Recently in Migrant Emancipation Category

This story isn't really related to the migration debate, but I couldn't help but write about it.  CNN reports that a U.S. military jet crashed into the home of Korean migrant Dong Yun Yoon, killing his entire family. 

Yoon named the victims as his infant daughter Rachel, who was born less than two months ago; his 15-month-old daughter Grace; his wife, Young Mi Yoon, 36; and her 60-year-old mother, Suk Im Kim, who he said had come to the United States from Korea recently to help take care of the children.

CNN (10 December 2008)

Despite this tragedy, Yoon, holds nothing against the pilot and even asked people to "pray for him not to suffer from this accident." 

I'll let others read the rest.  This story just reminds me to be thankful for the loved ones around me, and Yoon really is an example of compassion in the face of tragedy.  It's like something right out of the Book of Job. 

Renata Avila of Global Voices just sent me an email about an incredible resource to teach Spanish-speaking migrants English.  "Language is a human right" says Fluenz.org and this is what they do:

We create free language learning solutions that address refugees and disadvantaged immigrants in host countries whose language they can't speak or understand.

Our solutions are freely available on the web so that people like you, NGOs, and government agencies can download and distribute them wherever they can make a difference.

Fluenz.org

If a Spanish-speaking migrant is looking to learn English, this is an excellent resource to help them do so.

I attended a dramatic reading tonight here in Philly of personal stories taken from a book edited by Peter Orner called Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives.  The book contains the oral histories of undocumented immigrants as told in recent years to the editors of the work.  The stories are real and all too familiar--they reminded me of the clients I work with each day.  The daily petty slights endured, the enveloping fear, the ambition, the scars, the regret, and the hope. 

From an LA Times review of the book from earlier this year, excerpted on the McSweeney's site for the book:

There are 24 stories documented here. Editor Peter Orner and a team of graduate students from San Francisco State University went looking for stories for Voice of Witness, which publishes "oral histories of people around the world who have had their human and civil rights violated." The storytellers hold many different jobs, have different reasons for leaving home and different expectations about U.S. life. Mr. Lai left China after officials found that he and his wife had violated the one-child policy. Saleem, 54, was summarily deported to Pakistan after Sept. 11. Roberto came from Mexico at 14; it took him 30 years to get a green card. "Everything we do is a crime," says a Mexican man called El Mojado. "You don't have papers, it's a crime. You buy fake papers, it's a crime." Elizabeth, an English teacher in Bolivia, came to the U.S. in 2004 to get help for her 8-year-old daughter, diagnosed with a severe form of arthritis. With no money, she slid through the American underworld, down the steps that so many of these people describe: rape, robbery, exploitation and a complete lack of credibility--no way to get help, and no way out.

Decades after arriving, many want desperately to go home and cannot. "I wouldn't make it back across," says Adela, a Mexican woman who has been here for 18 years and longs to see her family but doesn't dare leave her children. "No, there are too many that have died in the desert, too many who have drowned."

The book owes much to recently-deceased Studs Terkel, a pioneer of the oral history genre and a board member of the oral history series, Voice of Witness, of which Underground America is an installment. 

Gustavo Arellano has an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that is a breath of fresh air in the U.S. migration debate.  Please read, "My Dad, the illegal immigrant."

The climate of terror that the U.S. federal government has forced upon millions of unauthorized migrants has ensured, yet again, that migrants will likely be at risk of great harm as Hurricane Ike approaches Texas.  Some migrants would rather take their chances at home than risk getting detained and deported.

XP has two important posts on Hurricane Ike, one where he's updating with recent developments, and another entitled "As Hurricane Ike Looms Closer, Immigrants Refuse To Leave."

Don't we wish the U.S. were as good as Cuba is at evacuating people out of harms way in the face of hurricanes.

I knew unauthorized migrants were going to get left behind in Gustav.  I wrote about it here.  Despite assurances from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), migrants have been forced to live in such a climate of fear that they wouldn't dare leave.

The Associated Press reports (sombrero tip to the Latin Americanist):

Many of the illegal immigrants who have been rebuilding New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina stayed behind when Gustav struck because they were afraid of being arrested if they boarded the buses and trains arranged by emergency officials.

"We know that people died during Katrina, but we had no choice but to stay here," said Carlos Mendoza, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras who rode out the storm with seven other people. They took shelter in an apartment that is close to a street corner where day laborers congregate.

"Many stayed because of fear," Mendoza said. "I would say at least 50 percent of us."

Peter Prengaman - Associated Press (3 September 2008)

UPDATE: Angela Kelley of the Immigration Policy Center just put up a piece about this at Huffington Post.  (They also have a new pro-migrant blog, Immigration Impact)

I'm not usually a fan of the multiple public relations pitches that come through the contact us page on Citizen Orange.  Yet, I have to admit that when someone from Big Think wrote me about the story of Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, I was hooked and had to share the story.  I'll embed the Big Think video that tells his story here, but below the fold I'll expound upon it.

The migrant-rights organization Immigration Equality scored a major victory today in ushering through the Senate a repeal of the HIV immigration and travel ban.  From Immigration Equality's press release (I'll post the link as soon as it goes up on their website) (Update: here it is):

Immigration Equality hails the Senate's vote to lift the HIV immigration and travel ban.  The Senate voted today to repeal the language that bars people with HIV/AIDS from entering the U.S., as part of the legislation reauthorizing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  The Senate approved PEPFAR by a vote of 80 to 16.

"Congress has finally moved to end the HIV ban - a ban based on myth and misinformation," said Rachel B. Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality.  "For twenty years, the United States has barred HIV-positive travelers from entering the country even for one day.  Today the Senate said loud and clear that AIDS exceptionalism must come to an end." 

HIV is the only disease excluded by Congressional fiat; all other decisions on communicable diseases are left to the discretion of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  The repeal provision in the PEPFAR bill will remove the anti-HIV language from the Immigration and Nationality Act, and restore the determination of whether HIV is "communicable disease of public health significance," to the discretion of HHS.

Important Update: Note that the bill has not yet become law, so the waiver requirement is still in place until it does.  From Immigration Equality's website:

The Senate's version of PEPFAR has not yet become law.  Right now, if you are HIV positive and planning to travel to the U.S. or planning to apply for legal permanent residence status you must still obtain a waiver of inadmissibility.  For more information on HIV Waivers please read this section of our website.

Second Update: It's been a while since I linked to Andrew Sullivan, but take a moment to read his moving post about what the repeal means to him (via). 

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's one of the happiest days of my whole life. For two and a half decades, I have longed to be a citizen of the country I love and have made my home. I now can. There is no greater feeling.

And I should also note that one of the co-sponsors of the bill was Gordon Smith (R-OR), a prominent Mormon in good standing in the faith.  I hope that the era of reflexive alignment of religious conservatives with anti-gay politics is coming to an end (I say "anti-gay" on the premise that the HIV ban had its roots in animus against the LGBT community).

[End updates]

Ray William Johnson is a college student in New York who produces Capitol Hill Gangsta on YouTube and he recently put out this video:



It's good to know that at least some people take the time to research the facts as they pertain to migrants.

(Sombrero tip to Kai at Zuky)



Watching this speech by Tim Wise cleansed my soul.  People that can articulate oppression like Time Wise are a treasure.  You have to watch the whole thing, but I especially liked his articulation of how white people, or those that buy into whiteness, are tricked into blaming migrants.  I'll quote it below.