NYS introduced it's own state bill of the DREAM Act!

NYS introduced it's own state bill of the DREAM Act!

http://www.nysylc.org/2011/03/breaking-news/
Historic Step: NEW YORK DREAM ACT HAS BEEN INTRODUCED!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Contact: Daniela Alulema 646-472-9565

New York, N.Y. The New York State Youth Leadership Council is proud
and pleased to announce that today undocumented youth have prevailed.
After the defeat of the federal version of the DREAM Act, which would
have provided a path for citizenship to undocumented youth, the NYSYLC
started an aggressive campaign to introduce and gather support for the
first ever state version of the bill. Yesterday, State Senator Bill
Perkins (D-Manhattan) introduced the New York DREAM Act (S. 4179),
co-sponsored by State Senator Dan Squadrant (D-Brooklyn). This bill
would provide benefits to New York undocumented youth who meet certain
criteria. The benefits include access to financial aid for higher
education, access to driver's licenses, work authorization and access
to health care. In order to qualify for these benefits, the young
person must have arrived to the United States before the age of 16, be
under the age of 35, have resided in New York State for at least two
years, have obtained a high school diploma or GED equivalent from an
American institution and have good moral character.
NYSYLC members welcomed the news with open arms and renewed their
commitment to fight for their dreams. The New York DREAM Act will help
undocumented youth achieve their educational and professional goals,
and allow them to contribute to their communities. This is the first
pro-immigrant bill that has been introduced in the state this year,
and would provide much needed relief to immigrant communities.
What: Press conference on the New York DREAM Act

Where: NYSYLC office – 220 Fifth Ave, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001

When: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 2.00pm

Why: The New York DREAM Act will provide access to undocumented youth
to accomplish their dreams and contribute back to their communities

: Obama Pushes Immigration Reform to 2010-The deadlines for immigrationreform seem to get farther and farther away"

Obama Pushes Immigration Reform to 2010, Jokes About Being Called "an Illegal Immigrant"

By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

Another Friday afternoon statement from the White House means another bit of bad news for immigration reform advocates. This time, President Barack Obama met with correspondents from Hispanic media outlets and said he expects Congress to deal with immigration early next year.

The new statement pushes Obama farther away from < A href="http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/obama-calls-on-latinos-to-vote-in-record-numbers-promises-to-address-immigration-reform-in-his-first-year/" target=_blank>his commitment to deal with the issue during his first year in office — a promise he made to Latino voters he badly needed to carry some swing states in the 2008 election.

On Friday, Obama met with a group of 10 reporters including representatives of wire services Notimex (Mexico), Reuters and EFE, and from Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión. Although he said he didn't know if the bill would get enough votes, he said he expects Congress to deal with immigration reform by "early next year."

For this, Obama said a bill should be drafted by the end of 2009.

"Now, will we be able to mobilize the votes to pass something? That I can't predict," he said, according to Notimex.

According to Reuters, Obama said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will meet with lawmakers regularly to work through the more controversial measures, like legalization for an estimated 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants and how to prevent illegal immigration in the future.

"We have convened a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders, and Secretary Napolitano is working with the group to start creating the framework for a comprehensive immigration reform," Obama was quoted by Reuters.

The wire service reported Obama even joked about the so-called "birthers," a fringe group who accuse the president of being unable to prove he was born in U.S. and who claim his actual birthplace is Mombasa, Kenya, making him ineligible to be president.

Asked if an immigration bill would have enough votes to pass Congress, Obama said he did not know. He also noted as a further complication that next year is an election year.

Obama joked that his opponents had another reason to block his immigration reform effort: "There are many members of the Republican Party who think now that I am illegal immigrant," he said.

After hearing about this latest postponement, those in the pro-immigration camp –including reform activists, Hispanic advocates and progressive Democrats in general– are probably not in the mood for jokes.

"The deadlines for immigration reform seem to get farther and farther away," wrote La Opini n reporter Antonieta Cádiz, "especially now, after (the president) said openly … he expected the bill to be introduced next year in Congress."

"First there was talk of getting a draft ready by the summer recess; then the chairman of the (Senate) Immigration sub-committee, Charles Schumer, mentioned Labor Day as a deadline to have a proposal ready.

"A few days ago, the lawmaker told La Opinión that by that deadline he would only have a 'broad draft, with no legislative language.' And now the president stated that in the fall he will see 'what progress has been made' (…)"

Cádiz reported that Obama told the reporters that there are many issues on his agenda and that health care reform –which will probably take "a couple of months"– will be his main focus after August, and he also has to deal with reforming the financial system.

Obama added he can't get immigration reform passed on his own. "It's important that people realize that things don't happen because the President snaps his fingers. I can't do all this by myself," he said. He asked that grassroots groups continue to organize and mobilize for reform and that members of Congress face the political risks involved.

When the La Opinión reporter pressed him about his continuation of President George W. Bush's immigration enforcement policies, Obama said his administration is "less concerned with making criminals out of people who are simply looking for a job." He defended the decision to extend the 287 (g) program which allows immigration enforcement by local authorities, saying that there is a "new set of priorities and rules" for it.

 

 

 

 

 

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imagine

There are currently no immigration laws that take into consideration
undocumented youths who did not have a choice in regards to being
brought into the U.S. I am referring to youths under the age of 18,
who have lived their lives in the U.S., but if detected can be sent
back to their country of origin (and some cases be blacklisted from
the U.S. for a period of time). As a gateway city, New York City has a
large population of undocumented youth that attend public school. But
after high school obtaining legitimate work is impossible, without
further breaking the law. There is currently a bill that was proposed
in 2001 that is traveling through the workings of the Senate. It's
called the DREAM Act and it proposes that undocumented youths be
granted amnesty, on the condition that they attend at least a two-year
college, or enlist in the armed forces. While advocates fight for this
bill to be past, there is pool of talent that the U.S. is not
utilizing. In fact, the lack of attention on this pool of talent is
perpetuating the marginalization of certain communities.

Imagine being in high school and being good at a subject, or an art,
or a sport. And everyone tells you you're gonna do great things...that
you should do great things. Or imagine being in high school and your
teachers asking you to try harder, telling you that if you set your
mind to something you can be better...but for an undocumented young
person that's not the case. they can't do great things or be better,
at least their access to achieving these goals are greatly limited.

Storming Capitol Hill on behalf of the DREAM Act

I'm Joining the New York State Youth Leadership Council today and
heading to D.C. to represent the DREAM Act. I'm both nervous and
excited.

More than 1000 children sue over parents' deportation

More than 100 kids sue over parents' deportations Posted by Christopher Collette  

MIAMI (AP) — Roughly 150 children are asking President Barack Obama to halt the deportations of their parents until Congress overhauls U.S. immigration laws.  The children are all U.S. citizens and say their constitutional rights are being violated because they, too, will likely have to leave the country if their parents are forced to leave. The group is gathering Wednesday in Miami to talk about the case. They originally brought their lawsuit against the Bush administration. It was refiled in January in Miami.  The children's attorneys say the parents came to the U.S. before 1996 immigration changes made it more difficult for them to become legal residents, and thus expected they would be allowed to stay.   (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The Office of New York City: PRESS CONFERENCE

Councilman Charles Barron
250 Broadway New York NY 10007
917-584-7604

Thursday February 5, 2009
11:30am
Steps of City Hall

Councilman Barron joins immigrant and community leaders in speaking out against governor Patterson’s selection of Kirsten Gillibrand to the US senate

Councilman Charles Barron, immigrant groups, community leaders, and activists including Viola Plummer and Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement; Dominican Community Activist Ydonis Rodriguez, Haitian Activist Lakou Dahaud Andre; Teresa Gutierrez of the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, Ana Aguirre of United Community Centers, Joy Simmons of Operation P.O.W.E.R.; Noel Leader of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, Rev Paul Mitchell of Changing Live Christian Center; Rev Allen Hand; Kevin McCall and Chris Banks of United Concerned Citizens, and many others are holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Thursday February 5, 2009 at 11:30am to speak out against governor Patterson’s selection of Kirsten Gillibrand to the US senate.


Councilman Barron States, “Kirsten Gillibrand should not have been appointed to represent our state, which has one of the largest immigrant communities in the country. She is anti immigration and anti-gun control. She has opposed amnesty for immigrants, she has supported the deputizing of law enforcement around the US border, she has been a proponent of the English only movement, she has opposed the bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to a have drivers licenses, and she supported the policy that requires legal immigrants to reveal their status to businesses before being hired. Gillibrand’s stance against gun control is also unacceptable especially considering the extent that communities of color suffer from gun violence.”


Councilman Barron continues, “It is sad that we had to rely on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to appoint the only Black person to the Senate. Some excellent choices, who were overlooked by Patterson, include Carl McCall, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, State Senator Bill Perkins, former Lieutenant Governor Candidate Lisa Yves, and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. The governor has the power to select but the people have the power to elect. We will be organizing in our local communities to see that the best candidate for New York State is elected.”


For more information contact Joy Simmons at 917-584-7604 or 917-763-3091

National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference

PLEASE COME!! 4/10-12, 2009 Chicago,IL: NISN National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference
http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org/2009Conference/
Hotline: (773)942-2268

Feb. 10, All Out to Albany for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights!

From: domesticworkersunited@gmail.com

The world is changing around us. We have a new president, a new leadership in the NY State Senate, and the urgency of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Every day, domestic workers are losing their jobs, and will risk losing their jobs as they assert their most basic human rights.

On February 10, domestic workers will be traveling to Albany to push once again for respect, recognition and labor standards. 2009 represents our fifth legislative session of organizing, advocacy and action - to push history forward for this critical workforce whose work makes all other work possible.

Today, on this historic inauguration day, we ask that you pledge your commitment to moving real change forward by signing up to get on the bus with domestic workers as they step up their campaign for the Bill of Rights, toward bring value and respect to all work.

On February 10, buses will be leaving from in front of Barnes and Noble, on the North Side of Union Square Park in Manhattan at 6:30 am.
Take the 4/5/6/N/R/W/Q to Union Square
Food and transportation will be free for all participants, and a commemorative T-shirt, with donations welcome.
We will be returning to Union Square by 7:00 pm the same day.
RSVP today - let's move real change forward, and save your seat on the bus - domesticworkersunited@gmail.com, (212) 481-5747.

Please, also consider adding your name or your organizations name to the list of endorsers for the 2009 Bill of Rights Campaign, and helping with our outreach through sending out the attached flyer to your networks.

Border Agents Say They Had Arrest Quotas

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published : February 1, 2009
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Border Patrol agents working about 100 miles north of the Mexican border say they have been given arrest quotas at odds with agency practices and threatened with punishment if they failed to meet the number.
Agents stationed in Riverside reported being ordered to make at least 150 arrests of suspected illegal immigrants in January, two of which must lead to prosecutions, said Lombardo Amaya, president of Local 2554 of the National Border Patrol Council.
“They were told if you don’t produce this, we will have to change your weekends off,” Mr. Amaya said, adding that he would discuss the matter Monday with the sector chief. “Sometimes, like in politics, this agency is about looking good.”
An agency spokesman in Washington, Lloyd Easterling, said quotas ran counter to agency practice, which does not set a minimum number of arrests.
“If we had quotas to fill and met those quotas,” Mr. Easterling said, “then would that mean we would be able to stop doing our job? No. Our job is to secure the border and detect, deter and apprehend anyone who is involved in illegal activity between the ports of entry.”
Jeffrey Calhoon, chief patrol agent for the El Centro sector, which covers Imperial and Riverside Counties, said he was not aware of any quotas.
“We would never structure our work environment to create quotas,” Mr. Calhoon said. “We have a union we have to negotiate with.”
The agents’ accusations came weeks after one of their colleagues at the Riverside station was fired over a dispute with local management.
The union has appealed the termination of the colleague, Tony Platell, who said he was dismissed for disobeying an order to remain at a desert freeway checkpoint where six suspected illegal immigrants were picked up. Mr. Platell said he wanted to take them to the station quickly because they looked dehydrated.

Chicago immigration activist marks year in church

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
CHICAGO: Flor Crisostomo has quietly spent the last year inside a Chicago church writing letters, meeting with school groups and organizing political demonstrations toward her goal of U.S. immigration reform.
The illegal immigrant has defied a deportation order to her native Mexico and lived at Adalberto United Methodist Church, hoping to draw attention to immigration reform at a time when the economy and election of a new U.S. president have taken center stage.
"We have to have a plan," she told The Associated Press late Tuesday, the eve of her one-year anniversary at the church. "My people need a voice."
The 29-year-old Crisostomo said she has no immediate plans to leave, unlike immigration activist Elvira Arellano, who announced the end of her sanctuary at the same church in 2007 on her one-year anniversary. She was arrested and deported to Mexico shortly after leaving.
Crisostomo, who has also pushed for a renegotiation of North American Free Trade Agreement, said her work isn't done and she wants President Barack Obama to make good on campaign promises for reform. She wrote an open letter to Obama and planned to read it Wednesday at a news conference at the church.
"No one wants to end the system of undocumented labor more than the undocumented. That system left me unprotected from exploitation as a worker and unable to visit my children in Mexico. With legalization, we can also have employment verification and enforcement without destroying the lives of families and the economy of the Latino community," she wrote, according to a copy of the letter sent to The Associated Press.
Crisostomo said the hardest part about the last year has been getting politicians to listen to her message and living without her three children who are in Mexico with their grandmother.
"My children are strong and they understand why I am fighting," she said.
Crisostomo left her three children in Iguala Guerrero, Mexico, in 2000 when she paid a smuggler to drive her across the border. She said she was unable to find a job in Mexico that would support her family.
Once in the U.S., she worked at a factory and was able to send home hundreds of dollars each week for her family. But she was arrested by immigration authorities in 2006, during raids on IFCO Systems North America sites across the country. She was scheduled for deportation, but took sanctuary at the church instead.
Agents with Immigration Customs and Enforcement have not made attempts to go inside the church and arrest her.

The Illusion of Immigrant Criminality: Getting the Numbers Wrong

by David L. Wilson, Extra!
September/October 2008

Immigrants aren't a crime problem. "The foreign-born commit
considerably fewer crimes than the native-born," as President Herbert
Hoover's National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement
concluded in 1931 (National Lawyers Guild Quarterly, 10/39;
Immigration Policy Center, Spring/07). While noncitizens now make up
more than 8 percent of the U.S. population, the available evidence
indicates that they account for no more than 6 or 7 percent of the
people incarcerated for crimes in the United States, less than 170,000
of the 2.3 million inmates currently in our federal, state and local
penal systems--not including some 30,000 immigrants in administrative
detention on any given day awaiting deportation. (Politics of
Immigration, 4/2/08, 5/7/08).

Why, then, do so many people believe in the myth of immigrant criminality?

One reason is the mainstream media's habit of giving inflated
estimates for the number of immigrants in prison. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3683

Note: One of the people discussed in the article is Indiana University
economist Eric Rasmusen, who was quoted in Time magazine last year as
saying that undocumented immigrants commit 21 percent of crimes in the
United States. Prof. Rasmusen is back this year with another
astonishing claim. He signed on to the Cato Institute's January 28
full-page ad against using job creation and infrastructure maintenance
to revive the economy. "Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden
of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost
growth," the ad assures us, as if that wasn't what we've been doing
for the past 30 years.

For more on Prof. Rasmusen and the immigrant prison population:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/04/undocumented-commit-21-percent-of.html

A Shift Toward Worker Power? The Time is Ripe to Tip the System, Now

...This could be a moment for a power shift--from workers being weak
to being strong--but only if people force government to kick in on the
workers' side...

by Allan Nairn, News and Comment
January 29, 2009

In bad situations, people lower their standards for what it is that
constitutes good news.

There's a very sick man with a withered arm, but it hasn't been
amputated, contrary to what a garbled, and panic-inducing, report had
indicated.

Similarly, a boy has been coughing for three months, but a TB test
says it isn't TB.

Saying this, the parent, on a cell phone from the Burma border can be
heard shivering in the rare cold, even though the family has just
invested in a blanket -- their second, which is now handy, since for
three nights they've been sleeping in the forest to dodge police who
(in a case of bad good news) aren't seeking bribes, but are instead
seeking to catch people and -- word has it -- ship them to Naypyidaw
(the capital) for one year's bondage labor.

The question always is, bad compared to what? One person's dump is
another's home hearth. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.allannairn.com/2009/01/shift-toward-worker-power-time-is-ripe.html

Thousands of US troops to join annual war games in

More than 5,000 US troops were due to arrive in the
Philippines to participate in annual joint military
exercises, a military spokesman said Thursday.

The annual Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises
aim to enhance the preparedness and cooperation
between the two forces in times of crisis and
conflict, Major Ramon Zagala said.

From 5,500 to 6,000 US troops were expected to
participate in the war games, which are be held mainly
in the eastern region of Bicol from February 25 to
April 30, Zagala said.

The bulk of the US troops would arrive on March 16.

About 2,500 Filipino troops would also join the
exercises, Zagala said.

He said Washington would spend at least 2 million
dollars on the exercises and would bring in a number
of warships and aircraft, including F-16 fighter
planes.

Representatives from Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand,
Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Australia, New
Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom would
observe the war games.

Balikatan 2009 is to be the 25th annual event of its
kind under the Mutual Defence Treaty between the
United States and the Philippines, reported dpa.

...Many of the organizing victories ...

... of the past two decades have been spearheaded by immigrant workers, from the great Justice for Janitors campaigns in Los Angeles and other urban areas to little victories in local restaurants and corner greengrocer stores....

by David L. Wilson, MRzine
January 26, 2009

On Tuesday, December 9, the anti-immigrant lobbyists at the Federation
for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held a press conference in
downtown Washington, DC to promote their "Immigration Reform Agenda
for the 111th Congress."

The press conference followed the new line that groups like FAIR have
adopted since the financial crisis broke out last September.
Undocumented immigrants "played an important role" in the crisis, FAIR
president Dan Stein insisted. "[T]he recent economic downturn" has
made the "fiscal cost of immigration . . . even more burdensome to the
American taxpayer," FAIR's handout announced, warning that Congress
needs to "take special care to protect the American worker by
restricting the amount of cheap, foreign labor that is allowed to
compete with U.S. workers." [...]

Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/wilson260109.html

The costs of crackdowns

Raids that target undocumented workers increasingly traumatize families left behind.

By Christopher Munsey
Monitor staff
Print version: page 46
The growing number of workplace immigration raids is taking a toll on families — particularly those with young children — and psychologists are needed to help them cope with the trauma of abrupt separations, said a panel of psychologists at APA's Annual Convention.
At a session on the impact of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on families and immigrant communities, psychologists shared their own experiences in addressing families' resulting mental health needs.
Amaro Laria, PhD, of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, saw the policy's impact firsthand last year when ICE raided a factory in New Bedford, Mass. Agents arrested 361 people, most of them women working as seamstresses and many young mothers with infants, he said. Many of the babies were still breast-feeding, and the officials hadn't considered what would happen to them when they were suddenly separated from their food supply, he said.
In the weeks following the raid, Laria and fellow volunteers from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology ran a support group for families with loved ones in detention. Not only did the women in detention suffer humiliating treatment — with some young mothers claiming that federal detention officers made them prove they were breast-feeding by ordering them to squeeze their breasts — but their children underwent the stress of separation, and many men lost their jobs as they scrambled to care for their children. As a result, families who were just getting by were reduced to deep poverty, Laria said. Some of the long-term consequences included post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, adjustment disorders, domestic violence and substance abuse.
But what shocked him most was the silence about these events. "There's so much talk on immigration, but when it came to documenting abuses, there's been very little coverage at all," he said.
A push for arrests
ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, started increasing the enforcement effort aimed at undocumented workers in 2006, with high-profile raids netting several hundred employees at a time. Congress has twice failed to enact comprehensive immigration reform, and anger about illegal immi gration has spurred the adoption of harsher measures to crack down on illegal immigration. In 2005, 1,116 people were detained nationwide in workplace raids, a figure that more than tripled in 2006 and is continuing to rise every year, said Lydia Buki, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The crackdown coincides with broader immigration trends. In years past, for example, men usually made the trip from Mexico and Central America to the United States alone. But these days, entire families, including young children, are coming too, often establishing U.S. households with both parents working, said Melanie Domenech-Rodriguez, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Utah State University who works with Latino families with young children on promoting family cohesion and preventing child behavior problems.
Current estimates show 4.7 million children now live in "mixed status" families in the United States, meaning one of their parents is undocumented and does not have legal status to live and work here. Of those children, two-thirds are believed to be U.S. citizens, said Jose Cervantes, PhD, a professor at California State University at Fullerton.
In his private practice, he sees the aftermath of the ICE raids moving from the worksite to residences. One of his clients is a teenage girl, who awoke to the tumult of ICE agents barging through her family's door at 4 a.m. in search of her father. She watched as agents caught and dragged him back by his hair, ripping his shirt and underwear in the struggle.
"His daughter's watching this, so you can imagine the trauma that this caused to this kid," Cervantes said.

...Now is the time to act. The status quo has shifted, and people are

by Jane Guskin and David Wilson, NACLA Report on the Americas
January-February 2009

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the situation for immigrants
in the United States has turned increasingly insecure. Every week
hundreds of immigrants are arrested in raids on their homes and
workplaces. Hundreds more are arrested on the street by local police
for the crime of "living while Latino" and often handed over to the
immigration agency for deportation. People are detained, deported,
faced with impossible choices, and then blamed for it all. Children
are separated from their parents or jailed in special "family"
detention centers. Workers are exploited and abused on the job,
stripped of their rights to organize, then punished with federal
prison sentences for complying with their employers' demands for fake
IDs. Young people who don't remember the country where they were born
are denied any options to legalize their status and are stuck without
a future—as high school graduates unable to attend college, or as
college graduates forced into low-wage, off-the-books labor.[...]

Read the full article:
http://nacla.org/node/5399

Pro-Immigration Demonstrations: A Reminder to Obama of a Campaign Promise

http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/pro-immigration-demonstrations-a-reminder-to-obama-of-a-campaign-promise/

By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
One day after Pres. Barack Obama’s inauguration, demonstrations were held across the country to remind the president of his promise to address immigration reform in the first year of his administration. Protesters in Washington D.C. and several other cities also called for an immediate end to government raids aimed a rounding up undocumented immigrants.

Demonstrators in San Antonio (Photo: Express-News)
“Immigrants who lent President Barack Obama their support at the ballot box joined those who cannot vote in marches and prayers, writing letters and raising banners from Miami to Los Angeles to push the issue to the top of Obama’s long to-do list,” The Associated Press‘ Juliana Barbassa reported.
The demonstrations were more of a friendly reminder to the new president from activists who don’t want the issue to be forgotten in the din of the economic crisis. “He was the one who told us that you can dream big,” Altagracia Garcia, 25, told Barbassa at a pre-dawn vigil in front of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Los Angeles, where demonstrators lit candles and called for and end to immigration enforcement raids.
“Immigrant advocates know their nativist opponents plan to deploy online organizing and viral communication to counter any attempts at immigration reform this year. They intend to seize every opportunity to build momentum on their side,” Marcelo Ballvé wrote for New America Media after covering the demonstration in front of ICE national headquarters in Washington D.C.
“It’s an opportunity to celebrate, but also to point forward to the great need for immigration reform in the months ahead,” Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, told Ballvé.
The D.C. demonstration featured religious leaders from across the country who conducted a “cleansing” of the ICE building in a symbolic attempt to steer the agency away from the enforcement-only approach that’s been highly criticized by pro-immigrant groups.
Activists also “urged Obama to make good on his campaign promise to push through a legalization plan similar to one that former president George W. Bush twice tried unsuccessfully to get through Congress,” The Washington Post reported.
About two dozen people prayed in front of the ICE office in Atlanta to call for the end of a partnership between federal immigration officials and local sheriffs intended to speed up deportations, Public Broadcasting Atlanta said.

In San Antonio, local protesters were joined by others from Austin in front of the ICE building. “Just like he promised to close Guantánamo Bay, we want him to close down Hutto with detained little children,” said Luissana Santibáñez, of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition, referring to the ICE family detention center northeast of Austin, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center has been strongly criticized for the treatment detained families receive there. (Obama yesterday signed an order to close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay within a year.)
In San Francisco, immigrants and their allies surprised attendees to the opening night gala of the San Francisco Ballet, the Chronicle reported. “With the new administration, there’s hope; that’s why we’re here,” said protester Lulu Rodriguez, 28.
The Chronicle’s Tyche Hendricks added,
As Ballet supporters sipped wine in the City Hall rotunda, the voices of the protesters singing Mexican folk songs outside the mayor’s office echoed off the building’s stone walls.
Obama’s hometown also saw calls for him to start working on immigration reform. Members of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities held a press conference where they announced a letter to President Obama calling for changes. “They want a halt on all residential and workplace raids as well as stopping immigration enforcement that results in the separation of US children from their immigrant parents,” WLS-TV reported.
Other protests were held in New York, San José and Indio, Ca.
“We want him to comply with his promise of legalization for everybody,” Sylvia Cardona, a Comité Latino member, told The Desert Sun in Indio. “Latinos are putting their hopes in Obama.”Immigrant rights demos across country 1/21

Ramsey Clark receives UN Human Rights Award 2008

Congratulations to Ramsey Clark

International Action Center founder Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General and internationally renown human rights defender, received the respected United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 10 December 2008.

The announcement of the award was presented by the President of the General Assembly, Miguel d´Escoto Brockmann, who is one of the five members of the selection committee. The award is made every five years to five human rights defenders whose life's work has been outstanding. It is presented on December 10, International Human Rights Day, every five years

At the UN Press Conference after accepting the award, Ramsey Clark emphasized the UN's role in ensuring world peace reminding journalists that “The greatest threat to human rights is war.”

The award is given to individuals and organizations in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Previous recipients have included Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Reverend Dr. Martin L. King.”

Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto said “As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we acknowledge the tireless work and invaluable contribution of these individuals and organizations that have fought to see the rights and freedoms embodied in this historic document become a reality for people in all corners of the world.”

“These awardees constitute symbols of persistence, valour and tenacity in their resistance to public and private authorities that violate human rights. They constitute a moral force to put an end to systematic human rights violations.”

The UN announcement described Ramsey Clark as “a veteran human rights defender and rule of law advocate, played a key role in the civil rights and peace movements in the US, and more recently has spoken out against abuses committed in the name of “counter-terrorism.”

The International Action Center, founded by Ramsey Clark in 1992 is known internationally for its major role in the anti-war movement in the U.S. and its actions in the forefront of extending solidarity to countries and peoples facing U.S. attack and threats.

The many activists and the large all-volunteer staff of the International Action Center along with hundreds of people who have worked with him over many years extend their enthusiastic congratulations to Ramsey Clark for his tireless and courageous efforts. This United Nations Human Rights Award is well deserved.

We remain committed to solidarity with peoples and countries under U.S. attack. We are determined to continue developing ever wider opposition to U.S. policies of endless war, expanding militarism, racism and growing poverty for millions. Si se puede!

* Contact us: http://iacenter.org/comments/
* Donate: http://iacenter.org/donate/
* About the IAC: http://iacenter.org/about/

The Politics of Immigration

As the immigration debate heats up again, interesting news
and opinion pieces are starting to appear in both the mainstream and
the alternative media. Here's a few of the new links in The Politics
of Immigration blog:

http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com

El Diario NY: U.S. Refugee in Mexico

By Elvira Arellano

Last week we welcomed Crystal Dillman, the widow of Luis Martinez, to Mexico. Martinez was murdered by a group of white youths in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, earlier this year – just because he was a Latino. His wife Crystal, an anglo, courageously stood up and demanded justice, her stand has made her a target of threats, intimidation by local police and hostility from neighbors. She has brought their children to make her home with Martinez’s family in Mexico.

Evidently, racism in the United States did not die with the election of Barack Obama! Racism attaches itself to a people based not only on their skin color but based on their country of origin. When the United States and Europe viewed Africa as a place they had the right to dominate and exploit, then Africans were treated as less than human in the United States. The long and much to be admired struggle of African Americans has begun to overcome these attitudes – especially as their numbers, unity and political strength grew. And we must remember the contribution of African Americans in ending U.S. support for apartheid.

When Crystal Dillman spoke out after the murder of her husband she correctly identified the source of the hatred against him as the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino hysteria in nearby Hazleton Pennsylvania, in the national campaign against legalization and in the media campaign of men like CNN’s Lou Dobbs. In fact, hate crimes against Latinos have risen by 40% since 2005.
Crystal Dillman was welcomed in Mexico at an international conference dealing with migrant issues which drew representatives from the United States, Mexico and Central America. Conference participants reflected that long standing U.S. domination of Latin America, going back to the Monroe Doctrine, is at the root of racism against Latinos. The military conquest and acquisition of northern Mexico – now the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California and Colorado – the colonization of Puerto Rico, the constant interventions in Central America and the Caribbean testify to this history of arrogance. Historically, racism in the U.S. has two legs: the institution of slavery and the domination of Latin America.
The conference, which welcomed and gave shelter to Crystal Dillman, pledged a coordinated program to support the demand for legalization in the United States and especially a moratorium on the separation of families. There will be coordinated actions in the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean on December 18th, the international day for the migrants, January 21st, the day after Barack Obama’s inauguration, March 8th, international women’s day, and May 1st, the day of the workers.We are from many nations, but we are one people joined by our struggle for respect and the right to keep our families together. As Latinos are joining to support the struggle for legalization of the undocumented the increasingly powerful Latino community will also become a voice for justice and respect throughout Latin America.

Americas Policy Program Commentary Immigrants Drive Prison Profits

Tom Barry | December 1, 2008

Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
americas.irc-online.org

Immigrants are behind one of America's fastest growing, most profitable industries. That shouldn't come as a surprise. Immigrants have always been a core factor in U.S. economic development.

Mining, railroads, agribusiness, and, recently, construction have been among the many U.S. industries that historically been driven by an abundant supply of immigrants. But now, when the economy is imploding, most industries are shedding immigrants. The private prison industry, however, is booming, largely because of the ever-increasing supply of immigrants supplied by the federal government.

In the past, when the government detained immigrants—legal or illegal—they were placed in one of a handful of official processing centers where they awaited a hearing or deportation. The Department of Homeland Security still runs seven immigrant detention centers.

Since the early 1980s, sparked by the Reagan administration's new enthusiasm for privatization and the free market, the Justice Department and now also DHS have been outsourcing most of the immigrant detainees to private firms that own or manage scores of prisons that annually hold hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

At a time when most other industries are reporting slackening consumer demand and plunging revenues, the executives of the major private companies providing prison services attribute their fortunes to the sorry fate of America's immigrant population. They routinely tell investors that their major "customers"—Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—keep "bed occupancy" near capacity.

To understand how well the prison business is faring and how immigrants are key to prison profits, you can listen in on the prison firms' quarterly conference calls with major Wall Street investment firms. In early November, the country's prison corporations reported soaring profits.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's oldest and largest prison corporation, boasted that it enjoyed a $33.6 million increase in the third quarter over last year, while earnings rose 15% during the same period. Formerly known as Wackenhut, GEO Group, the nation's second largest prison company, saw its earnings jump 29% over 2007. Another private prison firm that imprisons immigrants is Cornell Companies, and it reported a 9% increase in net revenues in the third quarter.

Private prisons have been booming over the past eight years. From 2000 to 2005, the number of private prisons increased from 16% of all prisons to 23%. All of the increase in federal prisons has been in prisons owned or operated by private firms.

Immigrants are the fastest growing sector of the federal detainees and prisoners, and there are hundreds of millions of dollars to be made by enterprising businesses and governments. The annual ICE budget for "detention and removal" is $1.2 billion.

In addition, the Justice Department's Office for the Detention Trustee has hundreds of contracts with local governments and private prison firms that provide beds for immigrants. Both ICE and OFDT have special offices that oversee the outsourcing of its immigrant prisoners. OFDT even boasts of its "enterprise" system of detention.

Private prison companies aren't worried that the Democratic Party sweep will mean that fewer immigrants are sent their way because of party promises of enacting comprehensive immigration reform. GEO Group's chairman George Zoley assured investors on Nov. 3: "These federal initiatives to target, detain, and deport criminal aliens throughout the country will continue to drive the need for immigration detention beds over the next several years and these initiatives have been fully funded by Congress on a bipartisan basis."

Not only has the DHS crackdown on illegal immigrants have bipartisan support in Congress, it was the Democratic Congress, say private prison chiefs, that increased the 2009 budget for the crackdown. "The president only asked for a program funding of $800 million," noted Zoley. "It was the Democratic chairman [of the Homeland Security subcommittee] ... that added another $200 million to this program."

In a post-election conference to report third-quarter revenue increases, CCA board chairman John Ferguson told Wall Street investors: "One budget that was put in place for the full year was immigration customs enforcement ... and the funding for that is for 33,400 beds—that's an increase from 32,000 in the prior fiscal year, and also that compares to a little over 31,000 detainees in [2007]."

"Just to remind everyone," Ferguson told investors, "detainee beds would be sourced from us from several places that immigration customs boys need: that's border apprehensions, people that overstay their visas, [immigrants] that are identified as criminals, and the jails and prisons [that hold immigrants] who have completed their time and will be deported."

Addressing investor fears that recent decreases in illegal immigration inflows might dampen company returns, Ferguson said, "So even though we have seen the border crossings and apprehensions decline in the last couple of years, we are really talking about dealing with a population well north of 12 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States."

The CCA chief assured investors that the company's dependence on detained immigrants is not a factor of policy but rather of law enforcement. "The Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Services, Immigration, and Customs Enforcement are carrying out statutory obligations for their responsibility ... We should continue to see their utilization of the private sector to meet their statutory obligations and requirements."

The prison executives even intimate that the economic crisis will fatten their business. When asked by an investment company representative about a possible downturn in detained immigrants as a result of new government policies, James Hyman, president of Cornell Companies, said, "We do not believe we will see a decline in the need for detention beds particularly in an economy with rising unemployment among American workers."

What is more, he told investors that there exists a pool of "10 million plus illegal immigrants" the company draws from and there is an "imbalance" between the number of immigrants and number of available prison beds.

Cornell also waxed enthusiastic about the continued good prospects for its prison business based on immigrant numbers and federal commitment to enforcement and "prison beds." Hyman said, "Today, ICE has about 33,000 detention beds available, which seems small but has increased substantially from only 20,000 beds in 2005. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which houses criminal aliens and today has about 52,000 beds in their system, including 22,000 inmates housed in the private prisons."

To illustrate the increase in business generated by immigrants, Hyman pointed out that the "Southwest Border Districts for the USMS [U.S. Marshals Service] have about 19,000 detainees today, which is over a 70% increase since the beginning of the decade"—driven by the immigration crackdown including almost doubling of the number of Border Patrol agents.

But won't the economic downturn mean decreased state and local budgets for incarceration? None of the private prison firms seem too worried.

CCA's Chief Financial Officer Todd Mullenger offered investors a rosy forecast. "The other thing that could be on the positive side," he said, "[is that] we could see some new states or existing states come to us with a more aggressive push toward privatization to help them reduce their budget shortfall." Moreover, "they might be willing to shutter some old inefficient facilities ... and outsource those inmates as a cost-cutting mechanism."

"Remember we're in two markets—the state market and the federal market," noted Zoley of GEO Group. "At the state level you're obviously hearing about states with different deficits all around the country including the Sunbelt states where our customers are primarily located. But from coast to coast we're seeing the continued need for more capacity. Florida itself has a budget deficit I think of $3 billion or $4 billion, and yet in the last month it just issued an award to us for a new 2,000-bed facility."

Full of confidence that the private prison industry is the business to be in these days, Zoley confidently added: "The federal market is being driven for the most part as we've been discussing by the need for criminal alien detention beds. That's being consistently funded."

Tom Barry directs the TransBorder Project of the Americas Policy Program (www.americaspolicy.org) at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC. He blogs at http://borderlinesblog.blogspot.com/.

To reprint this article, please contact americas@ciponline.org. The opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of the CIP Americas Policy Program or the Center for International Policy.

For More Information

Expect "Rule of Law" to Rule Immigration Policy
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5696

Reframing the Immigration Debate: The Actors and the Issues
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2959

Chertoff's Challenge to Obama
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5647

The Deterrence Strategy of Homeland Security
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5269