26 Apr
Possible path toward citizenship
Early in March President Obama met with members of his Domestic Policy Council and researched ways to restore the efforts of Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in creating a bill to that could possibly lead into White House legislation.
“The basis of a bill would include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.”
“Schumer, speaking as he walked quickly through the Capitol, said he was having trouble rounding up Republican supporters apart from Graham. “It’s tough finding someone, but we’re trying,” Schumer said.
On Thursday, Schumer met with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who oversees the government’s immigration efforts, to strategize over potential Republican co-sponsors.
“We’re very hopeful we can get a bill done. We have all the pieces in place. We just need a second Republican,” Schumer said in a statement.
Among proponents, there is a consensus that a proposal must move by April or early May to have a realistic chance of passing this year. If that deadline slips, Congress’ focus is likely to shift to the November elections, making it impossible to take up major legislation.”
21 Apr
Future…
New and improved thesis!
What does the future look like with illegal immigration? How can we absorb illegal immigrants? What are the possible immigration reforms and possible path towards citizenship?
21 Apr
Arizona passing ‘nation’s toughest law’
(CNN) – The Arizona state Senate on Monday passed an extensive immigration bill that is widely considered to be some of the toughest immigration legislation in the nation, requiring police officers to determine whether a person is in the United States legally.
Currently, officers can only take that route if a person is suspected in another crime. Critics, including immigrant advocates and the ACLU of Arizona, are concerned the new law will foster racial profiling, arguing that most police officers don’t have enough training to look past race while investigating a person’s legal status.
The Senate passed the bill in a 17-11 vote Monday. The bill was approved in a House vote last week and awaits the signature of Gov. Jan Brewer. Supporters of the measure expect her to sign it.
Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, who wrote the bill, said in a recent interview that, with the bill, “We’re going to take the handcuffs off of law enforcement, we’re going to put them on the bad guy. Illegal is not a race, it’s a crime.”
“You know, this is amazing to me. We trust officers, we put guns on them, they make life and death decisions every day,” he added. “They investigate capital crimes, they investigate sophisticated crimes, but we’re afraid they’re going to pick up the phone and call ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”
The tough rhetoric has angered immigration advocates, such as Isabel Garcia, an Arizona legal defender, who says the legislation “legalizes racial profiling.”
“I think this bill represents the most dangerous precedent in this country, violating all of our due process rights,” she told CNN’s Tony Harris. “We have not seen this kind of legislation since the Jim Crow laws. And targeting our communities, it is the single most largest attack on our communities.”
The measure would require immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times. It also requires police to question people if there’s reason to suspect they’re undocumented and targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.
The state Senate’s Democratic leadership slammed Monday’s vote, saying the bill doesn’t truly address Arizona’s real immigration problems.
Senate Bill 1070 “is exactly why the federal government must act on immigration reform,” said Democratic leader Jorge Luis Garcia in a written statement. “We cannot have states creating a jigsaw puzzle of immigration laws. This bill opens the doors to racial profiling with the provision that allows an officer to ask for citizenship papers from someone who only looks illegal.”
The bill is an unfunded mandate that is “turning police officers into ICE agents and opening departments to lawsuits allowed by this bill,” said Sen. Rebecca Rios.
Rios was referring to a provision in the bill that allows residents to sue their local governments if they feel the law isn’t being enforced effectively.
According to Phoenix press, the governor, who has not taken a public stance on the bill, on Sunday told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that, “I will assure you that I will do what I believe is the right thing so that everyone is treated fairly.”
14 Apr
Crossing the border
These pictures were found on the U.S. Border Patrol website
This man took the cushion out of a van and covered himself up with the upholstery. “A” for effort.
The next woman has stuffed herself in the dashboard of a vehicle. Much work was put into this to make enough room.
And some people just take the less imaginative road and stuff themselves in the trunk of a car.
13 Apr
Hate crimes against illegal/legal immigrants
JAN. 9, 2004
Dateland, Ariz.
Pedro Corzo, a Cuban-born regional manager for Del Monte Fresh Produce, is gunned down by two Missouri residents — 16-year-old Joshua Aston and his 24-year-old cousin Justin Harrison — who traveled with Aston’s younger brother, 15-year-old Nicholas Aston, to a remote section of southern Arizona with the specific intent of randomly killing Mexicans. The brothers shaved their heads before embarking on their odyssey. Corzo was ambushed after he stopped at a roadblock the group constructed from boulders. Joshua Aston, the ringleader, is later tried as an adult and receives two life sentences for the murder. Harrison also is sentenced to life. Charges are eventually dropped against the younger Aston brother.
DEC. 29, 2004
Redlands, Calif.
Two Latino men and a Latina woman are beaten and kicked in the parking lot of a strip club by a “gang of about 10 skinheads,” as later reported by the San Bernardino County Sun. The neo-Nazi skinheads yell racial slurs at their victims, prompting the Redlands police chief to declare that hate crime charges will be pursued if and when the perpetrators are caught.
MAY 7, 2005
Maryville, Tenn.
A Mexican grocery store is vandalized by five white men who shatter windows, damage a refrigerator and spray-paint neo-Nazi symbols, causing over $17,000 in damage. Two men — Thomas Lovett and Jacob Reynolds — eventually plead guilty and are each sentenced to six months in prison.
FEB. 17, 2005
Fabens, Texas
Osvaldo Aldrete-Dávila, who is unarmed and fleeing apprehension on foot, is shot at 15 times by two U.S. Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. One bullet strikes Aldrete-Dávila in the buttocks, severs his urethra and lodges in his groin. Though seriously wounded, he manages to escape into Mexico.
Though the border patrol officers later find that the van driven by Aldrete-Dávila contained a shipment of marijuana, they are unaware of this fact when they open fire. Ramos and Compean attempt to cover up their actions by cleaning up the spent shell casings and failing to report the use of their firearms to their superiors, as required by Border Patrol regulations. The two agents also fail to report the shooting in their incident reports. El Paso Border Patrol Sector Chief Luis Barker later testifies that Compean told Barker that he and Ramos covered up the shooting because they “knew [they] were going to get in trouble.”
After the shooting comes to light a month later, Ramos and Compean are arrested and eventually convicted by a federal jury of felony assault charges, discharging a firearm in a crime of violence, civil rights violations, and obstruction of justice. They’re sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively.
Ramos and Compean will eventually be transformed by a major right-wing misinformation campaign into high-profile martyrs of the anti-immigration movement. The agents, for their part, will remain unrepentant. Ramos tells a Texas Monthly writer in 2007 that Aldrete-Dávila “got what he deserved.”
JULY 12, 2005
Patchogue, N.Y.
A 61-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant is badly beaten by three white men as he pushes a shopping cart through the streets collecting cans. Before the attack, the man was asked if he had a green card. “Then they started pummeling him,” Suffolk County Hate Crimes Det. Robert Reecks tells reporters. The man, whose name is not made public, suffers a broken eye socket and facial bruises.
5 Apr
Research Plan
I am looking into illegal immigration, the causes and effects it has on the US.
How much money is it costing us to education children of illegal immigrants? How much is it costing us to pay for college education for illegal immigrants who are receiving an in-state tuition discount? How is this effecting our healthcare system? How much is it costing us to provide healthcare for illegal immigrants? How much are our businesses saving by hiring illegal aliens for cheaper pay? How many jobs do they take up? What is being done to change the immigration laws? What is being done to counteract the immigration reforms? How are they changing the laws, what will change? Who is taking an active step in pushing for immigration reform? Who are Obama’s influences when it comes to a reform? How are families being effected by the immigration laws? What do the Republicans think of immigration reform? Are they supportive? What about hate crimes? What are the long term effects of an immigration reform?
5 Apr
Government Influences
Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former commissioner of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, “is a very influential voice among Obama’s advisors” (Spencer Hsu, Washington Post reporter).
“Ms. Meissner has authored and co-authored numerous reports, articles, and op-eds and is frequently quoted in the media. She served as director of MPI’s Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, a bipartisan group of distinguished leaders. The group’s report and recommendations address how to harness the advantages of immigration for a 21st century economy and society.”
(Quote taken from MPI homeage here)
She says,
“The arguments for better immigration enforcement and controls are perfectly legitimate, and obviously the system as it’s operating is now is badly broken, … but by and large, anti-terrorism is a different endeavor.”
From the Washington Post article, “Little New in Obama’s Immigration Policy”
“The Bush administration drove up deportations of illegal immigrants to record numbers in recent years — to 358,000 in 2008 — partly by rounding up ordinary workers, while the portion of those deported who were criminals fell.
But Obama’s vow to focus on employers, smuggling networks, and criminals or illegal immigrants who repeatedly violate the law means he is taking on the groups that are harder and costlier to catch. And that means the overall number of deportations could fall, which could be seen as backsliding.
Deporting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes is not the only important part of our overall immigration enforcement strategy,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), senior-ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, who warned that a decreased emphasis on deporting noncriminals would amount to a “de facto amnesty” for illegal immigrants already here and encourage more illegal immigration. “Having to choose between criminal aliens and other illegal immigrants is a false choice. The administration can and should do both.”
Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute who has been an influential voice among Obama advisers, said she faced similar choices as head of Immigration and Naturalization Services during the Clinton administration.
“There’s a tension between quality and quantity, and it may very well be that in order to get more criminals or cases involving dangerous people, it may actually mean that you’re handling less cases,” Meissner said. “And then that simply has to be explained.”
4 Apr
“Seven Reasons to Push for Immigration Reform this Year”
Written by Marshall Fitz, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Full article here
The American public wants its leaders to quit playing politics and to step up and solve tough problems. Immigration reform provides a perfect opportunity to deliver.
Support for comprehensive immigration reform is broad, deep, and bipartisan. Polls conducted by Benenson Strategy Group in June and December 2009 showed that two-thirds of voters supported comprehensive immigration reform, including 69 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Independents, and 62 percent of Republicans. And these numbers jump even higher to 87 percent when the proposal is explained—support for strengthening the border, cracking down on lawbreaking employers, and requiring undocumented immigrants to register, pay taxes, and earn citizenship.
The American public wants realistic solutions on immigration. More than two-third of respondents chose registration over deportation in the Benenson Strategy Group survey, which is completely consistent with sustained public opinion research over the last several years. The survey gave respondents a choice between deporting undocumented immigrants because they are “taking jobs” and requiring undocumented immigrants to become legal taxpayers.
Fixing our immigration system will promote economic growth and stability. Americans are focused on pulling ourselves out of this economic crisis, and measures that distract from that objective will not succeed. Immigration reform, however, will add a cumulative $1.5 trillion to the GDP over 10 years by lifting the wage floor for all workers.
Voters will not support politicians who fail to deliver on their promises. President Obama and other congressional leaders have vowed to tackle immigration reform this year. Politicians who talk a good game during the campaign season but fail to act when in charge will get punished at the polls by low turnout or anti-incumbent anger.
Comprehensive immigration reform is backed by business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities who recognize its importance to keeping our communities productive and safe, ensuring fairness to workers and employers, and upholding family and community values. More than 700 organizations in almost 40 states are mobilized and will hold their leaders accountable.
Reform cannot wait. A legislative stalemate means a deteriorating status quo where unscrupulous employers win, communities live in fear, hard working families suffer, and Americans taxpayers get short shrift.
