Recently in U.S. Immigration Reform Category
While most eyes are focused on the HCR debate right now, there is another high-stakes legislative issue waiting in the wings. For those whose families and communities are impacted by the problematic immigration system, immigration reform is as crucial as anything else on the Democratic agenda.
But right now, immigrants and advocates are wondering whether immigration reform is even on the agenda of Democrats in Congress and the White House, notwithstanding Candidate Obama's promise to make immigration reform a top priority during his first year in office.
That's why I was happy to see the Inquirer's editorial about the DREAM Act over the weekend.
Under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, a path to citizenship would be provided to these children after they graduate from high school and enroll in college or the military for two years, steps that would help them become productive members of society.
Critics argue such action condones or encourages illegal immigration, but that's a narrow-minded view of a much bigger problem. There are at least 12 million illegal immigrants who live and work in the United States. Since most are not returning to their homelands, this country must find a good way to move them to permanent-residency status.
Short of a comprehensive national policy on immigration, the DREAM Act bill provides lawmakers with an opportunity to pass one segment of the sweeping reform that's needed.
The four students currently walking the 1500-mile Trail of Dreams from Florida to D.C. are in Atlanta this week. The students and their supporters made a stop in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta and location of a 287(g) program run by Sheriff Butch Conway whereby local police enforce federal immigration laws under ICE oversight. These 287(g) programs are typically enacted by grandstanding sheriffs who want an excuse to terrorize the local Latin@ community to win votes among local nativist whites. Once 287(g) is in place in a given jurisdiction, local law enforcement has carte blanche to engage in racial profiling, knowing that any arrest for any reason, whether or not criminal charges are made or are later thrown out, will likely lead to deportation. It's simple: 287(g) = racial profiling. The fact that President Obama still supports this program says worlds about his immigration policy priorities and the value his administration places on the pro-migrant vote.
The Dreamers' goal was to meet Sheriff Conway to challenge his implementation of 287(g) in Gwinnett County. Roberto Lovato of presente.org sent word of how the meeting went yesterday:
[T]he students walked into the Gwinnett County courthouse and demanded to speak to Sheriff today. and they did while wearing shirts emblazoned with the word "UNDOCUMENTED." Rather than face them, Sheriff Conway, the Joe Arpaio of the South, opted to have one of his subordinates deal with the walkers. In sum, the students faced down Sheriff Conway, who, under false or flimsy pretences, has jailed hundreds (almost 500) of undocumented immigrants in Gwinnett county in the past 3 months alone. (for more info on the action, see presente.org website) Conway backed away from doing what he does to immigrants in Gwinnett County on a daily basis: arrest and help deport them! thanks for listening and monitoring and following this important story. more to come soon as the walkers still have another 900 miles and 2 months to go til they reach DC.
Felipe, Gaby, Carlos, and Juan also garnered some local media attention, bringing their message to Atlantans who may never have considered that the undocumented immigrants their politicians rail against might also be their children's classmates and friends. English-language broadcasts can be seen here and here.
Visit the Trail of Dreams website if you'd like to donate to pay for food, water, and supplies so the Dreamers can reach D.C.
No filibuster can derail this train, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins will not stand in the way of GIR this time. Even industry lobbyists are sitting out this fight ... they know their time is better spent elsewhere.
And don't miss last month's update on GIR 2010.
[Cross-posted at Young Philly Politics]
Each year in the U.S., 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school with limited options for higher education or employment. Many undocumented youth were brought to this country as children, even infants, by their parents. They are indistinguishable in every way but one from their citizen friends, classmates, and siblings: they don't have a piece of paper that says they can stay here.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) would change that. The Act would provide conditional legal status to applicants who:
provide certain undocumented immigrant students who graduate from US high schools, are of good moral character, arrived in the US as children, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency. The students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have "acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor's degree or higher degree in the United States," or have "served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge.".
A version of the Act was first introduced in 2001, and subsequent versions have been proposed since then, but the bill stalled during the acrimonious immigration debate of 2006-07. The Act was reintroduced earlier this year, and has garnered 105 co-sponsors in the House and 35 in the Senate. It has been endorsed by President Obama, Secretary of DHS Janet Napolitano, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, Microsoft, the College Board, the University of California system, and several newspaper editorial boards, including the New York Times. Against it are ... the same restrictionist organizations that oppose any immigration reform.
This spring, Temple University passed a resolution in support of the Act, largely through the efforts of Daniel Dunphy, President of the Temple College Democrats. The city of Philadelphia followed suit with a resolution sponsored by Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez. Students at the University of Pennsylvania are also getting involved.
Nearly one year ago, on November 8, 2008, Long Island resident Marcelo Lucero was beaten and stabbed to death by a group of local teens who had decided to go "beaner hopping." They had already assaulted other Latinos earlier that day. The group appears to me to have viewed racial attacks as a way to stave off boredom, regularly going after those they viewed as the most vulnerable and despised in their community: Latino immigrants.
Long Island Wins is sponsoring a campaign to remember Marcelo. Remembering Marcelo's life and his death is important to me because there have been too many racial attacks in Philadelphia as well. Some incidents date back years, like the attack against Julio Maldonado and Denis Calderon in 1996, where law enforcement sided with the persecutors instead of the victims. Immigrants are still being attacked today in our community, and for the same reasons that Marcelo was killed: they are viewed as enemies or threats by many in the community and also seen as easy targets. Local law enforcement here facilitates those kinds of crimes by targeting immigrants themselves, usually for minor traffic violations, and turning them over to ICE, ensuring that immigrant victims of crimes will be less willing to call the police for protection. This problem is not limited to Philly--Luis Ramirez was killed in Pottsville, PA, just months before Marcelo's death.
Long Island Wins and Marcelo's family have very effectively pushed back against the hate in their community, and I hope that other communities around the country can follow their example.
And as Ted Hesson of Long Island Wins pointed out, Congress could do a lot to solve the problem of hate crimes by passing immigration reform to bring people out of the shadows and into the scope of the protections that others in the community enjoy. Right now, too many people are invisible to all but those who wish them harm.
This post was written for The Sanctuary.Yesterday, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) unveiled his "principles for a new comprehensive immigration reform bill" amid much fanfare. An increasingly disciplined and organized migrant rights movement was able to bring thousands to Washington D.C. in support of Gutierrez's announcement. You can follow almost minute to minute updates of yesterday's event at the Reform Immigration for America blog.
Maegan at Vivir Latino, Prerna at Change.org, and Marisa Trevino at Latina Lista have already expressed their thoughts and I thought I'd add my own. I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical of Gutierrez's announcement. The way Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) have treated the migrant youth movement leaves much to be desired. Why members of the CHC have still not co-sponsored the Development, Youth, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is beyond me. The justification offered is that they want to wait for the DREAM Act to be a part of comprehensive immigration reform, but that doesn't mean you can't cosponsor the DREAM Act to show your support! 100 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have already cosponsored the DREAM Act, and it is an embarrassment that a supposed "champion" of migrant rights like Gutierrez has not.
Barack Obama recently explained to Univision anchor Jorge Ramos why he used the term "illegal immigrants" in his health care speech, prompting Rep. Joe Wilson to yell at him (via Latina Lista): Well, keep in mind what I was addressing. I was addressing misinformation by the other side that was engaging in scare tactics. So I was essentially quoting them. I was saying, "for those of you who are saying that illegal immigrants are going to be covered under this plan," I said that's not true. Right? So I'm using their language because I was addressing the misinformation that they are providing. And I was speaking directly to an audience, the American people, who because of this misinformation, I think actually were very responding often times in a negative way.I don't buy it.
Obama's use of the term dovetails with his ally Senator Schumer's public repudiation of the term "undocumented immigrant" in favor of the tough-sounding but legally meaningless term "illegal immigrant." Obama's usage dates back to a decision in early 2008 to adopt right-wing framing on immigration in the hope of later passing a legalization bill.
If that was the plan, it hasn't worked very well so far. We have no idea when the Democrats will introduce an immigration bill. Schumer keeps pushing the date back. I've seen little evidence congressional Democrats or the administration are interested in expending political capital on immigration. They want it to be easy. They want something handed to them on a platter, with the work already done.
Meanwhile, opponents of immigration reform are deeply committed to their cause. Most so-called supporters are lukewarm at best about the issue, and right now I place Barack Obama in that category.
It is way past time that I wrote about Jorge-Alonso Chehade. Jorge-Alonso is the fourth of a group of courageous unauthorized migrant youth who have led campaigns to stop their own deportations.
First there was Walter Lara, then there was Taha, then there was Herta Llusho. All of their deportations were extended due in great part to the social media efforts of dreamactivist.org, SEIU, the broader pro-migrant blogosphere, and the increasing support of the progressive blogosphere.
With only 36 hours left before Jorge-Alonso is forced to leave the United States, he needs all the support he can get, and he is asking everyone to do just one thing, send a fax to DHS on his behalf.
Send a fax to DHS at @ http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/dontdeportalonsoAlmost 2,000 supporters have sent faxes to DHS, already, can we make that 5,000?Jorge-Alonso Chehade - The Sanctuary (19 September 2009)
