Recently in Racism Category

There is more from Scott Fontaine at the Tacoma News Tribune on the story of the US citizen locked up for seven months in immigration prison and nearly deported due to standard government circumvention of due process.  Notice the contempt with which all the key decisionmakers in the process treated Castillo.

Still, the posture of the article and the reason this is a news item is not that a human being was treated so poorly.  It's that this happened to a U.S. citizen.  The problems that this article uncovers--the failure of the system to obtain accurate results, the inability of many migrants to navigate a complex process--exist for non-citizens as well.  These problems didn't arise by accident.  They have been built into the system to allow the government to imprison and deport more migrants for political gain.

And the idea that the issuance of two "A numbers" for a single individual is a bizarre glitch is just not true.  It happens All. The. Time. 

SCOTT FONTAINE; Published: August 19th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: August 19th, 2008 10:33 AM

Rennison Castillo broke the law. He was punished for it. And he thought he had served his time. Instead, the last day of an eight-month jail sentence was the start of a seven-month nightmare that almost ended two years ago with Castillo – a Lakewood resident, Army veteran and American citizen – deported to Belize, a country he left as a child.

He spoke publicly about the incident for the first time earlier this month.

Immigration officials say his case was a rare mistake and that it has prompted closer scrutiny of citizenship claims. But advocates say it’s the kind of mix-up that’s bound to happen as the federal government aggressively moves to deport more criminal immigrants while limiting their access to the legal system.

The AP carried this article over the weekend about what appears to be the racially-motivated killing of a Latino migrant by a group of teenagers in rural Pennsylvania:

MICHAEL RUBINKAM —
SHENANDOAH, Pa. (AP) —

Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

[Continued over at the DMI blog.]

CNN reports on another Haitian migration tragedy (via Immigration Prof Blog): 

The bodies of 20 migrants have been recovered from the sea near the Bahamas after their boat apparently capsized, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday as it searched for survivors.

The bodies of 19 Haitians and one Honduran were recovered and three survivors -- two Haitians and one Honduran -- have been found, said Barry Bena, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. Authorities are interviewing the survivors to determine what happened.

The search-and-rescue mission began Sunday after fishermen heard people screaming in the water.

The accident happened about 15 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of Nassau, Bahamas, according to the Coast Guard. A cutter, helicopter and a jet from the Coast Guard and two Bahamas military vessels continued searching the area Monday, Bena said.

Every year, thousands of Haitians try to leave the Western Hemisphere's poorest country aboard rickety, overloaded boats for other islands or the United States.

Soaring food prices have pushed many into abject poverty and triggered riots earlier this month in Haiti, but this has not yet translated into a spike in the number of migrants.

Last year a migrant boat capsized near the Turks and Caicos islands, pitching Haitians into shark-infested waters. At least 61 people died.

Who said this?

I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty-to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.

Answer below the fold.

Marisa Treviño questions Julie Myers' characterization of social security misappropriation as a significant proportion of the broader category of identity theft.  This, of course, was the primary justification ICE gave for churning through immigrant communities again in its raids this week, leaving the emotional and spiritual equivalent of the wreckage left by a rogue tornado. 

While not trying to minimize the hardships and nightmares that a stolen identity wreaks on its victims, I have to take issue with Ms. Myers' statement when she says - "A significant percentage of identity theft is carried out by illegal aliens trying to avoid detection and gain employment.."

According to a survey released in November 2007 by the Federal Trade Commission, only 1% of identity theft victims report their identity being used for employment purposes.

Since it's known that undocumented immigrants main purpose of using fake Social Security numbers is to gain employment then Ms. Myers seems to purposely exaggerate the facts to paint the undocumented worker as a hardened criminal intent on causing personal harm.

When in fact, it's been reported to be the opposite.

When given the opportunity to purchase the documents needed, undocumented immigrants do so willingly and gladly — even when they fall victim themselves to scam artists.

In light of widespread predawn raids as part of Operation Return to Sender, the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) prepared an informational video on how to prepare for an ICE raid.

The video plays out different scenarios in which undocumented immigrants commonly come into contact with ICE or local law enforcement, including workplace and home raids, as well as routine traffic stops.  In the clip, you see people reacting in ways that can reduce their risk of being deported, and you see people reacting in ways that greatly increase that risk.  The narrators explain how to assert your rights in different situations.  It is worth watching—certainly for migrants—but also for friends, family, and advocates who might be in a position to explain to others what to do and what not to do when confronted by ICE.

The video can be ordered here and a subtitled Spanish/English version can be viewed here.

CHIRLA edited a shorter version for YouTube (currently w/o subtitles), above, which at present appears to be sadly underviewed.  Help get the word out about this great resource and get those page views up! 

The “Know Your Rights” card described in the video can be printed up here (pdf).  CASA of Maryland also has a good illustrated guide for preparing for an ICE raid available in English and Spanish (pdfs).   

Apparently an incarceration ratio of 1 in 100, while good enough for U.S. citizen adults, is a little low for immigrants in the eyes of the feds. 

From Anna Gorman and Scott Glover at the LA Times (via Thoreau at Unqualified Offerings):

Federal authorities are cracking down on immigrants who were previously deported and then reentered the country illegally -- a crime that now makes up more than one-third of all prosecutions in Los Angeles and surrounding counties, a Times review of U.S. attorney's statistics shows.

Most of these prisoners were probably removed through an administrative removal proceeding after coming to the U.S. previously.  Most probably didn’t have access to counsel the first time around, which is just one of the due process violations prevalent in the pseudo-judicial immigration system.  But it’s ok, the government argues, because it’s “just a civil matter.”  No jail time involved—just “detention” on your way out of the country if you try to fight your case. 

But there are serious consequences if someone previously deported decides to come back to be with their children or spouse, or out of economic desperation.  Then the outcome of the previous administrative proceeding is used against them in criminal court.

The restrictionist strategy of enforcement through attrition claimed another hardworking taxpayer last week.  A Brooklyn woman finally gave up her fight to stay in this country.  Already past retirement age, she works long nighttime shifts caring for disabled people.  Her employers and patients have nothing but praise for her.  But the stress of long years of trying to resolve her immigration status, after a string of mistakes committed by USCIS (including at one point sending her a welcome notice signaling the start of permanent resident status, then denying the case without informing her), finally led her to abandon her quest to stay in the country.  Nativists everywhere, rejoice—the low-wage ambitions of another softspoken terrorist grandma have been thwarted!

The combination of burdensome and incomprehensible rules, unjustifiably high fees (e.g., $340 for a work permit, often baselessly or mistakenly denied by USCIS, and $585 to appeal the decision—over $1,000 for a bare-bones DIY green card application), race-based decisionmaking cloaked in administrative discretion, and extraordinarily punitive enforcement measures have created a climate of hate and fear.  This situation didn’t arise organically, nor is it an inevitable consequence of natural social and economic forces, as restrictionists would have us believe.  It is the carefully planned result of years of conservative organizing and legislative action, spearheaded since 1999 by the nativist caucus in the House.   

Image: World Wide Lens

With all the migrant suffering in the world, I do my best to stay upbeat and look for hope in the darkness. Unfortunately, this will not be one of those days.  This morning I happened upon a post at Brave New Films by famed Latina author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, entitled "Latino artists bear the burden of anti-immigrant frenzy" on her own blog.  Valdes-Rodriguez's post filled me with an overwhelming sense of dread.  The United States and other parts of the world, through the U.S., are being deprived of an entire subset of viewpoints as a result of the hostile nativist attitudes that have emerged in recent years.

I don't know why this post affected me so much in the midst of everything else.  I think it's because when fighting injustice one has the tendency to believe that you can't kill an idea, that you can't silence the truth.  But here you have a clear case where truth is being silenced.  I'll let Valdes-Rodriguez take it from here: