News (Noticias) for Michigan

The American Civil Liberties Union is filing a lawsuit on behalf of six legal immigrants living in Michigan who want to be able to get state-issued driver’s licenses.

Legal immigrants who are not permanent residents have not been able to get driver’s licenses since late last month. It’s a policy change made by Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land based on an opinion from Attorney General Mike Cox.”*

*From: http://www.mlive.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

In a move to protect thousands of Michigan jobs, state representatives Terry Brown, D-Pigeon, and John Espinoza, D-Croswell, voted Thursday for House Bill 4505, a plan to help protect Michigan workers and businesses by banning illegal immigrants from obtaining a driver’s license.”*

*From: http://www.michigansthumb.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

These aren’t ordinary students. These are parents who meet once a week to learn the language so they can help their children with their homework and practice communicating. The hour-and-a-half sessions began Jan. 15 and continue until March 13.

“I wanted to be able to communicate with my son so we can help each other out when we get stuck on a word,” said Karen Stanko, 46, of Holly, whose 14-year-old, Caleb, takes Spanish at the school.”*

*From: http://www.detnews.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

No longer isolated in pockets like southwest Detroit, the region’s Latinos are spreading, mirroring a nationwide trend of suburban growth among Hispanics.

At the same time, the Latino population inside Detroit continues to grow, albeit at a smaller rate, thanks to a steady influx of immigrants and some second-generation Latinos looking for city life.

The Latino population grew by about 4,500 people in Detroit from 2000 to 2006, a 9.5% increase, U.S. Census figures show. But in Detroit’s suburbs, it grew by nearly 23,000 people, a 32% increase. Suburban Wayne County saw a 39% increase to almost 42,000.”*

*From: http://www.freep.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Immigration Law Help, an online source of immigration news and assistance, is available for anyone who has questions regarding a new driver’s license policy going into effect in Michigan on Tuesday. When the policy goes into effect, illegal immigrants will no longer be able to get drivers’ licenses in the state.

The Michigan immigration law will require more information for drivers to become licensed, and some legal immigrants who are not permanent residents will also be denied licenses unless the state law is changed. The new immigration law applies to first-time applicants for Michigan drivers’ licenses or identification cards. Applicants will need to provide a Social Security number and proof of their permanent legal residency in the state. This could include a birth certificate, passport or billing statements featuring name and address.

Driver’s licenses have been hot immigration news for a while, especially with the upcoming presidential election. The ongoing debate on this issue has left many people confused about what immigration information is accurate, and what is false. Immigration Law Help is available to answer questions and squash misconceptions about any aspect of the current immigration law.

For more information, visit www.immigrationlawhelp.info.”*

*From: http://www.prweb.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Illegal immigrants no longer will be able to get Michigan driver’s licenses starting Tuesday under a policy that requires more documentation to get behind the wheel.

Some who legally are in Michigan but not permanent residents also will be denied licenses unless state law is changed. Legislation to allow those on temporary work or student visas to get licenses is pending in the state Legislature.”*

*From: http://www.businessweek.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Officers and agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team gather in unmarked SUVs, drive past their targeted dwellings and look for evidence of someone home.

The goal is to “identify, locate, apprehend, process and remove fugitive aliens from the United States with the highest priority on criminally convicted fugitives,” said spokesman Gregory Palmore.

This is the Detroit team, one of 75 in nation. Its members have the highest success rate, Palmore said.”*

*From: http://www.mlive.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Michigan will no longer let illegal immigrants get driver’s licenses, a practice just seven other states continue to allow.

Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, who oversees the motor vehicle department, announced the new policy Monday and said it takes effect Tuesday.

The new policy also prohibits people who are legal but not permanent U.S. residents from getting licenses. Legislation to allow those on temporary work or student visas to get licenses is pending in the Legislature.”*

*From: http://ap.google.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Michigan’s top migrant farm worker advocate will step down from her state post effective Feb. 8.

Martha Gonzalez-Cortes has accepted the position of chief executive officer of the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan in Grand Rapids. Gonzalez-Cortes served as director of the Hispanic Center for several years prior to being hired by the state.

In her resignation letter to the state, Gonzalez-Cortes cited a desire to work closer to West Michigan where her husband and their two young daughters live. For the past five years, Gonzalez-Cortes has commuted from Grand Rapids to Lansing every day.”*

*From: http://www.mlive.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Many among the crowd stretched their cell phones and digital cameras toward the stage, in hopes of capturing the guest of honor’s grand entrance. They waited restlessly through the emcee’s bilingual announcements, the monsignor’s blessing and the introductory remarks by a Tigers official.

The anticipation reached a crescendo with a chant that echoed off the old pillars and timeworn tile.”*

*From: http://www.freep.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

His mother, Arleen Rodriguez, told the Charleston Daily Mail her teenage grandson received a death threat and found other harassing notes taped to his locker at East Fairmont High School. Arleen said her 12-year-old granddaughter had to be escorted to classes.

Mountaineer fans furious over Rodriguez’s Dec. 16 decision to accept the coaching job at Michigan also vandalized his home near Morgantown, hanging signs on a fence and tossing a mailbox in the yard.”*

*From: http://www.news-leader.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

The dream had been alive for years, but the idea of erecting a multimillion-dollar building for St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church was out of reach.

So Carlos Gutierrez considers the Diocese of Grand Rapids’ recent purchase of a 40-year-old Christian Reformed building and parsonage for $385,000 a miracle.

“When you are a people of faith, it doesn’t cost you nothing to dream,” said Gutierrez, a church deacon. “It is a blessing. It is unbelievable.”"*

House Democrats want to make it a felony for employers to knowingly hire illegal or undocumented immigrants in Michigan.

A four-bill package would require employers to verify documents for new hires under federal rules, such as driver’s licenses, passports or Social Security cards.

Businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants could be jailed and fined – up to five years and $250,000 for repeat offenders.”*

During her first 15 years in the United States, Esther Gavia was content to live in Detroit without becoming a naturalized citizen.

But in recent months, the Mexico native has grown increasingly concerned about what she sees as a rising anti-immigrant mood. And so, she is lining up to apply for naturalization, part of a growing number of legal permanent residents across Michigan and the nation moving to become U.S. citizens.

“We’re concerned about our rights,” said Gavia, 66, who works as a janitor. “I want to be a citizen so I can change laws, vote … so I can communicate with politicians.”"*

During the Depression era of the 1930s, Mexican nationals and Hispanics from Texas had begun to migrate into the Midwest region of the United States to harvest fruit and vegetable crops.

The agricultural and industrial labor shortage that developed during World War II lured increasing numbers of Hispanics to the north. Most found work in the fields while some found employment in factories. Two of the crops harvested by migrant workers in Michigan in the 1940s were sugar beets and cucumbers. Holland, with its large Heinz pickle factory, had long been a center for cucumber production, which offered work for migrants in local fields.”*

“Michigan State University will receive $2.3 million over the next five years to help seasonal and migrant farm youths achieve their educational goals.

The U.S. Department of Education grant will enable MSU to continue to provide quality educational services to 70 eligible students each year through the university’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP). The program provides intensive academic instruction for General Educational Development (GED) preparation, support services and resources for academic and career planning to program participants.

“MSU has the only HEP program tailored to provide General Educational Development and job preparation services to the migrant and seasonal farm worker community in the Michigan, Illinois and Ohio region,” said Luis Alonzo Garcia, HEP director.

Current research indicates that agriculture, Michigan’s second largest industry, contributes $60.1 billion in direct and indirect economic activity to the state economy, Garcia said.

According to a recent study on the impact of migrant farm workers on Michigan agriculture, Michigan is the nation’s fourth largest employer of migrant farm workers in the United States.

“A large labor force is necessary to sustain the viability of this industry in Michigan,” Garcia said, “and the agricultural industry will continue to demand a large population of migrant farm workers.

Education of the migrant farm worker population is needed to break the continuous cycle of migrants who work to keep their families out of poverty, he said. Young people face barriers including cultural differences, limited English proficiency, the need for financial assistance and the lack of access to role models for education or careers.

“MSU’s HEP program focuses on the gaps and weaknesses and needs to overcome these barriers, and determines strategies and objectives to help meet the students’ educational goals,” Garcia said.

Two 12-week residential academic sessions are held each year on campus and at a commuter satellite site in Sturgis to provide academic instruction for GED preparation, support services and resources for academic and career planning to all program participants. Project graduates continue to receive referrals and support as they continue their higher education pursuits, or enter the work force or the military.

“Because of the large numbers of Latino/Hispanic citizens residing in Michigan and the difficulties associated with a lack of employment opportunities, it is essential to continue programs that further prepare this population for a competitive future by increasing graduation rates and job preparation,” Garcia said. “Michigan needs qualified, educated employees to improve its future and MSU HEP will continue to contribute to this goal.”

For more information on MSU HEP, visit www.msuhep.msu.edu.”*

“Montalvo, 35, of East Lansing has taken one of the most universal items, the T-shirt, and given it his own meaning.

The face on his T-shirts is not just any face. It’s the face of the sun god that’s the center of the Aztec calendar. The skull on his T-shirts is not just any skull. It’s the skull of the skeleton used during the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. The baller is not just a, well, you get it. It’s a Mayan ballplayer, tricked out in hot pink.

The Mayan and Aztec-inspired graphics link Montalvo, who is Mexican-American, to the legendary indigenous civilizations of Mexico. The shirts surprise with unexpected color combinations, like Day-Glo orange on top of military green. To those who love streetwear, they look hot.”*

“As part of the Hispanic Heritage Month Events in Detroit, WSDS La Explosiva 1480 AM presents the Humor Festival, featuring the show “La Chupitos,” on Sunday.

This is the first time that Liliana Arriaga, known as “La Chupitos” will be in Detroit for two exclusive shows. Arriaga is one of the most popular comedians of Mexico.”*

“Two months shy of her 18th birthday, Monica Navarro left her home in Colombia, South America, to come to the United States.

“I didn’t have any firm plans, but intuitively I knew I needed to see what else there was out there,” Navarro says about leaving her hometown of Barranquilla. “I came from a place where none of the girls I knew went beyond high school.”

“Two decades later, Maria Enriquez still is full of pride over Flint’s status as the first U.S. city to rename a street in honor of workers rights leader Cesar Chavez.

The move to rename part of Lewis Street into Cesar Chavez Drive was a divisive fight that seemed out of character for a city built on the benefits of labor movement, said former Flint resident Enriquez, who now lives in Lansing.

“There was a doctor who had tried it before and failed because we hadn’t really learned to live together and people just didn’t want to rename something after this man,” she said.”

“A Latino student group is rallying against what they call free speech violations at Michigan State University.

About 30 representatives from Chicanos y Latino Unidos (CLU), along with members of several other organizations, met for about a half hour earlier this week on the steps of MSU’s Hannah Administration Center to “challenge the university into having them take a stand about … what the difference is between freedom of speech and hate speech, fighting words and violent speech,” CLU President Gabriela Alcazar said.”

“Juvenal Linares slowly raised his fists and flexed his enormous brown biceps.

His red-eyed stare skipped defiantly among a pushing throng of expectant faces, down to the half-eaten bowl of bright green jalapeno peppers in front of him and then it rose to the sky.

“OHHHHHH!” he bellowed.”

“Michigan State University has launched the first doctoral program in Chicano/Latino Studies in the Midwest – and only the second in the nation.

The interdisciplinary graduate degree, which grew out of MSU’s undergraduate Chicano/Latino Studies program, is offered by the College of Social Science. Like many doctoral programs, it is starting small; five students are enrolled for the 2007-08 academic year.

Dionicio Valdes, program director and MSU professor of history, said the Chicano/Latino population is simultaneously the fastest-growing and least-studied major ethnic group in the United States. Hispanics are also the largest minority group at nearly 43 million people.

“This program is important for many reasons,” Valdes said. “But the biggest single reason is that it offers a much different approach to knowledge and an understanding of our increasingly complex society that academia has not yet come to terms with.”

Doctoral candidates will explore the historical and contemporary experiences of Chicanos and Latinos in social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Doctorate courses range from “Latina Feminisms” to “Globalization and Mexican Immigration to the United States.”

The University of California, Santa Barbara, offers the only other doctorate focusing specifically on Chicano studies.

Valdes said Michigan State’s relatively large number of Hispanic students and reputation for Chicano/Latino scholarship make the new doctoral program a logical fit. According to the provost’s office, 1,309 students are enrolled at MSU this fall – a 34 percent increase over 1997.

MSU also has the Cesar E. Chavez Collection, one of the nation’s largest library holdings representing the life and philosophy of the late civil rights activist and the Chicano/Latino community.

In addition, the Julian Samora Research Institute is located on campus. The institute, named after the former MSU professor and pioneer in Mexican-American studies, conducts research and projects targeting the needs of the Hispanic community in the areas of economic development, education, families and neighborhoods.

Rubén Martinez, who became the institute’s director on Sept. 1, said a deeper understanding of Chicano and Latino groups “will contribute to the betterment of the nation as a whole as it moves forward into the 21st century.”

“Previous scholarship has argued that the flow of Mexican and Latino immigrants into cities and states has coincided with their development and prosperity – both the people and the economies have benefitted,” Martinez said. “We see this in many communities in the South today, even though local institutions struggle to meet the educational and health needs of their newest community members.

“The scholarly work of doctoral students in the new program,” he added, “will enhance our understanding of these dynamics and ultimately contribute to the betterment of intergroup relations in this country.”

For more information on MSU’s doctoral program in Chicano/Latino Studies, visit www.jsri.msu.edu/cls/Philrational.htm.

For more information on the Julian Samora Research Institute, visit www.jsri.msu.edu/.

For more information on MSU’s Cesar E. Chavez Collection, visit:

“Joe Reyes’ story of starting from nothing to build a successful security business that serves as the “eyes in the sky” for MGM Grand Detroit Casino is one that couldn’t have happened without the Hispanic Business Alliance.

The 41-year-old entrepreneur started his company — Integrated Media Technologies — with a credit card, a business partner and a dream in 1998. Little did he know that connecting with the HBA would help grow his company to annual sales of nearly $5 million today.”

“The Hispanic Business Alliance (HBA) announces that 2008 Presidential Candidate, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) will address the Hispanic Business Expo and Economic Summit, as the keynote speaker of the General Motors Luncheon, on Friday, September 28, 2007. The Luncheon begins at Noon in the Renaissance Ballroom of the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center.

Tickets for the Luncheon may be purchased by visiting www.hbaexpo.org/.

Tickets for access to the Ontario Exhibit Hall, which include access to more than 100 exhibitors and more than 15 companies seeking employees, are free. They are available at most Metro Detroit National City Bank branches.

Additionally, a limited number of tickets are available through Ticketmaster.com for an inspiring seminar by motivational speaker and contributing author of “The Secret” and the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, Jack Canfield, presented by Chrysler, which begins at 2pm on Friday, following the Luncheon.

Started in 2003, the Hispanic Business Expo and Economic Summit bring together the 400 members of the HBA with the Michigan business community for a series of dialogues on key issues, business matchmaking and high-level networking. Presenting sponsors include National City Bank, Meijer and Univision Detroit.

For more information on the Hispanic Business Expo, a booth at the Workforce Development Pavilion, HBA membership or to learn more about any Expo component, visit www.hispanicbusinessexpo.org/ or call (313) 962-6422.”