Family | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘Family’

Pew Reveals New Face of Undocumented Immigrants

5:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family| Immigration| Politics| children| society · 2 Comments

15 Apr 2009

slide_immigration_family_400x308 The image of the undocumented immigrant has been, for years, that of a single man from Mexico who comes to the U.S. to work and lives alone. But according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a new study (PDF here) reveals a demographic shift which shows that undocumented immigrants tend now to be part of a family unit, with different immigration statuses between the members; some are married to documented immigrants, others have children who are U.S.-born, etc. From the Pew report:

Unauthorized immigrants living in the United States are more geographically dispersed than in the past and are more likely than either U.S. born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children. In addition, a growing share of the children of unauthorized immigrant parents—73%—were born in this country and are U.S. citizens.

Most children of unauthorized immigrants—73% in 2008—are U.S. citizens by birth. The number of U.S.-born children in mixed-status families (unauthorized immigrant parents and citizen children) has expanded rapidly in recent years, to 4 million in 2008 from 2.7 million in 2003. By contrast, the number of children who are unauthorized immigrants themselves (1.5 million in 2008) hardly changed in the five-year period and may have declined slightly since 2005.

According to Pew, nearly half of undocumented immigrant households are families with children. In addition, a third of these children and a fifth of adult unauthorized immigrants lives in poverty, practically double the poverty rate for children of U.S.-born parents (18%) or U.S.-born adults (10%).

Why is any of this important? Because as we move closer to “immigration reform”, the Obama administration is going to have to take all of this into consideration as it develops new policy. This new reality is proof that policy must protect families — which over the past few years we’ve seen torn apart by raids and deportation — and that immigration status can no longer be only about the individual when families are involved.

Via / Pew Hispanic Center

Naming the real problem of deportations…

3:13 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off

5 Dec 2008

border%20wall.jpeg I have spoken often about how I think that the ICE deportation program exposes more about our system in the U.S. than simply the broken immigration system, namely our broken prison system. This essay by a brother of a deported gang member really speaks to that problem:

This October 31st, I – along with a big group of people – protested in front of the San Francisco ICE office, with the purpose of stopping the raids happening in Sanctuary Cities, such as San Francisco and Oakland. It was one of the first major protests I have attended and I felt proud to be out there making a stand for all immigrants who are being treated unjustly. Again, I know that Frank committed a serious crime but I believe it is unfair that my brother is being deported, because it does not solve anything, there are still gangs in El Salvador. If someone does a crime make them do their time, but do not move them far away from their families, it not only hurts them but their families as well.

The last time I talked to him on the phone, was about four days before he was deported. He sounded like the same Frank I knew. When I asked him if he was going to still be in a gang after all that happened he simply said “no.” None of his gang friends visited him during the time he was in jail. One of his friends did write letters to him. All the people in his gang that were his “family” never visited him. On the other hand, his mother, sisters, my dad, my brothers and I visited him every chance we had. Now he is alone in El Salvador, because his only family is here.

Access to Family is a Human Right

3:46 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics · Comments Off

19 Nov 2008

ice%20raid.jpg
Regardless of what you think of undocumented immigration, I think we can all admit that there’s some serious problems surrounding the issue of ‘immigration’ here in the U.S.. But what may be more difficult to admit to is the problems with incarceration in the U.S. that immigration exposes. Take, for example, the following gut-wrenching story of a little boy who was separated from his mother after an ICE raid:

Lopez, who immigrated illegally from Mexico with his family when he was 3, said it has been torturous waiting to know what would happen to his mother, Consuelo Vega Nava.

After her arrest officials transferred her to a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., and then later to a Florida facility before her deportation to Mexico.

Lopez, who has not seen his mother since May 12, said he will be reunited with her when he returns to Mexico next month.

“I’ve missed those days when me and my mom would just walk or go get an ice cream,” he said. “I don’t want this to be forgotten.”

The practice of moving imprisoned people away from their families is not a new or unusual practice. It, in my opinion, is an illegal and immoral practice, one that the U.S. should be ashamed of participating in. Punishing through incarceration is one thing, punishing through denial of family is something else all together. The denial of access to family is what the dictatorships we abhor so much do.

If we can’t agree on immigration as a whole, let’s agree on the treatment of imprisoned people. Family integrity should be respected as much as possible for ALL imprisoned people. Period.

Campaign to keep undocumented children here

8:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| children · 1 Comment

21 Dec 2006

In response to the growing problem of deportation separating families, a non-profit organization is looking for ways to keep kids in the U.S. even if their parents are expelled from the U.S. The rationale is that kids should be able to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers since the living conditions in the home countries of their parents may be less than optimal, the circumstance which motivated the family to immigrate in the first place.

Osvaldo Cabrera, President of the coaltion, told Efe “this initiative arises from the need to protect minors who have the right to, because they were born in this country, to grow up as American citizens and have better possibilities of development and social protection.”

“Family desintegration is a sad and cruel reality, as is the situation in which children must go with their countries to a country where conditions of poverty and extremse need determine their future,”he said.

So what’s worse, a family split by deportation but with successful children, or a united family living in poverty?

Via / MSN Latino

Latino family hardship rates high

6:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family| Health| Money| society · Comments Off

21 Nov 2006

According to data just released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Latino and African American families are having a hard time making ends meet, and “experience difficulty affording food, lack needed medical care, and/or live in overcrowded conditions.”

The report finds that 28 percent of African American families with children, and 31 percent of families headed by a Latino citizen, experience at least one of the above three hardships at some point during the year, according to the survey. This is double the rate for non-Latino white families with children (14 percent). This disparity largely reflects the fact that poverty rates are several times higher for African American and Latino families than for white families.

This striking data comes from a Census Bureau survey which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is valuable in learning about hardship levels, but is at risk of being terminated by Congress. A senior researcher at the Center says “If this survey is eliminated, we will lose one of our best means of understanding what it’s like to be poor in this country.”

Via / U.S. Newswire

Image via Oxfam UK

Latino family murdered in Florida

1:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Florida| Labor · 2 Comments

13 Oct 2006

Authorities are investigating the gruesome murder of a Latino family in St. Lucie, central Florida.

Two adults and two children were found shot to death Friday along an isolated stretch of a Florida highway, with the woman clutching the two children in an apparent attempt to protect them, authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers got a call Friday morning after someone spotted the bodies of a man, woman, boy and girl off the southbound shoulder of the highway, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.

The adults were both in their 20s or 30s, and the children appeared to be between the ages of 4 and 6, Sheriff Ken Mascara said. All had been shot multiple times, he said.

“It appears to be a Hispanic family,” Mascara said. “The female had both the children clutched in a defensive mode, in an attempt to protect them. It gives the appearance that they were a family traveling.”

The bodies were found relatively close to the freeway, and no car was located, though authorities say that tire marks show that a car was driven off the road. At the time of this post, the victims’ identities remain unknown.

Via / International Herald Tribune

AmeRICAN: http://www.abc.es/20091111/internacional-iberoamerica/regimen-castro-anuncia-despido-20091111.html [...]

AmeRICAN: Calle 13 is a bad luck charm brought on Puerto Rico ex-Boxing Champion Miguel Cotto a BEATING by Pac [...]

AmeRICAN: Venezuela, and its Bolivarian Revolution and Puerto Rico connection: MIAMI HERALD Sun, Nov. 15, 2 [...]

Maegan La Mala: I don't think so [...]

Maegan La Mala: I was thinking about this...how the two are connected [...]

VivirLatino