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287g Programs Expanded, Despite “Revamps” Immigrants Fearful

10:37 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration · 2 Comments

11 Jul 2009

NA-AY903_IMMIG_D_20090710164113 Did any of the immigrants’ rights groups have anything to say about the announcement of the expansion and “revamping” of the 287(g) program?
287(g) programs allow local law enforcement agents to enforce Federal immigration laws. The revision of the plan is supposed to calm the fears of immigrants and advocates who say that 287(g) programs encourage racial profiling among other abuses.

From the LA Times:

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday…

…Some police departments check immigration status in a wide variety of crimes. Friday’s directive lays out federal priorities: violent crimes such as rape or robbery, as well as major drug offenses; followed by property crimes, such as burglary and fraud.

All 66 police departments that already participate in the program must sign a new, uniform memorandum within 90 days.

They also must agree to pursue the criminal charges that prompted an illegal immigrant’s detention. In other words, police can’t make an arrest just to find out if someone is in the country illegally…

…The memorandum says that police agencies will be bound by civil rights laws and subject to oversight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they arrest and detain illegal immigrants for possible deportation. Any agency that cannot prove that it is following those standards could lose its federal authority.

Immigration Vigils today in AZ

8:04 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Events| Immigration| Politics · Comments Off

24 Jun 2009

What: Vigils in four Arizona towns to call on Arizona Senator John McCain and other participants of the White House Immigration Reform meeting to push for immigration reform this year.

When: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 from 6:00-7:30pm

Where:

Tucson -Senator McCain’s office at 407 W. Congress St.

Douglas -Corner of 5th St and Pan American Highway (Co-sponsored by Humanitarian Border Solutions, Episcopal Border Ministries and Frontera de Cristo)

Sierra Vista -St. Andrew Apostle Church, 800 Taylor Dr.

Nogales – La Casa del Viejo at 665 Morley Ave.

Who: Border Action Network and its Human Rights Committees throughout southern Arizona.

Why: On Thursday, June 25 at 2:00pm EST, key members of Congress will join the President at the White House for a meeting that is expected to create a roadmap for legislative action on comprehensive immigration reform in 2009. The evening before this important meeting, members of Border Action Network in Tucson, Douglas, Nogales and Sierra Vista, Arizona are gathering to hold a “Now is the Time” vigil for Arizona Senator McCain and other meeting participants.

Via / Latino Politico

Raid in Sheriff Joe’s Country Leaves a 9 Year Old Girl Without Parents

10:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| arizona| children · 6 Comments

19 Jun 2009

I cannot wrap my mind around a few things at play here.

One, how anti-immigration activists can dehumanize the children of immigrants and immigrant children to the point that leaving a child without parents is ok. Or that a 9 year old’s murder is ok.

I also cannot understand how President Obama can keep postponing meetings on immigration and legislators drag their feet as if people are not being killed and children aren’t being left as defacto orphans by immigration enforcement.

Latinos: Somos Mas o Menos? Malos o Buenos?

11:11 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cities| Media| States| Women| arizona · 4 Comments

14 May 2009

One of the biggest lines fed by the anti-immigrant movement is that there are already so many of “us”, that the U.S. can’t afford to school any more of “our” children, and give “us” anymore of “their” jobs. And today I have come across a flurry of stats being released that seem to be all over the place in terms of just how many of “us” there are.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that: The minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million — or 34 percent of the nation’s total population — on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000. Nearly one in six residents, or 46.9 million people, are Hispanic, the agency reported.

Even more telling for the future: 44 percent of children younger than 18 and 47 percent of children younger than the age of five are now from minority families.

The quickly expanding Latino population is having a healthy impact on the economy, according to Ken Gronbach, author of “The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Growing Demographic Trend.”

“Latinos have saved our country,” he said. “They represent 14 percent of the population but 25 percent of the live births. The United States is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2 percent replacement rate.”

So people should be thanking us no? Well let’s look at some of the areas that are experiencing growth and the reception that growth is getting.
Read more…

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Officially Under DOJ Investigation

2:39 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice| arizona · 3 Comments

11 Mar 2009

aleqm5ju_4eh4du9r9t5xsbw7sy6wydiea It’s about time! Arizona’s Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been officially put on notice, on notice that his actions and the actions conducted in the police department he ran are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

From Latino Politico:

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil-rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after months of mounting complaints that deputies are discriminating in their enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division notified Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday that they had begun the investigation, which will focus on whether deputies are engaging in “patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.”
An expert said it is the department’s first civil-rights probe related to immigration enforcement.

One of the things that can happen in such an investigation is that the police department can be put under the guidance of the Department of Justice until certain changed are made.

Pero the investigation is just the start, it’s not a victory. We still need to put the pressure on the DOJ and the U.S. government as a whole so that we move away from enforcement first immigration policies to policies that put the human rights of people first.

Thousands Protest Racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona

8:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Immigration| arizona · 2 Comments

4 Mar 2009

3321251432_f8c03e4b78_m No evil deed goes unnoticed by a community united against hate and on Saturday in Phoenix, thousands united against Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The crowd gathered at Steele Indian School Park in the morning to hear several speakers, musicians, religious and tribal leaders offer their thoughts and prayers before setting out south down Central Avenue towards downtown. The crowd steadily grew as the march advanced in the near-90 degree heat of the Arizona desert.

This latest exercise of 1st Amendment rights to assembly was in response to the escalation of anti-immigrant and anti-latino actions by Sheriff Arpaio since winning reelection in November 2008. The racial profiling has increased under his leadership and families continue to be separated by gestapo-like workplace & home raids that Arpaio claims are part of his oath to uphold state law. He also believes that it’s his duty as sheriff to segregate and humiliate migrant workers, treating them like animals by electrifying the perimeter fence around their tent city detainment facility.

The actions of Arpaio have attracted the attention of activist celebs like Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, who was at the march.

“By parading human beings shackled in chain gang stripes,” said De la Rocha, “in a misguided effort to collectively humiliate and to terrorize an entire population, he reopened the wounds from which we all still suffer, by invoking the painful memories of slavery and segregation…by doing so, he has not only brought shame upon the state of Arizona, but is bringing shame upon the entire nation.”

De la Rocha also came down on the country’s new Secretary of Homeland Security, who was governor of Arizona before her current post.

“If Janet Napolitano seeks to perform her mission as head of the so-called Homeland Security Department,” admonished De la Rocha, “she must realize the dangerous threshold that the 287(g) agreements have crossed. She must deal directly and quickly with the real threat to peace and security here in Arizona, by terminating the 287(g) agreement with Sheriff Arpaio’s office and joining the courageous members of congress who have begun an investigation into his criminal behavior.”

Via / The Sanctuary and Latino Politico

When Families Suddenly Matter in Immigration

11:01 am By Maegan La Mala · Florida| Politics| arizona · Comments Off

19 Sep 2008

When it’s not their mother or daughter, politicians play lip service to family matters and immigration. When it is their family, in the case of Democratic Florida Congressman Allan Boyd and his son, suddenly protecting the family is important. His family. Not the family of the immigrants the 30 year old son of the Congressman was charged with smuggling after federal authorities found people hidden in his truck during a border inspection Sunday in Arizona.

Rep. Allen Boyd, a Democrat from Monticello, in Florida’s Panhandle, said today in a statement released by his office that the arrest of his son, John Finlayson Boyd, “is a family matter that my family and I will be dealing with privately.”

Authorities said two of the undocumented immigrants found in Boyd’s truck told them they had agreed to pay $3,000 each to be smuggled into the United States.

Certainly, the immigrants have been detained, are living in horrific conditions as they await deportation.

Via / Adventures in the Coconut Caucus

Water, Water Everywhere For Immigrants Coming In Via Arizona

12:53 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration| arizona| chicago · Comments Off

9 Sep 2008

In an effort to draw attention to the human rights crisis facing immigrants coming from Arizona, today The Chicago Immigrant Defense Committee (IDC) is handing out 2000 bottles of water during lunchtime in downtown Chicago.

While hundreds of migrants needlessly die in the Arizona border desert, Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County/Phoenix, deputizes hundreds of self-proclaimed white supremacists who conduct sweeps of Latino neighborhoods and recklessly violate the rights of immigrants.
Wells Fargo Bank leases luxurious office spaces to Sheriff Arpaio in downtown Phoenix, AZ. A delegation of leaders will deliver a letter to Chicago Wells Fargo officials at high noon requesting that the bank stop supporting the Sheriff’s wholesale violations of human rights by not renewing his lease in Phoenix. Similar demands have been made by leaders in Phoenix and San Francisco.
Arizona is the proving ground for large-scale programs designed to destroy the rights of immigrants and tear apart their families and communities. If these violations continue unchecked, they could spread to the entire country—especially since Arizona is the home state of John McCain.

Arizona Latino Neighborhood Slips Away After Immigration Crackdown

11:57 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration| States| arizona · Comments Off

29 Jul 2008

Immigrants are exiting in throngs the Reed Park neighborhood in Mesa, Arizona, leaving homes behind and a ghost town of what was once a bustling Latino barrio. The Arizona Republic reports on what might be one of the first real indicators of the effects of local immigration crackdowns:

Already struggling with blight, the Reed Park area near Gilbert and Broadway roads is taking another hit as undocumented immigrants leave the neighborhood, pressured by the state’s employer-sanctions law, stricter immigration enforcement and a sagging economy.

There is no reliable data on just how many immigrants have left Mesa in the past year, but there are other indicators: vacant houses and apartments, a sharp drop in business at stores that cater to Latinos, and a decline in attendance at churches and schools.

The Republic reports that rent prices in the area have plummeted in an effort to attract more tenants, and some landlords are even offering free rent. In addition, local businesses catering to Latinos are suffering as immigrants leave the area.

Via / Arizona Republic

Hiring Undocumented Workers Just Got Dangerous

1:57 pm By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Immigration| arizona · 1 Comment

14 Dec 2007

It just got tougher to hire an undocumented worker in Arizona. The state has enacted some of the toughest penalties towards business owners who hire immigrants without papers, among them the loss of their very livelihood:

In the wake of the federal government’s failure to reform immigration laws, Arizona joins the more than 100 states and municipalities that have taken matters into their own hands in hopes of stemming the tide of illegal immigrants. But Arizona’s law is by far the harshest toward business. A company caught knowingly employing an undocumented worker has its license suspended for up to ten days. Get caught a second time, and a company loses its license to operate altogether–what Governor Janet Napolitano has called the “business death penalty.”

Check out the whole article on Business Week, as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is expressing concern over the impact this will have on the state’s economy. I predict one of two things: corruption ensues in government when business owners try get around the penalties or Arizona’s economy tanks. That state cannot live without undocumented immigrant labor.

Via / Business Week

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