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Tag Archives: immigration policy

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Asks for S-Comm Moratorium

May 6th, 2011

Let’s face it, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus isn’t known for it’s bravery when it comes to facing the reality of comprehensive immigration reform. When it was clear that CIR was pretty much a dead issue, the CHC refused to rally behind the DREAM Act until the zero hour. Perhaps though, recognizing the error of their ways, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is calling for a moratorium on the “Secure Communities” deportation program due to problems similar to its predecessor, 287(g). The call was made via a letter sent to the White House

From the CHC Letter :

“Evidence reveals not only a striking dissonance between the program’s stated purpose of removing dangerous criminals and it’s actual effect; it also suggests that S-Comm may endager the public, particularly among communities of color…”

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Arizona’s Deadly Example : Arming and Shooting to Kill at the Border

April 1st, 2011

When Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited the U.S./Mexico border at Texas last week, it was to assure people that the border is safe, thanks to the deployment of armed troops. Safety is relative however, and it seems is dependent on who you are, meaning your ethnicity and the perception of your legal status. Just ask the family of Carlos de la Madrid, a U.S. citizen who was shot in the back by U.S. Border Patrol while climbing a fence into Mexico. What happened echoes other shootings of young men at the border by Border Patrol, with reports of rocks being thrown being met with bullets. The video report below is valuable for the interviews with the widow of de la Madrid and an activist from Border Action Network, who point out the Border Patrol’s policy of shooting to kill and the often used justification for such action, illegal activity such as drugs.

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Secure Communities : New Numbers Show Same Old Problems

March 25th, 2011

Yesterday, a coalition of organizations, including the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Center for Constitutional Rights and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, who have been pressing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be real and transparent as to how Secure Communities actually works, released some new numbers and analysis of those numbers. The specific focus of the analysis is ICE’s claim that Secure Communities (S-Comm) focuses on “dangerous criminal immigrants”. The new analysis shows that claim to be completely false.

“Nationally, 1 in 4 people deported under S-Comm haven’t been convicted of any crime. That ratio jumps to over 50% in Boston, certain areas of California, and in multiple examples across the country..” Explained Bridget Kessler of Benjamin Cardozo School of Law

25 percent overall non-criminal deportations and in an urban area like Boston as jump to over half shows that the focus of ICE and of immigration policy under Obama overall, is deport as many as you can so you can claim success in “the war against illegals“.

When questioned during a recent House Appropriations Committee Hearing on March 11th, Director of ICE John Morton admitted,, “we do in fact remove non-criminals through Secure Communities.”

In other words it’s a shell game with words and lives.  You can take a peek at some of the numbers below and they are disturbing, especially when looking at larger urban areas with large Latino immigrant populations.  With the focus on rapid expansion of Secure Communities, it becomes clear whose security is being prioritized and it is not that of the families whose lives are torn apart.

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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.

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Fast to Change Wraps Up in California

November 11th, 2008

immigration%20protest.jpgVia Democracy Now! comes this really important interview about immigration policy in a post Obama world. Among the topics of discussion was the Fast for Change that happened out in California:

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Alex, the fast going that’s been going on in Los Angeles, could you tell us who has been involved in it and why?

ALEX SANCHEZ: Well, IDEPSCA has taken a big lead, and RISE. Homies Unidos also took part. And other people, other community leaders, such as Angelica Salas from CHIRLA, and others that took part, individual students, there were elder community leaders, there were people undocumented, there were people that were documented, there were citizens. They all participated, from all realms, because it is an important issue.

We participated because we know that there’s these policies in place that have really made it difficult for individuals to present asylum cases in immigration courtrooms under the assumption that they’re deported—they’re deportable gang members, and that limits the opportunities they may have to seek a real asylum case and be heard.

So, the fast was to bring this awareness into the communities, but also to awake this giant monster that was awakened before but went back to sleep. We’re trying to wake him up and really taking it to the steps of the White House now under a new administration of Obama, in which he is committed himself to really looking out for the immigrant community. And that’s why we’re asking for the demands that we’re asking, for this new administration to actually make—help Obama be successful in legalizing our people, our immigrant people, and keeping our families together in the US.

Listen to the whole thing.

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National Guard on U.S. Mexico Border : Bush’s Announcement Tonight

May 15th, 2006

evacguard.jpgThe news is abuzz with the information that tonight at 8 p.m., U.S. President Bush will announce a plan to send thousands of U.S. National Guard troops to the U.S. Mexico border to assist border patrol agents. This announcement comes on the same day that the Senate is debating again immigration proposals on the floor. Criticism of the move is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, with some saying that National Guard troops are already spread to thin because of the ongoing “War on Terror” , while others see the move as pura politica, a way for Bush to appease hard line Republicans who feel that the President’s current immigration proposal is too soft on illegal immigration with its guest worker option.

Via / Yahoo

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