I woke up this morning to my alarm clock, which is the strumming sounds of a guitar. My first words were somewhere along the lines of "that's the Obama's a winner song," or "that's Obama waking me up." I have never felt so blessed, fortunate, safe, and energized about the world around me.
My neighbor, a 10 year girl, saw me tear up this morning on the steps of our apartment as David and the dog drove to work. She told me that she new Obama would win because the other guy didn't look happy. I smiled and told her that it wasn't about that other guy anymore, it is about the fact that Obama's presidency symbolizes possibility. She looked at me, paused, and said, "ya, that too."
As an immigrant, I have not always celebrated it. In fact, a great deal of my life has been spent in fear of what I am not and in fear of government policies determined by people who have never felt oppression running through their veins. As an immigrant child I was instilled to believe that I was less than and that no matter how hard I worked there would be that glass ceiling and that that was okay, because that's reality.
Obama's presidency puts all of that to the wayside. Obama's presidency just made anything possible, in the most beautiful way, for every person, including me. YES WE CAN! YES WE WILL.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
4th National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference
April 10-12, 2009 UIC College of Medicine, Chicago, IL
http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org/2009Conference/
Tel: (202)595-8990
Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights!
Together We Build A New Immigrant Rights Movement!
Calling for Workshop and Speaker Proposals
Mark Your Calendar!
National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN), the leading national immigrant activist network, is calling for 4th Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference the weekend of April 10-12, 2009 at Chicago, IL!
The conference will be our strategy planning meeting for grassroots immigrant activists looking 2009 and beyond. We want to send a clear message to the Congress and our new President: Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights!
For more information, please visit: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org/2009Conference/
We're begin accepting program, workshops and speakers proposals (See blow our workshop/program focus), please download the workshop proposal form (PDF, Word), and send your proposal to: siuhin@aol.com and info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
Our Focus:
The conference will focus on building multi-ethnic, multi-constituent, broad-based grassroots immigrant rights movements run by de-centralized volunteer-based community-rooted immigrant rights activists from youth, workers and community members who can play more active role on campaign formulation and decision making for local coalition building to organize popular education campaigns, such as: campaign to against immigrant dentition, deportation & raids; immigrant labor rights movement; campaign against local anti-immigrant ordinance; and linking the immigrant rights movement with other struggles, such as: anti-war and anti-globalization movements.
We'll also discuss the lessons from the 2008 election and what we should expect from the new President and the Congress affecting immigrant legislation for the next two years.
Workshops and Strategic Campaign Proposal:
The conference will be focus on the following areas, at the end of the conference, we'll draft a strategic campaign proposal.
- 2008 Elections and How It'll Impact Immigrant Rights Movement
- Linking Immigrant Rights Movements with Other Struggles
- Immigrant Raids, Detention & Deportation
- Immigrant Labor Campaigns and Day Labor Centers
- Housing, Education and Healthcare Rights for the Immigrants
- No to the Border Wall and Militization of the Border
- Strategic Resources for the Immigrant Activists
- Support Local Chicago Grassroots Immigrant Campaigns
- Building a Multi-ethnic, Multi-Constituents-Based Immigrant Rights Movement
- Congressional Immigrant Legislation
- International Immigrant Rights Campaigns
Please contact us: siuhin@aol.com and info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org if you can help us.
In solidarity!
Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
4th National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference
April 10-12, 2009 UIC College of Medicine, Chicago, IL
http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org/2009Conference/
Tel: (202)595-8990
Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights!
Together We Build A New Immigrant Rights Movement!
Calling for Workshop and Speaker Proposals
Mark Your Calendar!
National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN), the leading national immigrant activist network, is calling for 4th Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference the weekend of April 10-12, 2009 at Chicago, IL!
The conference will be our strategy planning meeting for grassroots immigrant activists looking 2009 and beyond. We want to send a clear message to the Congress and our new President: Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights!
For more information, please visit: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org/2009Conference/
We're begin accepting program, workshops and speakers proposals (See blow our workshop/program focus), please download the workshop proposal form (PDF, Word), and send your proposal to: siuhin@aol.com and info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
Our Focus:
The conference will focus on building multi-ethnic, multi-constituent, broad-based grassroots immigrant rights movements run by de-centralized volunteer-based community-rooted immigrant rights activists from youth, workers and community members who can play more active role on campaign formulation and decision making for local coalition building to organize popular education campaigns, such as: campaign to against immigrant dentition, deportation & raids; immigrant labor rights movement; campaign against local anti-immigrant ordinance; and linking the immigrant rights movement with other struggles, such as: anti-war and anti-globalization movements.
We'll also discuss the lessons from the 2008 election and what we should expect from the new President and the Congress affecting immigrant legislation for the next two years.
Workshops and Strategic Campaign Proposal:
The conference will be focus on the following areas, at the end of the conference, we'll draft a strategic campaign proposal.
- 2008 Elections and How It'll Impact Immigrant Rights Movement
- Linking Immigrant Rights Movements with Other Struggles
- Immigrant Raids, Detention & Deportation
- Immigrant Labor Campaigns and Day Labor Centers
- Housing, Education and Healthcare Rights for the Immigrants
- No to the Border Wall and Militization of the Border
- Strategic Resources for the Immigrant Activists
- Support Local Chicago Grassroots Immigrant Campaigns
- Building a Multi-ethnic, Multi-Constituents-Based Immigrant Rights Movement
- Congressional Immigrant Legislation
- International Immigrant Rights Campaigns
Please contact us: siuhin@aol.com and info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org if you can help us.
In solidarity!
Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
Tourist Trap: Homeland Security sets up a new San Jose office to apprehend immigrant fugitives
Homeland Security sets up a new San Jose office to apprehend immigrant fugitives
By Raj Jayadev
ELOY, Ariz., is nothing like San Jose. More than a thousand miles away, located in the middle of the desert, it is a blazingly hot, desolate and unremarkable town roughly an hour-and-a-half south of Phoenix. It's so secluded that Greyhound doesn't even go there.
Eloy is host to one of the country's largest immigration detention centers. And now, a week after the largest immigration enforcement operation in California history, the distance from San Jose and Eloy already seems significantly shorter.
An estimated 436 people were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Bay Area, in what amounted to a sort of coming-out party for ICE's new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team (FOT).
Many of those who were picked up are likely headed to Eloy, and immigrant communities locally are on notice—the South Bay is in a new era of immigration enforcement.
ICE was established in 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. In order to expand ICE's field efforts, it created Fugitive Operation Teams to locate, arrest and remove "fugitives" from the United States. ICE defines a fugitive as "an alien who has failed to report to a Detention and Removal Officer after receiving notice to do so."
In 2003, there were eight teams created nationwide. By 2007, the first year since its inception that ICE reported a decline in its case backlog, there were 75 teams. As of Aug. 1, ICE's case backlog was just over 570,000, and the division had 95 Fugitive Operation Teams. ICE expects to have over 100 by the end of year. They have arrested 26,945 people so far in 2008.
Craig Myer, ICE's assistant field office director in San Francisco, says the recent three-week enforcement "surge" and first assignment of the San Jose Fugitive Operation Team was a major success.
"To have a team in San Jose means we can be out there more often, and have more flexibility to cover Northern California," Myers says. While Myers says they were not able to track the number of arrests specifically in San Jose, he estimates there are around 4,000 to 6,000 people locally that may be targeted by their efforts. The large number, Myers says, is why ICE in June of this year located a team in San Jose.
Will the Surge Work?
Virginia Kice, ICE's Western Regional Communications director, cannot say how large the San Jose ICE team is, but a 2007 report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says a team typically has seven members. The report also points to significantly climbing arrest goals per team.
The goal of each team in 2003 was 125 people, by 2006 that number jumped to 1,000 per team. That jump is consistent with the Office of Detention and Removal Operations Strategic Plan, "Endgame," indicating that the national aim of the FOT is to "eliminate the backlog of fugitive aliens by the end of 2012."
Despite a sharp escalation of arrests, the OIG report documented several critiques of the Fugitive Operation Team model. Among other conclusions the 2007 report states: "Fugitive alien apprehensions reported did not accurately reflect the teams' activities. ... [T]he teams performed duties unrelated to fugitive operations, contrary to Office of Detention and Removal Operations Policy."
The review points to ways the FOT can improve, given their aggressive goals, and notes their case logs may be "growing at a rate that exceeds the teams' ability to apprehend." Considering that there are now an estimated 12 million undocumented people in the United States, according to the Pew Institute's Hispanic Center, the potential backlog of cases could be enormous.
Angie Junk, staff attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), is not surprised by the new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team or its surge strategy, but says immigrant communities in the South Bay now need to be particularly vigilant in protecting their rights.
"These enforcement increases are going to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and will threaten due process for all in the community," Junk says. The ILRC, based in San Francisco, has created "know your rights" cards (which explain due process rights such as the right to attorney). The group has also established community raid networks and triage centers to help people deal with enforcement issues, and help families respond to an arrest.
"ICE has a history of violating people's rights by racially profiling, threatening and using unlawful interrogation techniques while picking up their targets," Junk says.
Kice points out that Fugitive Operation Teams do not conduct mass sweeps, but rather have individual targets.
However, Junk says that the teams often arrest whoever they may come upon during an operation. Myers confirms that this is common practice, and calls these actions "collateral arrests."
"If we go to a place, we are going to check everyone's identifying documents, and enforce the law," he says.
That accounts for a discrepancy of numbers. In last week's surge, ICE reported 436 arrests, and said that 185 of those were immigration fugitives. The rest, a significant majority, were collateral apprehensions or individuals that were not initially targeted by the FOT.
For now, Myers says, there is no active relationship between the federal agency and local law enforcement.
Relocating to San Jose or Silicon Valley? Let San Jose.com introduce you to some expert area real estate agents.
"We notified them of our operation for courtesy, but they did not assist," he says. When asked if ICE will be employing more statewide surge tactics, given the large number of arrests, he says that he does not know of any upcoming plans.
Either way, he expects the new San Jose Fugitive Operations Team to be busy.
"While the big enforcement operations get a lot of media responses," he says, "we are out there everyday, trying to meet our goal."
By Raj Jayadev
ELOY, Ariz., is nothing like San Jose. More than a thousand miles away, located in the middle of the desert, it is a blazingly hot, desolate and unremarkable town roughly an hour-and-a-half south of Phoenix. It's so secluded that Greyhound doesn't even go there.
Eloy is host to one of the country's largest immigration detention centers. And now, a week after the largest immigration enforcement operation in California history, the distance from San Jose and Eloy already seems significantly shorter.
An estimated 436 people were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Bay Area, in what amounted to a sort of coming-out party for ICE's new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team (FOT).
Many of those who were picked up are likely headed to Eloy, and immigrant communities locally are on notice—the South Bay is in a new era of immigration enforcement.
ICE was established in 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. In order to expand ICE's field efforts, it created Fugitive Operation Teams to locate, arrest and remove "fugitives" from the United States. ICE defines a fugitive as "an alien who has failed to report to a Detention and Removal Officer after receiving notice to do so."
In 2003, there were eight teams created nationwide. By 2007, the first year since its inception that ICE reported a decline in its case backlog, there were 75 teams. As of Aug. 1, ICE's case backlog was just over 570,000, and the division had 95 Fugitive Operation Teams. ICE expects to have over 100 by the end of year. They have arrested 26,945 people so far in 2008.
Craig Myer, ICE's assistant field office director in San Francisco, says the recent three-week enforcement "surge" and first assignment of the San Jose Fugitive Operation Team was a major success.
"To have a team in San Jose means we can be out there more often, and have more flexibility to cover Northern California," Myers says. While Myers says they were not able to track the number of arrests specifically in San Jose, he estimates there are around 4,000 to 6,000 people locally that may be targeted by their efforts. The large number, Myers says, is why ICE in June of this year located a team in San Jose.
Will the Surge Work?
Virginia Kice, ICE's Western Regional Communications director, cannot say how large the San Jose ICE team is, but a 2007 report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says a team typically has seven members. The report also points to significantly climbing arrest goals per team.
The goal of each team in 2003 was 125 people, by 2006 that number jumped to 1,000 per team. That jump is consistent with the Office of Detention and Removal Operations Strategic Plan, "Endgame," indicating that the national aim of the FOT is to "eliminate the backlog of fugitive aliens by the end of 2012."
Despite a sharp escalation of arrests, the OIG report documented several critiques of the Fugitive Operation Team model. Among other conclusions the 2007 report states: "Fugitive alien apprehensions reported did not accurately reflect the teams' activities. ... [T]he teams performed duties unrelated to fugitive operations, contrary to Office of Detention and Removal Operations Policy."
The review points to ways the FOT can improve, given their aggressive goals, and notes their case logs may be "growing at a rate that exceeds the teams' ability to apprehend." Considering that there are now an estimated 12 million undocumented people in the United States, according to the Pew Institute's Hispanic Center, the potential backlog of cases could be enormous.
Angie Junk, staff attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), is not surprised by the new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team or its surge strategy, but says immigrant communities in the South Bay now need to be particularly vigilant in protecting their rights.
"These enforcement increases are going to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and will threaten due process for all in the community," Junk says. The ILRC, based in San Francisco, has created "know your rights" cards (which explain due process rights such as the right to attorney). The group has also established community raid networks and triage centers to help people deal with enforcement issues, and help families respond to an arrest.
"ICE has a history of violating people's rights by racially profiling, threatening and using unlawful interrogation techniques while picking up their targets," Junk says.
Kice points out that Fugitive Operation Teams do not conduct mass sweeps, but rather have individual targets.
However, Junk says that the teams often arrest whoever they may come upon during an operation. Myers confirms that this is common practice, and calls these actions "collateral arrests."
"If we go to a place, we are going to check everyone's identifying documents, and enforce the law," he says.
That accounts for a discrepancy of numbers. In last week's surge, ICE reported 436 arrests, and said that 185 of those were immigration fugitives. The rest, a significant majority, were collateral apprehensions or individuals that were not initially targeted by the FOT.
For now, Myers says, there is no active relationship between the federal agency and local law enforcement.
Relocating to San Jose or Silicon Valley? Let San Jose.com introduce you to some expert area real estate agents.
"We notified them of our operation for courtesy, but they did not assist," he says. When asked if ICE will be employing more statewide surge tactics, given the large number of arrests, he says that he does not know of any upcoming plans.
Either way, he expects the new San Jose Fugitive Operations Team to be busy.
"While the big enforcement operations get a lot of media responses," he says, "we are out there everyday, trying to meet our goal."
300 workers arrested in raid at poultry plant...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/08/poultry.plant.raid
CNN.com
Powered by
300 workers arrested in raid at poultry plant
* Story Highlights
* Federal immigration agents conduct raid at plant in Greenville,
South Carolina
* About 58 allowed to return to their homes to take care of their children
* No response from Columbia Farms or parent company, House of Raeford Farms
(CNN) -- Federal immigration agents arrested about 300 workers Tuesday
in a raid at a poultry processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina,
the Department of Justice said.
The agents executed a criminal search warrant at 9 a.m. at the
Columbia Farms poultry processing plant, capping a 10-month
investigation into the plant's employment practices, said Barbara
Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
About 58 of those arrested were allowed to return to their homes to
take care of their children or for other humanitarian reasons, she
said. The others were to be held in an ICE detention facility in the
area.
"They are all illegals," Gonzalez said. "We have charged them with
being in violation of U.S. immigration laws."
The investigation has already resulted in criminal charges being filed
against 11 supervisors and a human resources manager, she said.
Maria Juan, 22, was one of about 50 relatives and friends of workers
who huddled at the edge of the plant after the raid, some weeping and
others talking frantically on cell phones, The Associated Press
reported.
She was seeking information about her 68-year-old grandmother, a legal
immigrant from Guatemala who went to work without identification
papers but was later released, the AP reported.
"Families are going to be broken apart," Juan told the AP. "There will
be kids and babies left behind. Why are they doing this? Why? They
didn't do anything. They only wanted to work."
No one from Columbia Farms or from its parent company, House of
Raeford Farms in Raeford, North Carolina, responded immediately to
telephone messages.
The Charlotte Observer newspaper first reported in February that plant
workers were in the country illegally and company managers knew it,
the AP reported.
The raid "is a drop in the bucket" that is unlikely to persuade anyone
in the United States illegally to go home, said Dan Kowalski, an
Austin, Texas-based lawyer specializing in immigration law.
He questioned the conclusion by Gonzalez and ICE that all of those
arrested are indeed illegal immigrants.
"A judge has to say that, they can't just say that," he said.
All AboutImmigration • Immigration Policy
CNN.com
Powered by
300 workers arrested in raid at poultry plant
* Story Highlights
* Federal immigration agents conduct raid at plant in Greenville,
South Carolina
* About 58 allowed to return to their homes to take care of their children
* No response from Columbia Farms or parent company, House of Raeford Farms
(CNN) -- Federal immigration agents arrested about 300 workers Tuesday
in a raid at a poultry processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina,
the Department of Justice said.
The agents executed a criminal search warrant at 9 a.m. at the
Columbia Farms poultry processing plant, capping a 10-month
investigation into the plant's employment practices, said Barbara
Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
About 58 of those arrested were allowed to return to their homes to
take care of their children or for other humanitarian reasons, she
said. The others were to be held in an ICE detention facility in the
area.
"They are all illegals," Gonzalez said. "We have charged them with
being in violation of U.S. immigration laws."
The investigation has already resulted in criminal charges being filed
against 11 supervisors and a human resources manager, she said.
Maria Juan, 22, was one of about 50 relatives and friends of workers
who huddled at the edge of the plant after the raid, some weeping and
others talking frantically on cell phones, The Associated Press
reported.
She was seeking information about her 68-year-old grandmother, a legal
immigrant from Guatemala who went to work without identification
papers but was later released, the AP reported.
"Families are going to be broken apart," Juan told the AP. "There will
be kids and babies left behind. Why are they doing this? Why? They
didn't do anything. They only wanted to work."
No one from Columbia Farms or from its parent company, House of
Raeford Farms in Raeford, North Carolina, responded immediately to
telephone messages.
The Charlotte Observer newspaper first reported in February that plant
workers were in the country illegally and company managers knew it,
the AP reported.
The raid "is a drop in the bucket" that is unlikely to persuade anyone
in the United States illegally to go home, said Dan Kowalski, an
Austin, Texas-based lawyer specializing in immigration law.
He questioned the conclusion by Gonzalez and ICE that all of those
arrested are indeed illegal immigrants.
"A judge has to say that, they can't just say that," he said.
All AboutImmigration • Immigration Policy
Only the migrant workers, not the government or any institution, are the rightful owners of the billions of dollars in remittances that they have earn
OFW remittances only for OFWs--advocate
Gov't hit for 'wrong' view
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20081028-168877/OFW-remittances-only-for-OFWs--advocate
First Posted 12:45:00 10/28/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Only the migrant workers, not the government or any institution, are the rightful owners of the billions of dollars in remittances that they have earned in foreign lands, a US-based sociology professor and an advocate of migrants' rights said.
Jorge A. Bustamante, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2006, said that it was a "wrong perspective" for governments to put the "responsibility of development on the shoulders of migrants" whose remittances, in the case of the Philippines, have kept the economy afloat amid the financial crunch worldwide.
"I think this is something important to clarify because this lack of appreciation is making the wrong perspective about the nature of remittances because sometimes when migration is associated with dependency some people believe that economic development has to be related with remittances, and that would be a wrong perspective, that would be unfair to the migrants," Bustamante said in his remark at the solidarity dinner of parliamentarians hosted by Senate President Manuel Villar and Representative Cynthia Villar late Monday at the Villa Pacencia Laurel in Mandaluyong City.
However, Bustamante stressed that he delivered his statements as an academician, not as UN rapporteur.
He is a professor of sociology, teaching international migration and human rights at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
The event was organized simultaneous with the opening of the Global Forum on Migration and Development at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Bustamante is scheduled to attend the counterpart forum organized by progressive migrant workers group, the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees.
"Remittances are the result of the work of migrants and they represent their savings that have the basic objective to support their families at home. Therefore remittances are the property of migrants and nobody else, therefore, this money that belongs to the migrants should not be associated with any claim by any institution, government or private, which might think that remittances should be used for the purposes of economic development," he said.
He said such claims "would be unfair and incongruent with
the nature of remittances, and this is something that has to do with the need to clarify some of the problems that we associate with the phenomenon of international migration all over the world."
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo repeatedly boasted that the remittances of the country's eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFW) have kept the economy afloat amid the international financial turmoil.
In 2007, OFW remittances totaled $14.4 billion.
Asked in an interview about the dangers of government treating remittances as its property, Bustamante said, "The danger is that remittances that are the property of migrants are stolen because only the migrants can decide what should be the destination of their own property."
Bustamante said governments should keep in mind that remittances were not touched for other purposes "than those that have been decided by the migrants themselves."
"Migrants are the only persons that could decide on what is the destination of their own money," he added.
John Monterona, coordinator of the group Migrante for Middle East, lamented that government fees and taxes imposed on OFWs were not being used for the benefit of the migrant workers.
The Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) charges $25 each as membership fee for departing OFWs and $.015 for documentary stamp, he said.
With about 3,000 Filpinos leaving every day to work abroad, Monterona said the government through the OWWA earned billions in pesos from the OFWs.
"The question is where does OWWA spend its more than P10-billion fund," he said in an interview.
Gary Martinez, Migrante International spokesman, said that despite the contributions of the OFWs, the government has been remiss in its duty to protect the welfare of the workers.
He lamented that thousands of distressed OFWs remained in shelters without assistance from the Philippine embassy or consular offices.
Some of the workers on the death row are also deprived of legal assistance.
Martinez said that 29 Filipinos were facing death sentences in various countries.
Gov't hit for 'wrong' view
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20081028-168877/OFW-remittances-only-for-OFWs--advocate
First Posted 12:45:00 10/28/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Only the migrant workers, not the government or any institution, are the rightful owners of the billions of dollars in remittances that they have earned in foreign lands, a US-based sociology professor and an advocate of migrants' rights said.
Jorge A. Bustamante, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2006, said that it was a "wrong perspective" for governments to put the "responsibility of development on the shoulders of migrants" whose remittances, in the case of the Philippines, have kept the economy afloat amid the financial crunch worldwide.
"I think this is something important to clarify because this lack of appreciation is making the wrong perspective about the nature of remittances because sometimes when migration is associated with dependency some people believe that economic development has to be related with remittances, and that would be a wrong perspective, that would be unfair to the migrants," Bustamante said in his remark at the solidarity dinner of parliamentarians hosted by Senate President Manuel Villar and Representative Cynthia Villar late Monday at the Villa Pacencia Laurel in Mandaluyong City.
However, Bustamante stressed that he delivered his statements as an academician, not as UN rapporteur.
He is a professor of sociology, teaching international migration and human rights at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
The event was organized simultaneous with the opening of the Global Forum on Migration and Development at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Bustamante is scheduled to attend the counterpart forum organized by progressive migrant workers group, the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees.
"Remittances are the result of the work of migrants and they represent their savings that have the basic objective to support their families at home. Therefore remittances are the property of migrants and nobody else, therefore, this money that belongs to the migrants should not be associated with any claim by any institution, government or private, which might think that remittances should be used for the purposes of economic development," he said.
He said such claims "would be unfair and incongruent with
the nature of remittances, and this is something that has to do with the need to clarify some of the problems that we associate with the phenomenon of international migration all over the world."
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo repeatedly boasted that the remittances of the country's eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFW) have kept the economy afloat amid the international financial turmoil.
In 2007, OFW remittances totaled $14.4 billion.
Asked in an interview about the dangers of government treating remittances as its property, Bustamante said, "The danger is that remittances that are the property of migrants are stolen because only the migrants can decide what should be the destination of their own property."
Bustamante said governments should keep in mind that remittances were not touched for other purposes "than those that have been decided by the migrants themselves."
"Migrants are the only persons that could decide on what is the destination of their own money," he added.
John Monterona, coordinator of the group Migrante for Middle East, lamented that government fees and taxes imposed on OFWs were not being used for the benefit of the migrant workers.
The Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) charges $25 each as membership fee for departing OFWs and $.015 for documentary stamp, he said.
With about 3,000 Filpinos leaving every day to work abroad, Monterona said the government through the OWWA earned billions in pesos from the OFWs.
"The question is where does OWWA spend its more than P10-billion fund," he said in an interview.
Gary Martinez, Migrante International spokesman, said that despite the contributions of the OFWs, the government has been remiss in its duty to protect the welfare of the workers.
He lamented that thousands of distressed OFWs remained in shelters without assistance from the Philippine embassy or consular offices.
Some of the workers on the death row are also deprived of legal assistance.
Martinez said that 29 Filipinos were facing death sentences in various countries.
The police arrested 10 immigrants in Jackson Heights
NYtimes.com
October 22, 2008
Police, Responding to Complaints, Arrest 10 Men at Day Laborer Gathering Place
By KIRK SEMPLE and AL BAKER
The police arrested 10 immigrants on Tuesday on charges that they blocked a sidewalk at a popular gathering place for day laborers in Jackson Heights, Queens, the chief spokesman of the Police Department said.
The arrests came in response to repeated calls from neighborhood residents complaining about the laborers —most of them undocumented — who congregate every day at the intersection of Broadway, 37th Avenue and 69th Street, said the spokesman, Paul J. Browne.
“Police responded to community complaints about them blocking the sidewalk and congregating,” Mr. Browne said, adding that there were 50 to 60 workers at the location on Tuesday morning before the arrests.
“We responded and asked them to disperse,” Mr. Brown said. “All but 10 of them did.”
Several day laborers who were at the intersection on Tuesday afternoon and said they had witnessed the arrests, denied that the police had given the men an opportunity to disperse. The police, they say, pulled up in two vans, demanded identification from a group of workers clustered near the curb, and took those men away.
Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct for blocking pedestrian traffic and were taken to a local precinct, where they were being held pending arraignment, Mr. Browne said.
They were unable to provide verifiable identification, Mr. Browne said.
The arrests shocked day laborers who congregate at the intersection. By Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the arrests, about two dozen had returned to the site. The men, some of whom had been going to the intersection for more than three years, said it was the first time the police had arrested workers there.
Indeed, city authorities for years have generally left day laborers alone at the dozens of sites across the city where they gather to wait for work.
But the authorities said that Tuesday’s police action was simply a response to neighborhood complaints and did not represent the start of a crackdown on day laborers.
Mr. Browne described the action as “a police commander responding to complaints” from residents about “a large group congregating.”
Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Los Angeles, called the arrests “troubling.”
“If they were arrested for disorderly conduct based on the theory that they were blocking the sidewalk, that would be very serious because it raises First Amendment questions,” he said.
Federal courts, Mr. Newman added, have ruled that day laborers enjoy the same First Amendment protections as other people, particularly in public areas like sidewalks.
A 28-year-old Mexican laborer who would give only his first name, Enrique, said he was standing with the other laborers at the intersection late Tuesday morning when the two police vans arrived.
“One officer got out and said in Spanish: ‘You guys can’t be here. Come here and show me your identification,’ ” he recalled, and added that he and several other workers sidled away, ignoring calls from the officers to return. “I didn’t stop,” he said.
Several laborers who witnessed the arrests said they did not hear the police explain why the men were being detained.
“It’s abuse,” said Jorge, 26, a laborer from Ecuador.
A diminutive Mexican woman pushing a 2-year-old boy in a stroller appeared at the intersection, tears dampening her cheeks. She said her husband was one of those arrested.
He had called her on his cellphone as the police started asking the men for identification, said the woman, who gave only her first name, Olivia.
She said that both she and her husband were in the country illegally and had four children, all of whom had been born in the United States. She said she was afraid that her husband was going to be deported.
“He’s the one who works,” Olivia said, sobbing. “Who’s going to support the four children now?”
October 22, 2008
Police, Responding to Complaints, Arrest 10 Men at Day Laborer Gathering Place
By KIRK SEMPLE and AL BAKER
The police arrested 10 immigrants on Tuesday on charges that they blocked a sidewalk at a popular gathering place for day laborers in Jackson Heights, Queens, the chief spokesman of the Police Department said.
The arrests came in response to repeated calls from neighborhood residents complaining about the laborers —most of them undocumented — who congregate every day at the intersection of Broadway, 37th Avenue and 69th Street, said the spokesman, Paul J. Browne.
“Police responded to community complaints about them blocking the sidewalk and congregating,” Mr. Browne said, adding that there were 50 to 60 workers at the location on Tuesday morning before the arrests.
“We responded and asked them to disperse,” Mr. Brown said. “All but 10 of them did.”
Several day laborers who were at the intersection on Tuesday afternoon and said they had witnessed the arrests, denied that the police had given the men an opportunity to disperse. The police, they say, pulled up in two vans, demanded identification from a group of workers clustered near the curb, and took those men away.
Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct for blocking pedestrian traffic and were taken to a local precinct, where they were being held pending arraignment, Mr. Browne said.
They were unable to provide verifiable identification, Mr. Browne said.
The arrests shocked day laborers who congregate at the intersection. By Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the arrests, about two dozen had returned to the site. The men, some of whom had been going to the intersection for more than three years, said it was the first time the police had arrested workers there.
Indeed, city authorities for years have generally left day laborers alone at the dozens of sites across the city where they gather to wait for work.
But the authorities said that Tuesday’s police action was simply a response to neighborhood complaints and did not represent the start of a crackdown on day laborers.
Mr. Browne described the action as “a police commander responding to complaints” from residents about “a large group congregating.”
Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Los Angeles, called the arrests “troubling.”
“If they were arrested for disorderly conduct based on the theory that they were blocking the sidewalk, that would be very serious because it raises First Amendment questions,” he said.
Federal courts, Mr. Newman added, have ruled that day laborers enjoy the same First Amendment protections as other people, particularly in public areas like sidewalks.
A 28-year-old Mexican laborer who would give only his first name, Enrique, said he was standing with the other laborers at the intersection late Tuesday morning when the two police vans arrived.
“One officer got out and said in Spanish: ‘You guys can’t be here. Come here and show me your identification,’ ” he recalled, and added that he and several other workers sidled away, ignoring calls from the officers to return. “I didn’t stop,” he said.
Several laborers who witnessed the arrests said they did not hear the police explain why the men were being detained.
“It’s abuse,” said Jorge, 26, a laborer from Ecuador.
A diminutive Mexican woman pushing a 2-year-old boy in a stroller appeared at the intersection, tears dampening her cheeks. She said her husband was one of those arrested.
He had called her on his cellphone as the police started asking the men for identification, said the woman, who gave only her first name, Olivia.
She said that both she and her husband were in the country illegally and had four children, all of whom had been born in the United States. She said she was afraid that her husband was going to be deported.
“He’s the one who works,” Olivia said, sobbing. “Who’s going to support the four children now?”
Border protection funds steady as illegal immigration stalls
Border protection funds steady as illegal immigration stalls
by Erica L. Green
Oct 09, 2008
WASHINGTON--On the heels of a vote by Congress to provide a steady flow of funds for beefing up immigration enforcement, a new study shows that the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border into the United States has actually stalled.
The study, released by the Pew Hispanic Center, showed that between 2000 and 2005, about 800,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year. But between the years of 2005 and 2008, an average of 500,000 entered annually, with a year-to-year slowdown.
The study, based on Census data, also found that while undocumented workers still make up 4 percent of the U.S. population--a 40 percent increase since 2000--more immigrants are looking to come into the country through legal means.
Amid the findings about the apparent slowdown, Congress last week approved a 2009 budget of nearly $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, with significant amounts going into immigration enforcement and deportation services.
The budget prompted some immigration policy analysts to decry what they deemed a continuation of “dead-end enforcement and deportation-only approaches” to funding Homeland Security, as opposed to the necessity of identifying immigrants who are actually a threat to national security.
“The more attention we spend on people who are really trying to make a living, is less attention that we’re spending on people who are criminals or don’t merit the right to be here,” said Mary Giovagnoli, an advocacy director at the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration think-tank in Washington, D.C.
The Homeland Security budget includes staff increases for Customs and Border Protection, a $775 million outlay for fencing along the border with Mexico, and a near $254 million increase to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Money was also designated to increase the number of detention beds for illegal immigrants rounded up in workplace raids.
“We need to make immigrant communities feel comfortable enough to come forward so that we can root out the ones who engage in criminal activity or who are making immigrant communities unsafe,” Giovagnoli said.
Giovagnoli cited a discontinued program started just last summer by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement--“Operation Scheduled Departure”--which gave illegal immigrants a chance to turn themselves and others in for a penalty-free deportation. Despite low participation, she said it was a step in the right direction.
“It was essentially a failure so they said, ‘Fine, we’ll just step-up the deportation enforcement even more.”
According to ICE, only eight people turned themselves in to the program, indicating a need for more enforcement.
“It was a pilot program in which we were looking to meet some of the criticisms that we weren’t working with families to make their transitions easier, but even when families had the opportunity to comply, they chose not to,” said Cori Bassett, a public affairs officer of ICE. “We have seen increased enforcement in the last year, and there’s always more to do and more resources to work with,”
While the Pew Hispanic Center report acknowledged there was not conclusive evidence explaining the illegal immigrant slowdown, a survey that it released last month showed that heightened enforcement and immigration laws were prevalent concerns among immigrants.
The September survey, which concluded that Hispanics in the U.S. see their situation deteriorating, found that 57 percent of Latinos worry about deportation, and 63 percent said they felt that there had been an increase in immigration enforcement targeted at undocumented immigrants. One-in-ten respondents in the poll said they had been stopped by authorities and questioned about their status.
But Homeland Security officials said even with the slowdown, there’s still a need for increased funding for immigration enforcement.
“We have been committed and have fought for immigration reforms, some of which have failed” said Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “But we are forced to enforce the laws that are on the books and carry out the wishes of the American people to protect our border.”
WASHINGTON--On the heels of a vote by Congress to provide a steady flow of funds for beefing up immigration enforcement, a new study shows that the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border into the United States has actually stalled.
The study, released by the Pew Hispanic Center, showed that between 2000 and 2005, about 800,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year. But between the years of 2005 and 2008, an average of 500,000 entered annually, with a year-to-year slowdown.
The study, based on Census data, also found that while undocumented workers still make up 4 percent of the U.S. population--a 40 percent increase since 2000--more immigrants are looking to come into the country through legal means.
Amid the findings about the apparent slowdown, Congress last week approved a 2009 budget of nearly $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, with significant amounts going into immigration enforcement and deportation services.
The budget prompted some immigration policy analysts to decry what they deemed a continuation of “dead-end enforcement and deportation-only approaches” to funding Homeland Security, as opposed to the necessity of identifying immigrants who are actually a threat to national security.
“The more attention we spend on people who are really trying to make a living, is less attention that we’re spending on people who are criminals or don’t merit the right to be here,” said Mary Giovagnoli, an advocacy director at the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration think-tank in Washington, D.C.
The Homeland Security budget includes staff increases for Customs and Border Protection, a $775 million outlay for fencing along the border with Mexico, and a near $254 million increase to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Money was also designated to increase the number of detention beds for illegal immigrants rounded up in workplace raids.
“We need to make immigrant communities feel comfortable enough to come forward so that we can root out the ones who engage in criminal activity or who are making immigrant communities unsafe,” Giovagnoli said.
Giovagnoli cited a discontinued program started just last summer by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement--“Operation Scheduled Departure”--which gave illegal immigrants a chance to turn themselves and others in for a penalty-free deportation. Despite low participation, she said it was a step in the right direction.
“It was essentially a failure so they said, ‘Fine, we’ll just step-up the deportation enforcement even more.”
According to ICE, only eight people turned themselves in to the program, indicating a need for more enforcement.
“It was a pilot program in which we were looking to meet some of the criticisms that we weren’t working with families to make their transitions easier, but even when families had the opportunity to comply, they chose not to,” said Cori Bassett, a public affairs officer of ICE. “We have seen increased enforcement in the last year, and there’s always more to do and more resources to work with,”
While the Pew Hispanic Center report acknowledged there was not conclusive evidence explaining the illegal immigrant slowdown, a survey that it released last month showed that heightened enforcement and immigration laws were prevalent concerns among immigrants.
The September survey, which concluded that Hispanics in the U.S. see their situation deteriorating, found that 57 percent of Latinos worry about deportation, and 63 percent said they felt that there had been an increase in immigration enforcement targeted at undocumented immigrants. One-in-ten respondents in the poll said they had been stopped by authorities and questioned about their status.
But Homeland Security officials said even with the slowdown, there’s still a need for increased funding for immigration enforcement.
“We have been committed and have fought for immigration reforms, some of which have failed” said Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “But we are forced to enforce the laws that are on the books and carry out the wishes of the American people to protect our border.”
Dashed line
© Medill Reports, Northwestern University. A Washington publication of the Medill School.
by Erica L. Green
Oct 09, 2008
WASHINGTON--On the heels of a vote by Congress to provide a steady flow of funds for beefing up immigration enforcement, a new study shows that the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border into the United States has actually stalled.
The study, released by the Pew Hispanic Center, showed that between 2000 and 2005, about 800,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year. But between the years of 2005 and 2008, an average of 500,000 entered annually, with a year-to-year slowdown.
The study, based on Census data, also found that while undocumented workers still make up 4 percent of the U.S. population--a 40 percent increase since 2000--more immigrants are looking to come into the country through legal means.
Amid the findings about the apparent slowdown, Congress last week approved a 2009 budget of nearly $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, with significant amounts going into immigration enforcement and deportation services.
The budget prompted some immigration policy analysts to decry what they deemed a continuation of “dead-end enforcement and deportation-only approaches” to funding Homeland Security, as opposed to the necessity of identifying immigrants who are actually a threat to national security.
“The more attention we spend on people who are really trying to make a living, is less attention that we’re spending on people who are criminals or don’t merit the right to be here,” said Mary Giovagnoli, an advocacy director at the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration think-tank in Washington, D.C.
The Homeland Security budget includes staff increases for Customs and Border Protection, a $775 million outlay for fencing along the border with Mexico, and a near $254 million increase to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Money was also designated to increase the number of detention beds for illegal immigrants rounded up in workplace raids.
“We need to make immigrant communities feel comfortable enough to come forward so that we can root out the ones who engage in criminal activity or who are making immigrant communities unsafe,” Giovagnoli said.
Giovagnoli cited a discontinued program started just last summer by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement--“Operation Scheduled Departure”--which gave illegal immigrants a chance to turn themselves and others in for a penalty-free deportation. Despite low participation, she said it was a step in the right direction.
“It was essentially a failure so they said, ‘Fine, we’ll just step-up the deportation enforcement even more.”
According to ICE, only eight people turned themselves in to the program, indicating a need for more enforcement.
“It was a pilot program in which we were looking to meet some of the criticisms that we weren’t working with families to make their transitions easier, but even when families had the opportunity to comply, they chose not to,” said Cori Bassett, a public affairs officer of ICE. “We have seen increased enforcement in the last year, and there’s always more to do and more resources to work with,”
While the Pew Hispanic Center report acknowledged there was not conclusive evidence explaining the illegal immigrant slowdown, a survey that it released last month showed that heightened enforcement and immigration laws were prevalent concerns among immigrants.
The September survey, which concluded that Hispanics in the U.S. see their situation deteriorating, found that 57 percent of Latinos worry about deportation, and 63 percent said they felt that there had been an increase in immigration enforcement targeted at undocumented immigrants. One-in-ten respondents in the poll said they had been stopped by authorities and questioned about their status.
But Homeland Security officials said even with the slowdown, there’s still a need for increased funding for immigration enforcement.
“We have been committed and have fought for immigration reforms, some of which have failed” said Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “But we are forced to enforce the laws that are on the books and carry out the wishes of the American people to protect our border.”
WASHINGTON--On the heels of a vote by Congress to provide a steady flow of funds for beefing up immigration enforcement, a new study shows that the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border into the United States has actually stalled.
The study, released by the Pew Hispanic Center, showed that between 2000 and 2005, about 800,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year. But between the years of 2005 and 2008, an average of 500,000 entered annually, with a year-to-year slowdown.
The study, based on Census data, also found that while undocumented workers still make up 4 percent of the U.S. population--a 40 percent increase since 2000--more immigrants are looking to come into the country through legal means.
Amid the findings about the apparent slowdown, Congress last week approved a 2009 budget of nearly $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, with significant amounts going into immigration enforcement and deportation services.
The budget prompted some immigration policy analysts to decry what they deemed a continuation of “dead-end enforcement and deportation-only approaches” to funding Homeland Security, as opposed to the necessity of identifying immigrants who are actually a threat to national security.
“The more attention we spend on people who are really trying to make a living, is less attention that we’re spending on people who are criminals or don’t merit the right to be here,” said Mary Giovagnoli, an advocacy director at the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration think-tank in Washington, D.C.
The Homeland Security budget includes staff increases for Customs and Border Protection, a $775 million outlay for fencing along the border with Mexico, and a near $254 million increase to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Money was also designated to increase the number of detention beds for illegal immigrants rounded up in workplace raids.
“We need to make immigrant communities feel comfortable enough to come forward so that we can root out the ones who engage in criminal activity or who are making immigrant communities unsafe,” Giovagnoli said.
Giovagnoli cited a discontinued program started just last summer by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement--“Operation Scheduled Departure”--which gave illegal immigrants a chance to turn themselves and others in for a penalty-free deportation. Despite low participation, she said it was a step in the right direction.
“It was essentially a failure so they said, ‘Fine, we’ll just step-up the deportation enforcement even more.”
According to ICE, only eight people turned themselves in to the program, indicating a need for more enforcement.
“It was a pilot program in which we were looking to meet some of the criticisms that we weren’t working with families to make their transitions easier, but even when families had the opportunity to comply, they chose not to,” said Cori Bassett, a public affairs officer of ICE. “We have seen increased enforcement in the last year, and there’s always more to do and more resources to work with,”
While the Pew Hispanic Center report acknowledged there was not conclusive evidence explaining the illegal immigrant slowdown, a survey that it released last month showed that heightened enforcement and immigration laws were prevalent concerns among immigrants.
The September survey, which concluded that Hispanics in the U.S. see their situation deteriorating, found that 57 percent of Latinos worry about deportation, and 63 percent said they felt that there had been an increase in immigration enforcement targeted at undocumented immigrants. One-in-ten respondents in the poll said they had been stopped by authorities and questioned about their status.
But Homeland Security officials said even with the slowdown, there’s still a need for increased funding for immigration enforcement.
“We have been committed and have fought for immigration reforms, some of which have failed” said Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “But we are forced to enforce the laws that are on the books and carry out the wishes of the American people to protect our border.”
Dashed line
© Medill Reports, Northwestern University. A Washington publication of the Medill School.
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