Guest worker programs debated

March 2nd, 2006

The San Francisco Chronicle talks today about California senator Dianne Feinstein’s beef with the current guest worker bill:

“I do not believe you can have a guest worker come for three years, renew it for another three years, bring their family, settle in, put children in schools, and then they’re going to turn around and go back at the end of six years,” Feinstein said. “It doesn’t happen. They disappear. And that’s the problem. That’s the rub. That’s the magnet.”

So Feinstein is splitting with her party, and wants immigrants to truly be “guests”…meaning they’ll leave forever at some point.

Love at the Border

December 26th, 2005

The one thing that disregards race, politics, class, etc., is love. Much like Ricardo Arjona’s song Ella Y El which details the love affair of a Republican and a Marxist Cuban, the militarized border between Mexico and the U.S. also has its share of love stories.

Maria Terrazas, 31, met Jose Ruiz three years ago at LM’s Body Builders in this remote border town. Terrazas, a waitress and mother of two, knew Ruiz was a catch. As a Border Patrol agent, Ruiz belonged to an elite class in town: available men with good jobs and an education.

The two began dating, and their relationship continued even after Terrazas was deported to Mexico in November 2004. She quickly bluffed her way through U.S. customs and back to Ruiz.

Terrazas, who said several of her illegal immigrant girlfriends have relationships with border agents, saw nothing unusual about dating a man whose job was to keep people like her out of the U.S. “He had his own job and I had mine,” Terrazas said in an interview. “I never thought it’d cause problems.”

But it did.

Documenting the Undocumented

November 24th, 2005

The Border Film Project is very interesting project that hopes to raise awareness about the issues related to the border through images.

The purpose of the project is to capture the perspective of both immigrants coming to the United States and minuteman at the border attempting to stop them. Both groups are given disposable cameras to take pictures of their journey or their experience and they are asked to send them back to the Border Film Project.

Both sets of photographers have the power to show everyday Americans what they otherwise cannot see, providing a more personal look into a rich and complicated issue.

The project is run by Boston College grads Brett Huneycutt and Victoria Criado, and University of Arizona grad Rudy Adler.
At the conclusion of the project the various images will be shown in galleries in Mexico and the United States.

Via / Border Film Project

Border Sneakers

November 22nd, 2005

We’ve all heard of the evils of sneaker companies and their tendency to use sweatshop labor but Brooklyn artist Judith Werthein is showing that making sneakers can also form a part of social activism.

Werthein, an Argentinian, has made a total of one thousand pairs of sneakers named Brinco catering to the needs of immigrants.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

Werthen is selling them as a part of a San Diego art exhibit focusing on the border region, but also giving them away. About four hundred of the sneakers have been given to immigrants making the jump to the United States. One of the beneficiaries of the sales of these sneakers in the U.S. is Casa del Migrante, a Tijuana shelter.

I cannot encourage illegal immigration…I am an artist and I just did a piece on a subject that raised a lot of questions on things that are worth thinking about.

Via / MSNBC

Lou Dobbs’ Beef with Mexico

October 13th, 2005

This country has its fair share of xenophobes and racists, some of which have made a name for themselves on cable news networks, where every non blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus fearing individual is subject to belittlement and allegations of being responsible from everything to gas prices to terrorism.

CNN’s Lou Dobbs, however, is a different breed of bigot. Whether or not true reflections of Mr. Dobbs’ own convictions or the work of a few savvy producers with a penchant for sensationalism (remember when Bill O’Reilly was on A Current Affair and was “normal”?), Lou Dobbs is OBSESSED with Mexicans. I repeat: OBSESSED. And I actually do think the obsession is real, especially given the above photo of him with the “Minutemen”.Lou Dobbs is OBSESSED with Mexicans. I repeat: OBSESSED. And I actually do think the obsession is real, especially given the above photo of him with the “Minutemen”.

At first it was kind of a joke with my friends: “Guess what Lou Dobbs’ lead story is today…Uh, I don’t know, the outsourcing of America to MEXICO? Our unprotected borders open to evil MEXICANS?” Later I realized that the subject of illegal Mexican immigration was even more common on his show “Lou Dobbs Tonight” than I thought. I think it’s pretty safe to say that at least one of bigger stories each night is about illegal Mexican immigration to the U.S., if not more.

So, my question is: why just Mexico? Why not throw in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or any other country every once in a while? Was Mr. Dobbs slighted by a Mexican girlfriend at one point and expressing his ire years later via cable news, or does he not know that these other countries exist? I’m stumped.

True testament to his obsession can be found in the transcripts of his show on CNN.com. On October 10th, Dobbs had two (count ‘em, two, on a one hour news program) stories about Mexican immigration; one about Mexican illegal immigrants coming in to “take away jobs” in New Orleans post-Katrina and another about the “disturbing rise in the number of Mexican consulates” in the U.S.

You can read the transcript of this show at CNN.com.

Via / HispanicTips

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