VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Real Changes to Deportation Policies or Window Dressing?

June 21st, 2011

Last week the Department of Homeland Security announced alleged changes to the way the controversial Secure Communities deportation program and deportation policies in general are carried out.

According to a series of June 17th memos released by John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Secure Communities, which runs the fingerprints of those arrested through immigration databases in order to find undocumented immigrants, will continue to be rolled out with the goal that all 50 states be using the program by 2013. The memo urges immigration agents to consider how long an undocumented immigrant has been in the United States, or whether the immigrant was brought here as a child and is studying in high school or college. The authorities are also instructed to give “particular care and consideration” to veterans and active duty members of the military, especially if they have been in combat, and to their close relatives. Mr. Morton also expanded the authority of federal lawyers who handle cases in immigration courts to dismiss deportation proceedings against immigrants without serious criminal records. Mr. Morton also issued new guidelines he said would ensure that illegal immigrants detained by the police who were victims of domestic violence and witnesses to crimes would not be deported.

The memos also creates an advisory commission to study how S-Comm actually is working.

This consideration is clearly a response to the pressure not only coming from advocates and activists, but from lawmakers and state governments attempting to opt-out of a program sold to them as something it was never meant to be.

Advocates, activists, and elected officials across the country rejected the memos as cosmetic and continue to demand a moratorium on the use of S-Comm as well as allowing states to opt-out of the program. While others, including immigration attorneys, praised the changes especially when it comes to prosecutorial discretion .

Evidence Shows No Confusion on Secure Communities, Only Deception

May 20th, 2011

Coming on the heels of Wednesday’s rally in front of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYC office demanding that he pull the state out of the Secure Communities deportation program are letters which show that the so-called confusion regarding the ability to opt-out was more like a cover-up.

In letters, that I will admit to finding somewhat confusing (PDF of letters here), a fired contractor, Dan Cadman says that he told DHS/ICE, in documents that have to come to light as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, that they had the right to tell states that Secure Communities was a mandatory program. Cadman asserts that he was then told to say that Secure Communities was voluntary, especially when pushing areas with many immigrants, like New York and Cook County – Illinois, to sign agreements. The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, points to Cadman as the source of confusion regarding the opt-out option. Cadman asserts that it seems to be part of the design, especially in order to get places like New York to sign on.

U.S. Helped Create Toro’s Situation, Now They Want to Rid Themselves of It via Deportation

March 15th, 2011

Local NYC and international Chilean activist Victor Toro lost his bid for asylum. He is set to be deported to Chile, a country he left during the U.S. sponsored dictatorship of Pinochet, a country where he is legally dead.

From the NY Daily News :

ICE took Toro to court after he was arrested on an Amtrak train near Buffalo in 2007 for not having immigration papers.

Toro, a longtime advocate for immigrant rights who waded across the Rio Grande in 1984 to enter the U.S., claims he was afraid to turn himself in and request asylum, citing U.S. support for Pinochet’s brutal regime.

A democracy replaced the regime in 1990, but some of the leaders who had Toro tortured remain powerful, his lawyer says. They expelled Toro from Chile in 1977, declaring him dead.

Judge Sarah Burr said in a written ruling that Chile is a changed country and a safe place for Toro.

The Pinochet regime imprisoned Toro because he co-founded the Revolutionary Left Movement, known as the MIR, an anti-Pinochet group briefly labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S.

He was blindfolded for months at a time and had electric shocks applied to his genitals. He twice faced firing squads that shot blanks to scare him.

With President Obama set to visit the capital of Santiago later this month, Toro and Moreno are begging the White House to intervene. They argue the U.S. owes Toro because it tacitly backed Pinochet for years.

Homeland Security’s New Bragging Rights : Denying Deferred Action & Deadly Force

March 14th, 2011

While states across the country continue to push anti-immigrant legislation which seeks to criminalize the most basic rights of people, the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Janet Napolitano is being very clear about it’s policy of deportation and death on the Southern Border.

In hearings last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Napolitano bragged about the fact that the Obama administration granted deferred action in less than 900 cases last year. That was fewer than the Bush administration.

According to Immigration Equality‘s useful definition Deferred Action is:

a minimal humanitarian status which The Department of Homeland Security can grant in cases of extremely compelling humanitarian facts (such as a life-threatening illness). The status permits an individual to remain in the United States for a limited period of time (generally two years) after which point he or she must re-apply.

So essentially Napolitano is bragging about immigration policy becoming less humane under the Obama administration than under the last Bush administration.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano : “All the Statistics that are Going Up Are Supposed to be Going Up”

August 31st, 2010

If nothing else, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is a woman of her word. During a telephonic press briefing yesterday, Napolitano proudly crowed the start of unmanned predator drone flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1.

The rest of the telephonic conference was more of the same with an emphasis on more. I think the Secretary of Homeland Security said the word “more” so many times creating a dramatic crescendo effect that drove home just how militarized the U.S. border with Mexico was becoming and just how far we are from comprehensive immigration reform.

The drones, which beginning tomorrow will be able to monitor the entire U.S. Mexico border, are meant to track the “illegal movement of drugs, money and people”. While I know many will say the “illegal movement” of people refers to the disgusting crime of human trafficking, I picture families and individuals crossing the frontera and wonder how is movement declared illegal and only the movement of certain people.

Leaked DHS Memo on Administrative CIR a Right Wing Attack or a Way to Save Face?

July 30th, 2010

With the right-wing blogosphere crying “Oh Noes Amnesty”!”, late last night a memo was leaked from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that the White House is at the very least considering “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform”.

I hate giving the NRO traffic (full disclosure, I went to high school with the online editor there), the 11 page document looks at ways outside of the legislative process to provide relief for some of the millions of undocumented in the U.S.

From the memo:

This memorandum offers administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements, and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization…

Is the Immigration Reform Change We Were Told to Believe in Hidden in the Numbers?

February 4th, 2010

If it really is all about the economy (stupid) when it comes to legislative priorities, to get a sense of where Comprehensive Immigration Reform falls on that list we should look at the The Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security.

The two immigration-enforcement components of DHS—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—consume 30% of the department’s total budget, while the immigration-services component, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is allotted a mere 5%.

Hmm doesn’t seem like DHS is prepping itself for a pathway to citizenship.

It is notable that there are significant increases in the budget for Asylum and Refugee Services/Military Naturalizations and Immigrant Integration and Citizenship. However, given how DHS has treated many Asylum seekers (by putting them in detention), it would be nice to know a little more specifically where this money is going. And Immigrant integration? Can I assume that means English classes?

Via / Immigration Impact : A Project of the Immigrant Policy Center

TPS for Haitians

January 19th, 2010

Deportations to Haiti have been halted and now the Department of Homeland Security has granted Haitians currently in the U.S. without documentation Temporary Protected Status or TPS. TPS not only allows the undocumented to stay in the U.S. but also allows them to get work permits, which for many Haitians on this side of the horrific earthquake is priority so that they can aid those back in Haiti.

However, TPS isn’t free and it sure as hell isn’t the “amnesty” that so many anti-migrant folks are claiming it to be. Federal filing fees total almost $500, including a $340 TPS-related work permit and $80 fingerprint fee. The TPS offered to Haitians is only applicable to Haitians who were in the U.S. before January 12, the day of the earthquake. Haitians in the U.S. after that date are not covered and could be deported as soon as the U.S. drops the temporary stay. TPS holders cannot become permanent U.S. residents or U.S. citizens and is good for 18 months.

Department of Homeland Security Halts all Deportations to Haiti

January 14th, 2010

You won’t find me praising the Department of Homeland Security often, but given the situation in Haiti, at least DHS is showing some heart. In a press release yesterday, DHS “halted all removals to Haiti for the time being in response to the devastation caused by yesterday’s earthquake. ICE continues to closely monitor the situation.”

I am not sure but I am assuming that this includes the case of activist Jean Montrevil, currently in an ICE detention center here in downtown NYC. I am however not assuming that Haitians in detention will be released.

Julio Maldonado : Hate Crime Survivor Scheduled for Deportation

October 7th, 2009

I wrote about the case of Julio Maldonado and his cousin, Denis Calderon, who survived a horrible hate crime in Philly and now are being victimized again via the Department of Homeland Security.

…They are lawful permanent residents with American citizens as partners and American citizen children. Pero as two Latino immigrants in a changing neighborhood in Philly, they became targets for assault which made it easier for them to be doubly victimized, first by a racist gang and now by the Department of Homeland Security.

In 1996, Julio was visiting Denis at his home in Philadelphia when the two were victims of a racially-motivated attack by a group of white youths who insulted them with a racial slur. When the cousins responded to the slur, the youths began throwing beer bottles at them. The two cousins tried to escape, and then attempted to defend themselves… When the police arrived, they arrested Denis and Julio. They recovered two knives at the scene but did not test them for blood or fingerprints since no witness testified that Denis or Julio had used a knife. Denis and Julio were charged with aggravated assault. None of the white youths were ever charged with any crime.

Tragically, Christian Saladino died in 1998. Williams brought murder charges against Denis and Julio. The case went before a jury and the defendants hired a forensic pathologist who testified that the victim had a pre-existing blood condition and had not died from injuries sustained in an attack. Inconsistencies arose in the accounts of the witnesses and the jury acquitted both defendants.

Judge Smith, the original convicting judge, in his remanded evidentiary hearing decided the new evidence was material and ruled in favor of the defendants, vacating the guilty verdicts and calling for a new trial on the aggravated assault charges. In a reasonable system, that would have been the end of the story and you would not be reading about it today. But Seth Williams appealed the decision and the appellate court reversed Judge Smith because the cousins had failed to present the exculpatory evidence within the time prescribed by the statute of limitations. The cousins’ criminal attorneys appealed the criminal case up to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost on technical grounds.

Several years ago, DHS got involved and put the cousins into removal proceedings on the basis of the conviction which was then being appealed. Julio and Denis appealed their immigration case up to the Third Circuit and lost.

In 2005, Julio and Denis were charged and convicted with failing to cooperate in their own removal because they would not sign the papers necessary to request travel documents from Peru so they could be deported. They have been in federal prison on those charges since 2005. Julio’s release date was moved up a year due to good behavior. DHS has expressed its intent to deport him once he is released on September 12, 2009.

Julio is at a critical point now. Despite being a legal resident of the U.S, and despite the fact that he has refused to sign papers required to process his Peruvian travel documents, Peru has gone ahead and processed temporary travel documents that do not require Julio’s consent, allowing DHS to deport Julio this week. One way to stop this is DHS exercises its discretion to wait until Julio’s pardon request can be heard. **Please call DHS and Governor Rendell at the numbers below!**

***Please call David Venturella, Acting Director of ICE’s Office of Detention and Removal Operation, at (202) 732-3100 to request that DHS allow Julio to stay in the U.S. until his request for a pardon is reviewed by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.***

***Please call Governor Rendell’s office at (717) 787-2500 and ask the governor (1) to expedite review of Julio’s pardon request and (2) to ask DHS to wait to deport him until the pardon request is reviewed.***

Don’t forget that there is a petition you can sign for Julio and Denis here.