Coalition
Medical Mission Sisters' Alliance for Justice
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
Ms. Foundation for Women
Mundo Maya Foundation, Inc.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC)
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV)
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)
National Black Police Association (NBPA)
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
National Employment Law Project (NELP)
National Immigrant Bond Fund
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Inc.
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
National Training and Information Center (NTIC)
National People's Action (NPA)
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
Pax Christi USA
People For the American Way (PFAW)
Progressive States Network
Real Cost of Prisons Project (RCPP)
Respect Respeto
Rights Working Group (RWG)
Ruckus Society
Safe Streets Art Foundation
Salvadoran American National Network (SANN)
Sentencing Project
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas--Institute Justice Team
Sisters of the Holy Cross – Congregation Justice Committee
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
SpeakOut - Institute for Democratic Education & Culture
SpiritHouse
Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice
The Caribbean Voice
The Episcopal Church
The Praxis Project
The Tahirih Justice Center
Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA)
United Network for Immigrants and Refugee Rights (UNIRR)
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United African Organization
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
United for a Fair Economy (UFE)
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Women (UMW)
United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)
United We DREAM (UWD)
Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC)
VIVE, Inc.
VivirLatino.com
War Times/Tiempo de Guerras
William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI)
Women of Color United
Women's Refugee Commission
World Organization for Human Rights


Regional, State and Local Organizations:

32BJ SEIU
9 to5 Atlanta
9to5 Bay Area
9to5 Colorado
9to5 Milwaukee
9to5 Los Angeles
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO Local 591
Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE)
ACORN California
African American Ministers in Action
AFSC - San Diego
AFSC-Austin office
AFT/ Nicaragua Center for Community Action
AIDS Care Ocean State
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice
Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras
Alianza Latinoamericana por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes (ALIADI)
Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere - Los Angeles (AWARE-LA)
Amigos Multicultural Services Center
Annunciation House, Inc.
Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA)
Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Arise Chicago
Arizona Advocacy Network
Arizona Dream Act Coalition
Asian / Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project
Asian Law Alliance
Asian Law Caucus
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach
Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition
Bay Area Immigration Taskforce/JFON
Bend-Condega Friendship Project
Benedictine Mission House
Berkshire Immigrant Center
Blessing Xchange
Books Not Bars
Border Action
Border Ambassadors
Boulder Community United
Brass Liberation Orchestra
Brazilian Total Assistance, Inc.
Building Locally to Organize for Community Safety (BLOCS)
CADENA
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
California Prison Moratorium Project
Canal Alliance
Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition
CASA de Maryland
Casa de Proyecto Libertad
Casa Esperanza
Casa Freehold
Casa Latina
Catholic Caucus Southeast Michigan
The Catholic Center
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking LA (CAST LA)
Catholic Community of St. Michael/St. Patrick
Catholic Legal Services, Archdiocese of Miami, Inc.
Center for Artistic Revolution (CAR)
Center for Independent Living of South Florida, Inc.
Center for Participatory Change (CPC)
Central American Resource Center (CRECEN)
Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc.
Centro de Orientacion del Inmigrante CODI
Centro de Servicios Hispanos, WI
Centro Hispano
Centro Hispano Comunitario De Nebraska
Challenging White Supremacy (CWS)
Chelsea Collaborative
Chiapas Support Committee
Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM)
Chicago Media Watch (CMA)
Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition
Children and Family Justice Center
Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA)
Christian Alliance of Arkansas
Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc.
Citizens Alert
Citizens for Border Solutions
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
Comisión Latinoamericana por los Derechos y Libertades de los Trabajadores y Pueblos
(CLADEHLT)
Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM)
Claire Heureuse Community Center, Inc
Club Migrante Cheran-Sur de Ilinois
Coalition for Economic Justice
Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity
Coalition for Prisoners' Rights
Coalition of Latino Leaders (CLILA)
Coastal Community Action Inc
CODEPINK Arizona
Coalicion de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas (COLA)
Collaborative Center for Justice, Inc.
Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA)
Community Coalition for Healthcare Access
Community Development Project, Urban Justice Center
Community to Community Development
Community United Against Violence (CUAV)
Community Works West
Companeros
Cristo Rey Catholic Church
Critical Resistance - Los Angeles
Darfur Community Organization
Direct Action for Rights and Equality
Discrimination & National Security Initiative
Dominican Development Center-DDC
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
East Williamson County Democratic Club
EastSide Arts Alliance
Economic Justice Coalition
El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos
El Centro de la Raza
El Centro Latino, Inc.
El Grupo of North San Diego County
El Pueblo - Immigration Legal Services
El Pueblo, Inc.
El Vinculo Hispano
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
English for Action
Equal Justice Center
FaithAction International House
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC)
Families for Freedom
Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes (FACTS)
Farmworker Association of Florida
Filipinos for Affirmative Action
Florida Immigrant Coalition
Freedom House
Freeport Community Worklink Center
Fuerza Laboral
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights
Georgia Rural Urban Summit
Georgia STAND UP
Glenmary Commission on Justice
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Gloria Dei Step Up Center
Good Shepher of the Hills Episcopal Church Cave Creek
Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace Coalition
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Grupo Shalom
Guatemala Solidarity Committee Boston
Green Valley Samaritans/The Good Shepherd United Church Of Christ
Hand in Hand/ Mano en Mano
Harris County Green Party
Health Education Solutions
Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center
Highlander Research and Education Center
Hispanic Coalition, Inc.
Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck
Homies Unidos
Houston DREAM Act Coalition
Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center
Hudson Valley Community Coalition, Inc.
Human Concerns Committee St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Palo Alto CA
Human Rights Initiative of North Texas
Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA)
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Immigrant Defense Project (IDP)
Immigrant Family Advocates of Bend, Oregon
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP)
Immigrant Rights Clinic, NYU School of Law
Immigration Clinic, University of MD School of Law
Immigration Law Clinic, UC Davis
Immigrant Solidarity Dupage
Immigration Research Team, A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS)
INCITE! LA
Indo-American Center
Institute for Urban Policy Research
Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center - Cincinnati
Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center-- Congregation of St. Joseph
Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin
International Institute of Rhode Island
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault
IRATE & First Friends
Irish Immigration Center
Jobs With Justice of East Tennessee
Jewish Community Action
JUNTOS/Casa de los Soles
Justice and Peace Commission
Justice Now
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce for Latin America and the Caribbean
Kino Border Initiative
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC)
Korean Resource Center (KRCLA)
La Capilla de Santa Maria, Episcopal Church
La Causa, Inc.
La Fuente
La Raza Centro Legal
Labor/Community Strategy Center
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Latin American Coalition
Latino Advocacy Coalition of Henderson County
Latino American Initiative of Nebraska (LAI)
Latino American employee network of Creighton University (LAEN-CU)
Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey
Latino Union of Chicago
Latino Youth Collective of Indiana
League of Rural Voters
League of United Latin American Citizens #754
League of United Latin American Citizens #761
League of United Latin American Citizens Florida
Legal Aid Justice Center -- Immigrant Advocacy Program
Legal Aid Service of Broward County
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)
Legal Voice
Liberian Community Association of Central New Jersey & the Metro
Living Waters Lutheran Church
Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition
Long Island Immigrant Solidarity
Long Island Jobs with Justice
Los Angles Community Legal Center and Educational
MA Resist the Raids Network
Make the Road New York
March 10th Movement
Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas (MITF)
Massachusetts Global Action
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition
Massachusetts Jobs with Justice
Matahari: Eye of the Day
McHenry County Latino Coalition
Meadowlark Center
Middlesex County Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Migration and Refugee Services Diocese of Trenton
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAc)
Mission Houston
Missouri Immigrant & Refugee Advocates
Monmouth County Pax Christi
Monsoon United Asian Women of Iowa
Mount Kisco Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Council
Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
Multicultural Center of Hope
NC Justice Center
Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Immigration Services Project
New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee
New Jersey Immigration Policy Network
New Jersey Tenants Organization
New Labor
New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ)
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI)
New York State Youth Leadership Council (NYSYLC)
NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees
NJ Coalition for Battered Women
No More Deaths-Phoenix
North Carolina Council of Churches
North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA)
Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO)
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
Project Rebound
Ohio Justice and Policy Center
Olneyville Neighborhood Association
ONE/Northwest
OneAmerica
Oregon New Sanctuary Movement
Organization of Chinese Americans - Westchester & Hudson Valley
Organization of Chinese Americans- New Jersey Chapter
Palm Beach County Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Partnership for Safety & Justice (PSJ)
Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project
Pastores en Accion
Pax Christi Austin
Pax Christi Metro New York
Pax Christi Metrowest
Pax Christi NJ
Pax Christi Texas
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape
Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition
People of Faith Peacemakers
People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER)
Portland Green Cultural Projects Ltd
Prax(us)
Presentation Sisters
Priority Africa Network
Prison Policy Initiative
Project South
Providence Students for a Democratic Society
Proyecto Azteca
Proyecto Digna, Inc
Proyecto Voz, American Friends Service Committee - New England
Public Justice Center
Quad Cities Interfaith (Gamaliel Network)
Reform Immigration FOR Arkansas Coalition
Resource Center of the Americas
RI Jobs with Justice
RI Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation
Rights for All People
Rochester Committee on Latin America
Rockland Immigration Coalition
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
Rural Organizing Project
Safe Streets/Strong Communities
School of the Americas Watch L. A. chapter
School Sisters of Notre Dame - Global Justice & Peace Commission
Service Center for Latinos Inc.
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN)
Shalom Community Church
Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Central Leadership
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Sisters of Mercy in Guam
Sisters of Mercy Sisters of Mercy Community of New York, Pennsylvania
Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Justice Team
Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Leadership Team
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
Sisters of Providence Mother Joseph Province
Sisters of St. Francis
Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester
Sisters of the Divine Compassion
Social Justice Guild of the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta
Somervile/Medford United with Justice and Peace
Somos America
SOS Inc.
South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
South Texas Civil Rights Project
Southern California Library
Southern Center for Human Rights
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southwest Creations Collaborative
Southwest Organizing Project
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!
St. Francis Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee
St. Joseph Valley Project - Jobs with Justice
St. Peter's Housing Committee
St. Pious Immigration Reform Group
Sunflower Community Action - Comunidad Latina en Accion
Texas Civil Rights Project
Texas Criminal Justice Coalition
Texas Indigenous Council
Texas Jail Project
Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers
Association
The Advocates for Human Rights
The Ashe County Health Council, A Healthy Carolinians Task Force
The Austin Center for Peace and Justice
The Harriet Tubman Freedom House Project
The Hispanic/Latino Center, Inc.
The Jubilee Center at Saint Matthew/San Mateo Episcopal Church
The Network/La Red
The New York Immigration Coalition
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
The Trauma Healing Project, Inc
Time for Change Foundation
TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition
Tonatierra
Town of East Hampton Anti-Bias Task Force
Trinity Episcopal Church
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of NJ
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of RI
Unite for Dignity, Inc.
UNited Dubuque Immigrant Alliance (UN DIA)
Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights
Ursuline Sisters
Ursulines of Brown County
Utah Immigrant And Refugee Integration Coalition
Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Vermont Workers' Center
Violence Intervention Program (VIP)
Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy
Virginia Organizing Project
Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance
Voces de la Frontera
Voice of the Ex-offender
Watts/Century Latino Organization
WeCount!
West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project
Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Western NC Community Health Services
Westside Community Action Network Center, Inc.
Wind of the Spirit, Immigrant Resource Center
WISDOM, The Gamaliel Foundation in Wisconsin
Women's Employment Rights Clinic
Women for CrossCultural Action
Women Helping Women
Workers Defense Project (PDL)
Workers Interfaith Network (WIN)
Workers' Rights Center
Workers' Rights Law Center of New York, Inc. (WRLC)
Young Democratic Socialists (YDS)
Youth Justice Coalition
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice

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...

Will it ever end?

Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands

Margo Tamez recently sent out the following urgent call for support, explaining that since July, her Mother and Elders of el Calaboz, Texas, have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, and The National Security Agency related to the proposed building of a border fence on their lands

The NSA, for one, has been specifically demanding that Elders give up their lands, telling them that they will have to travel a distance of 3 miles to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

Margo’s mother just informed her that since Monday, November 13th, the Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been tracking down and confronting people; telling them that they have no choice: “the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S.”

Margo asks that you Please help the elders and indigenous women land title holders resist forced occupation in their own lands!

Subject: Emergency in el Calaboz, Lipan Apache & Basque-Indigena North American Land Title Holders!!!

My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on their levee.

Since July, they have been the targets of numerous telephone calls, unexpected and uninvited visits on their lands, informing them that they will have to relinquish parts of their land grant holdings to the border fence buildup. The NSA demands that elders give up their lands to build the levee, and further, that they travel a distance of 3 miles, to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle, ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

This threat against indigenous people, life ways and lands has been very very serious and stress inducing to local leaders, such as Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, who has been in isolation from the larger indigenous rights community due to the invisibility of indigenous people of South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas to the larger social justice conversation regarding the border issues.
However recent events, … cause us to feel that we are in urgent need of immediate human rights observers in the area, deployed by all who can help as soon as possible–immediate relief.

My mother informed me, as I got back into cell range out of Redford, TX, on Monday, November 13, that Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been going house to house, and calling on her personal office phone, her cell phone and in other venues, tracking down and enclosing upon the people and telling them that they have no other choice in this matter. They are telling elders and other vulnerable people that “the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S.”

My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache (descendant of Mexican Chiricahua descent elder, Aniceto Garcia, who gave her traditional indigenous birth welcoming ceremony and lightning ceremony), is resisting the forced occupation with firm resistance. She has already had two major confrontations with NSA since July–one in her office at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she is the Director of a Nursing Program and where she conducts research on diabetes among indigenous people of the MX-US binational region of South Texas and Tamaulipas.

She reports that some land owners in the rancheria area of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito, under pressure to sell to the U.S. without prior and informed consent, have already signed over their lands, due to their ongoing state of impoverishment and exploitation in the area under colonization, corporatism, NAFTA and militarization.

This is an outrage, but more, this is a significant violation of United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, recently ratified and accepted by all UN nations, except the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Furthermore, it is a violation of the United Nations CERD, Committee on Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination.

My mother is under great stress and crisis, unknowing if the Army soldiers and the NSA agents will be forcibly demanding that she sign documents. She reports that they are calling her at all hours, seven days a week. She has firmly told them not to call her anymore, nor to call her at all hours of the night and day, nor to call on the weekends any further.She asked them to meet with her in a public space and to tell their supervisors to come.They refuse to do so. Instead, they continue to harass and intimidate.

At this time, due to the great stress the elders are currently under, communicated to me, because they are being demanded under covert tactics, to relinquish indigenous lands, I feel that I MUST call upon my relatives, friends, colleagues, especially associates in Texas within driving distance to the Rio Grande valley region, and involved in indigenous rights issues, to come forth and aid us.

Please! Please help indigenous women land title holders resisting forced occupation in their own lands! Please do not hesitate to forward this to people in your own networks in media, journalism, social and environmental justice, human rights, indigenous rights advocacy and public health watch groups!

More

Read More...

Summary only...

Judge Blocks Bush "No Match" Crackdown

Federal judge, Charles Beyer, today issued a preliminary injunction that will bar the Bush administration from going forward with a plan to use the Social Security Administration's "No Match" database as a tool to force employers to purge their payrolls of undocumented workers. Breyer voiced "serious concerns " over the legality of the Bush proposal that would force employers to fire an estimated 1.5 million employees who's Social Security records contain discrepancies.

In a suit filled by various labor unions, civil liberties, and immigrant rights groups, the proposal came under attack due to the fact that of the over 17million names on the list, 12.7 million were those of legal residents or US citizen workers, many of them union workers. The unions argued that the use of the list would create an undue burden on employers and employees to clear up the mistakes made by the SSA in the 90-day period required by the Bush proposal.

The injunction will stop the implementation of the program until the suit can be heard sometime next year.

A federal judge in San Francisco barred the Bush administration today from threatening to prosecute businesses for knowingly employing illegal immigrants if they fail to fire workers whose Social Security numbers don't match government records.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a nationwide preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing the so-called no-match rule, which was scheduled to take effect last month but was blocked by temporary restraining orders from Breyer and another judge. Today's order remains in effect until a suit by labor unions challenging the rule goes to trial sometime next year or until a higher court intervenes.

The rule, if implemented, "would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers," Breyer said.

…snip…

In their lawsuit, unions said the no-match rule would lead to widespread firings of legal employees, including hundreds of thousands of union members. They said the government and employers commonly make clerical errors that lead to no-match letters, and that name changes for reasons including marriage and divorce often prompt similar confusion.

Many innocent workers would be unable to locate records within sprawling federal agencies and clear up discrepancies within 90 days, the unions said.

…snip…

Breyer did not decide the merits of the lawsuit, which claimed the new rule was unauthorized by law. But he said unions and business groups that supported the challenge had raised serious questions about the legality of the Bush administration's proposal.

Among other things, he said, immigration officials "did not supply a reasoned analysis" for their decision to reverse a decade-old government policy of not prosecuting employers on the basis of a discrepancy in a worker's Social Security number.

Since at least 1997, Breyer said, the government has assured businesses that a no-match letter, by itself, did not amount to official notice of unauthorized employment that could be grounds for prosecution. He said the Bush administration abruptly reversed course with the new rule, which was enacted in August 2006 but put on hold until a comprehensive immigration bill died in Congress this year.

"Needless to say, this change in position will have massive ramifications for how employers treat the receipt of no-match letters," Breyer wrote.

..snip…

In addition, Breyer said, Homeland Security lacked legal authority for a statement in the letter that assured employers that the government would not sue them for discrimination if they fired workers because of unresolved no-match letters.

The judge also said he had "serious doubts" about the department's assertion that the new rule would not impose a significant burden on small businesses.

,,,snip,,,

He said employees and businesses would be harmed far more by enforcement of the disputed rule than any hardship the government would suffer from a delay.

"There is a strong likelihood that employers may simply fire employees who are unable to resolve the discrepancy within 90 days, even if the employees are actually authorized to work," Breyer said

San Francisco Chronicle

Despite the fact that the Bush administration has spent the last six years trying it's best to pack the federal courts with partisan hacks, it's looking like the Judiciary is the only branch of governemnt still willing to stand up to the presuure from far-right xenophobes and nativists and uphold the constitution on matters relating to immigration.

Bender's Immigration Bulletin has posted a copy of the court order Here

Read More...

Summary only...

Immigration News Roundup: Feb 5 - Feb 11, 2007

As immigration related news flies past pretty fast and furious at times, I figured it might be helpful to do a weekly recap of some of the more significant or over-looked stories from the week past.

Welcome to the first installment of Immigration News Roundup:

• Immigration Debate Fuels Resurgence of KKK


• California Citrus Town Wants Undocumented Migrants to Stick Around


• Government Gives Media Tour of T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center


• Three Migrants Killed: Third Border Attack in Two Weeks


• Panel Says Government Mishandling Asylum Seekers


• DHS Office of Inspector General Releases Report on Case of Two Border Patrol Agents

Immigration Debate Fuels Resurgence of KKK

The Anti-Defamation League released on Tuesday a report on the resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan that has resulted from the debate over immigration.

The League, which monitors the activities of racist hate groups and reports its findings to law enforcement and policymakers, has documented a noticeable spike in activity by Klan chapters across the country. The KKK believes that the U.S. is "drowning" in a tide of non-white immigration, controlled and orchestrated by Jews, and is vigorously trying to bring this message to Americans concerned or fearful about immigration.

"If any one single issue or trend can be credited with re-energizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America," said Deborah M. Lauter, ADL Civil Rights Director. "Klan groups have witnessed a surprising and troubling resurgence by exploiting fears of an immigration explosion, and the debate over immigration has, in turn, helped to fuel an increase in Klan activity, with new groups sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity."

Anti-Defamation League

Related: The Charlotte Observer interviews Imperial Wizard of KKK.

The Imperial Wizard of the Mount Holly-based chapter of the Klan in Gaston County says he has not seen membership grow so fast since the 1960s, when he joined.

"People are tired of this mess," said Virgil Griffin, 62. "The illegal immigrants are taking this country over."

...snip...

Griffin is known for his participation in the 1979 Greensboro clash that started as an anti-Klan rally. Five people were killed. The Klan members said they fired their guns in self-defense and were acquitted.

Griffin, who met the Observer in a Mount Holly park with three members of his security team, recounted 1960s Klan rallies when dozens, sometimes hundreds, marched through towns such as Mount Holly, Salisbury and Wilmington.

"We were strong in the '60s," he said. "We're not that strong now. We're hoping to get there."

Immigration is the No. 1 issue among the younger members, he said.

Edward Fincher, 21, a colonel in the Griffin Knights, echoes much of what Griffin says. He worries about illegal immigrants taking over. He's worried about his two kids being forced to learn Spanish in school and it's getting more difficult to find work.

Griffin wouldn't disclose how many members his chapter has, but the Southern Poverty Law Center says most chapters have between 10 and 40 members.

Griffin said he sends members throughout the region to recruit at stores, flea markets and military bases.

California Citrus Town Wants Undocumented Migrants to Stick Around

The packing houses here in the heart of California's citrus belt are generally hopping the first week of February.

…snip…

But by mid-April, when the good fruit runs out, all activity, from picking to trucking, will stop, and there will be no more work until late October. If workers leave town — and if those who stay are jobless — the city's economy will collapse.

Seeking to avert an economic meltdown, officials have come up with an innovative plan to not only address joblessness but to keep the workforce from abandoning the town. Invoking the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Depression-era Works Projects Administration, the city's elected officials — all of whom are Republicans — are seeking federal aid to put the idle labor force to work on local improvement efforts.

…snip…

Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray says the worst-case scenario is that the town could lose up to 30% of its labor force. "Regardless of whether they're legal or illegal, it's imperative that we have workers here for next year's harvest," he said. Murray hopes that the federal government will find a way to not only aid his town's residents in the short term but to legalize the undocumented.

LA Times

Government Gives Media Tour of T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center

Responding to complaints about conditions at the nation’s main family detention center for illegal immigrants, officials threw open the gates on Friday for a first news media tour.

…snip…

It now holds about 400 illegal immigrants, including 170 children, in family groups from nearly 30 countries, Mr. Mead said. He called it a humane alternative to splitting up families while insuring their presence at legal proceeding

New York Times

Related:
American-Statesman
Dallas Morning News
Houston Chronical
Mother Jones

Three Migrants Killed: Third Border Attack in Two Weeks

Three illegal immigrants were shot to death, three were wounded and others were missing Thursday near Tucson after gunmen accosted them as they traveled north from the Mexican border, the authorities said.

The shootings came a day after gunmen in ski masks and carrying assault-style rifles robbed 18 people who had illegally crossed the border 70 miles to the south, near Sasabe. On Jan. 28 a man driving illegal immigrants from the border several miles from the scene of Thursday’s killings was ambushed and shot to death as the immigrants fled.

New York Times

Related:
ArizonaDaily Star
Chicago Sun Times

Panel Says Government Mishandling Asylum Seekers

A bipartisan federal commission warned on Wednesday that the Bush administration, in its zeal to secure the nation’s borders and stem the tide of illegal immigrants, may be leaving asylum seekers vulnerable to deportation and harsh treatment.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which Congress asked to assess asylum regulations, found two years ago that some immigration officials were improperly processing asylum seekers for deportation. The commission, which also found that asylum seekers were often strip-searched, shackled and held in jails, called for safeguards in the system of speedy deportations known as expedited removal, to protect those fleeing persecution.

New York Times

DHS Office of Inspector General Releases Report on Case of Two Border Patrol Agents

A federal report released Wednesday on the shooting of a suspected drug smuggler by Border Patrol agents concurs with prosecutors that the men committed obstruction of justice by failing to report the shooting, destroying evidence and lying to investigators.

Herald Democrat

Related:
DHS-OIG Report PDF


tags: immigration, immigration news

Read More...

Summary only...

Probable cause for immigration stings questioned

The raids on the Swift&Co. plants earlier this month raised a myriad of legal questions about racial profiling, and the rights of those detained to legal representation and due process. Although these raids were high profile and received national attention, similar actions have been taking place on a smaller scale throughout the country all year long that have garnered little attention outside their immediate areas.

For example, since spring, small farmers and orchard owners in western New York have watched as one by one longtime workers have been taken into custody during an increasing number immigration raids. The raids have led to a record 189,924 deportations nationally during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up 12 percent from the year before. In Buffalo alone deportations were up 24 percent with a total of 2,186.

This increase in enforcement has led to serious questions about just how ICE and DHS determines who is to be targeted for arrest. The case of one Danbury Connecticut day laborer has led a group of Yale Law School students to inquire into the methods used by immigration officials to determine just how the profiling for undocumented immigrants works.


tags: immigration, ICE Raids , DHS, immigration raids

Stung in the Search for Work
By JOSEPH BERGER
December 31, 2006, New York Times

As he does six mornings a week, he showed up on Sept. 19 outside Kennedy Park and, bracing his cup of coffee, mingled with the other day laborers waiting for job offers from landscapers or contractors. A gray car approached and a driver wearing a hard hat said he needed three fellows to tear down a fence. He offered them $11 an hour. Mr. Barrera and two others squeezed into the car.

Minutes later, in a nearby parking lot, the three laborers stepped out and were seized and handcuffed by a half-dozen men in green jackets. The hard-hatted driver and men in green turned out to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

…..

The question hovering over the sting — one that a group of Yale Law School students are asking — is, how did the man in the hard hat know that Mr. Barrera and the others were illegal aliens?

The students, who work in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, a training clinic, filed a Freedom of Information request this month for documents about the arrests. They want to know what “reasonable suspicion” the federal agents had for assuming that the 11 men were illegal aliens. Standing on a street corner while being Hispanic is not enough, the courts have ruled.

True, if you pick out a laborer at random from the Kennedy Park job bazaar, chances are you’ll choose someone who is in this country without a visa. So the federal agents had the odds in their favor, batting 11 for 11 by simply asking who wanted a job.

But is that how this country is supposed to work? The Fourth Amendment protects people against “unreasonable searches and seizures” and requires “probable cause.” The public would be outraged if agents lured a Connecticut Yankee in suit and tie into a car and took him for a drive while checking his credentials. Yes, immigration authorities have an obligation to enforce the law, but, they have to do it in a manner that passes constitutional muster. That would mean that before seizing Mr. Barrera, the authorities would have had to gather evidence that he was here without a visa. “You can’t look at an individual and tell whether they’re documented or undocumented,” said Staci Jonas, a third-year law student at Yale.

The students who filed the Freedom of Information request also want to know what role Danbury officials played in the sting

…..

…Stings are a legitimate, and necessary, tool of law enforcement. But they are usually based on evidence that the person under investigation is likely to commit a crime. When undercover officers buy cocaine, they buy from someone who they know has been seen selling drugs

.

As was seen in the Swift&Co case and similar raids earlier this year in Stillmore Georgia, ICE often casts an extremely broad net when looking for undocumented workers, often taking in both US citizens and legal permanent residents in the process. If linguistic skills and skin pigmentation are to be the sole determining factors in ICE's decision making process as to whom to target, the question must be raised as to what makes their process any different from that of the Minutemen vigilantes who go to work sites looking for undocumented workers.

How do the minutemen propose to determine an immigrant's legal status? According to the group's national training coordinator, they have a simple test. They ask suspected "illegals" a series of simple questions, such as what their favorite food was. If the worker couldn’t answer the questions, Thompson said volunteers should assume the worker is undocumented and report him to his employer or to law enforcement
Link

When the lines between the practices of the federal government and vigilante style "justice" becomes so dim as to make them nearly indistinguishable, it is perhaps time for some serious reevaluation of these government practices.

Read More...

Summary only...

Microchip implant might be used on immigrant guest workers

Originally designed as a means to access medical records, track Alzheimers patients or tag pets, the RFID technology made by Florida based Applied Digital may now be used as a method to keep track of the thousands of immigrant guest workers. According to Applied Digital's Chairman and CEO, Scott Silverman, he has been in contact with "key congressional leaders" about the application of his Radio Frequency Identification microchips as a "technology platform for the guest worker program."

Applied Digital's implants, which are about the size of a grain of rice, contain a sixteen digit ID number. That number, once scanned, can be linked to a database to provide the name and address of a pet owner or access the medical records of a critically ill patient. Some implants have also been used in nursing homes to monitor people with Alzheimer's in an effort to keep them from wandering off. Silverman believes the technology can easily be modified for use not only at the border, "but it could also be used for enforcement purposes at the employer level."



tags: immigration, Guest Workers, microchip implant , Tommy Thompson, Applied Digital, Senate Immigration Bill



In a interview with RFID Connections, an industry publication, Silvermen explained his pitch for the use of his microchip technology in tracking guest workers:

But being able to communicate a new application, potentially, for the VeriChip technology as it relates to the Guest Worker Program and the new immigration bill that came out of the Senate yesterday, I think it’s a relevant technology that can be used amongst other technologies to properly ensure that guest workers coming in and out of this country are properly registered, and that the enforcement that’s necessary to make the law work and the Guest Worker Program work can also take place at the employer level. So whether it’s biometrics, whether it’s a smart card of sorts, a tamper-proof visa or a VeriChip related to those things, I think the VeriChip is a very logical technology to use for that…

Silverman's company, which has lost millions of dollars over the last few years trying to sell their invasive product to a wary North American market, has been waiting for just this kind of opportunity. With the addition of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to their Board of directors in July of 2005, Applied Digital gained an important inside the beltway contact to help sell their plan. Thompson in fact is so taken with the technology, he announced he planned to have one of the companies medical "VeriMed" tags implanted into his arm. Normally, the chip is injected below the skin into fat tissue above the triceps muscle on a person's upper right arm.

Thompson is not the only one lobbying for the use of the microchip technology. According to Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA), Columbian President Alfaro Uribe actually floated the idea of placing chips in Columbian migrant workers wishing to become guest workers in the US. In a meeting with Specter in early April of this year Uribe is reported as telling the Senator "he would consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted into their bodies before they are permitted to enter the United States to work on a seasonal basis." Specter replied that he "doubted whether the implantation of microchips would be effective since the immigrant worker might be able to remove them." Specters staff would not confirm whether or not microchip technology was being discussed as a part of immigration reform.

When asked if the government had in fact contracted to buy the system Silverman replied that, "No, they have not. We have talked to many people in Washington about using it as an application for a guest worker program. But we cannot say today that they have actually bought it for immigration purposes." But he is hopeful.

Read More...

Summary only...

Internment of undocumented immigrants to begin.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that DHS would be opening detention facilities in the next few weeks to house thousands of Chinese immigrants who have been denied immigration to the United States, yet were refused readmission by the Chinese government. Currently there are an estimated 39,000 undocumented immigrants caught in this diplomatic limbo, but if the more punitive immigration legislation passed in the House back in December, and now being debated in the Senate, was to become law perhaps millions more would join them.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said that China last year readmitted 800 people. But that made only a small dent in what he described as a backlog of thousands illegally in the U.S.

"The math is pretty easy — at that rate, we wind up with increasing numbers of migrants who, if we're going to detain them, we're going to have to house at enormous expense," Chertoff said.

He added: "We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a call for comment.

Currently, 687 Chinese are being held in federal detention facilities, at a daily rate of $95 each, while some 38,000 have been released on bond or under a monitoring program, such as wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet, the Homeland Security Department said later Tuesday.

-snip-

Chertoff also said Homeland Security would open detention facilities in the next few weeks to house entire families of illegal immigrants who hope to bring their children along in order to avoid jail time. "It'll be humane, but we're not going to let people get away with this," he said.

Chertoff's remarks comes as the Homeland Security Department aims to end its "catch and release" immigration policy by Oct. 1. After that date, all illegal immigrants will be held in U.S. detention centers until they can be returned to their nation of citizenry.

AP

(more below the fold)
tags: immigration, HR4437, internment camps

Japanese-American internment camp during WWII

The Department of Homeland Security's decision to end the "catch and release" immigration policy by Oct.1 comes on the heels of last month's announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers that a $385 million contract had been awarded to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Root and Brown to build "temporary immigration detention facilities".

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

Feb. 3 - The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary…

KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space…

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

As the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up immigration reform this week they will be debating provisions that may increase the number of incarcerated undocumented immigrants into the millions. Both the current Senate proposal, "The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006", sponsored by Sen. Arlen Spectrer, and it's House equivalent, the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005"(HR4437) would criminalize almost any immigration infraction and leave the entire undocumented population vulnerable to incarceration. Both bills, in theory, call for the arrest and possible detention of all 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.

Section 602 of 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.

MORE

With the internment of undocumented Chinese immigrants and their families becoming a very real possibility, we need to start to look at the real ramifications of some of this proposed legislation. Homeland Security has already announced its intent to greatly increase the incarceration of undocumented immigrants and Halliburton is ready to supply the facilities to hold them. With HR 4437's provisions for indefinite detention and the reclassification of even minor offenses as aggravated felonies it is quite possible that all 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country could shortly end up in internment camps no different from the refugee camps we see throughout the rest of the world. We just never thought it could happen here.

Tag: immigration

Read More...

Summary only...