Last night, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewartpoked fun at the border “vigilante” group, the Minutemen Project. Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi shed light on the powerful misnomer that immigrants take American jobs and also highlighted the extent that extremists like the Minutemen and other restrictionists will go to protect their misinformed notion that immigration is bad for America.
Immigration has a positive effect on the local economies where immigrants live. When immigrants come they bring economic vitality and help sustain industries. The Daily Show’s guests are barking up the wrong tree when they blame immigrant workers for the situation of workers in the U.S.
This just in: “Immigrants are breathing all our American air,” or so the new anti-immigrant front group, Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), would have you believe. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s not too far off from the laundry list of anti-immigrant topics posing as economic, environmental and social justice issues on PFIR’s website.
In a recent post on Imagine2050, Center for New Community’s National Field Director Eric Ward lambastes PFIR for being yet “another addition to a growing list of anti-immigrant groups being set up under the Tanton Network to give the illusion that the anti-immigrant movement is broader than it really is.” Read the rest of this entry »
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered reviews of many operational aspects of the immigration and border security system and has even delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces. Yet while many of the Bush administration’s “attrition through enforcement” tactics are being re-evaluated and scaled-back, potential migrants in Mexico and elsewhere are expressing less interest in coming to the U.S.
This past weekend, a Houston Chroniclearticle pointed out that as “jobs in the U.S. dry up” many Mexicans “reverse course for survival” and may “never leave Mexico at all.” The article echoes research showing that undocumented immigration is driven by economics and that the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on immigration enforcement over the past two decades have done virtually nothing to dissuade undocumented immigrants from coming here when there are jobs to fill. Read the rest of this entry »
As part of his “Still Bushed!” segment, Keith Olbermann compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities to Guantanamo Bay as part of his countdown:
OLBERMANN: Number one, Gitmo Jr.-gate. Imagine the Bush government having instituted a system of near Gulags and other detention centers so vast that it can hold not a couple hundred people, but rather 400,000 foreigners and even Americans of foreign birth. They don‘t get to see lawyers. They don‘t get their detentions individually reviewed by judges. They don‘t get supposedly minimum standards of jail, cleanliness or hygiene. They don‘t get out for at least ten months. And ten months is considered lightning fast.
Some new piece of nightmare reporting by Seymour Hirsch? Some fantasy of the far left? No. These are the ICE facilities courtesy of George W. Bush.
Yesterday, the House and Senate delivered yet another signal that the political tide for immigration reform is getting stronger with their introduction of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act [Senate] and the American Dream Act [House]. The bill is a strong bipartisan effort and a sign that the muscle for comprehensive immigration reform is getting stronger on both sides of the aisle as momentum builds.
The bill would would provide a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants who entered the country more than five years ago while they were under the age of 16 and who complete two years of college or 2 years of military service. It aims at giving hard-working undocumented children who have always considered America “home” the opportunity to fix their status and contribute to our economy and their communities. According to the National Immigration Forum: Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight, President Obama appeared on “Premio Lo Nuestro,” a popular Latin music awards show which aired on the Spanish-language channel, Univision. Obama thanked the mostly Latino audience for voting in November and encouraged them to stay involved and “make your voices heard”: Read the rest of this entry »
Today, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL), along with several other Republican and Democratic Representatives introduced in both chambers the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM) Act. These bipartisan bills would allow immigrant students who are raised in the U.S. and graduate from U.S. high schools to attend college and start on a path to citizenship.
Experts are identifying today’s introduction of the DREAM Act as yet another indication that Congress is getting ready to reform our broken immigration system. More information will soon follow.
Miguel is a US citizen child who grew up in Minnesota like any other little American boy. But his parents are undocumented workers from El Salvador who worked at the Swift plant in Worthington, MN. On December 12, 2006, the plant was raided by ICE, and more than 200 workers were detained, including Miguel’s mother. Miguel returned home from second grade that day to discover that his mother and father were not there and that his two-year-old brother was left alone. For the next week, Miguel stayed home caring for his brother-with no information about what had happened to his parents. A week after the raid, Miguel’s grandmother arrived to care for her grandchildren. When Miguel returned to school, his teacher reported that this previously “happy little boy” had become “absolutely catatonic.” His performance slipped and his grades plummeted. Read the rest of this entry »
Not only are immigrants in detention “dying for decent [medical] care,” a recent report by Amnesty International blasts the federal government for violating their human rights by allowing tens of thousands of people — including U.S. citizens — to “languish” in custody for months to years without receiving hearings to determine whether their detention is warranted.
Amnesty’s Western regional office Director, Banafsheh Akhlaghi, says:
“It’s easy to lock up someone, throw away the key and then make him prove that ICE is wrong.”
Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico to discuss a wide range of issues, including immigration, trade and security. Clinton’s visit is paving the way for high-profile visits from Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, culminating with President Barack Obama’s first trip to Mexico in mid-April.
While conversations with Mexican officials will undoubtedly focus on stabilizing the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration will also be a topic of discussion when it comes to addressing border security. Border communities have been encouraged by recent comments by President Obama regarding his commitment to seeking comprehensive immigration reform this year. A broad overhaul of our immigration system is essential to alleviating much of the stress and strain on the US-Mexico border by enabling immigrants to enter the country in a legal, orderly, and safe manner rather than risking lives with smuggling networks.
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