News (Noticias) Tagged ‘immigrant rights’

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• Sunday August 24th
  • 3:30pm College Democrats Hispanic Caucus - Convention Center
• Monday August 25th
  • 10am Hispanic Caucus - Corbel Room - Colorado Convention Center
  • 1:30pm NDN - Immigration Reform and the Next Administration - The Hilton Garden Inn
  • 7pm Salute to Hispanic Caucus, Delegates & Voters Signature Hispanic event of the DNC - Grand Hyatt, Imperial Ballroom 1750 Welton Street
• Tuesday August 26th
  • 10:30am Crashing La Pachanga: Opening lines of communication - Rootscamp Open Space area on the 4th floor of the Alliance Center, located right next door to the Big Tent.
  • 11:30am Latino Leaders Luncheon Series honoring Federico Pena
  • 2pm THE HISPANIC INSTITUTE AND THE COMMON GOOD JOIN IN PRESENTING TWO MAJOR EVENTS FOR THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
• Wednesday August 27
  • 10am Hispanic Caucus - Corbel Room - Colorado Convention Center
  • 12pm NALEO to Brief DNC, RNC Convention on Latino Electorate and 2008 Voter Mobilization Efforts - DNC
  • 2pm NHLA Event - Media Matters Building 203b - 1127 Auraria Parkway
  • 7pm Latino Vote - Club Vinyl - put on by Voto Latino - Rosario Dawson will be hosting
• Thursday August 28
  • 9am Immigrant Rights March

It is impossible to ignore the recent growth of the U.S. undocumented migrant population, which has almost tripled over the space of the past fifteen years.1 According to recent estimates, the annual flow of undocumented migrants into the U.S. is on par with the number of migrants who are granted legal permanent residence.2

Given these figures, it is not surprising that concerns about controlling unauthorized migration have been at the forefront of recent debates over immigration reform. The inability of the U.S. Congress to agree on an immigration reform bill for the past two years—despite mounting public pressure—provides some indication of the complexity of this issue.3 One reason for the inaction is the political impasse created by the conflicting priorities of immigrant rights advocates, immigration control advocates, and still other factions that see immigration as a key ingredient for long term, economic growth.4″*

As the election campaign gathers steam, immigrant rights groups are paying attention to what the candidates are saying (and not saying) when it comes to immigration. In a teleconference organized by New America Media, three spokespeople from major immigrant rights groups defined their priorities for the presidential campaign and beyond.

Recent polls suggest immigration is not necessarily the number one issue for the general election, but that it is a wedge issue and one that could increase in importance as the campaign progresses. For example, it can be key in states with large Latino populations, such as Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida. Several Asian American organizations are seeking to mobilize Asian American voters in ten states (Hawaii, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington and New York).”*

The Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) and the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana join the call of other conveners, co-conveners, and endorsers to welcome you to the Third Annual National Latino Congreso. Please look at our website now at - www.latinocongreso.orgSince 2006, the National Latino Congreso has brought together Latinos from all walks of life - from grassroots community members to national elected officials - to create a united independent Latino agenda on a variety of issues.

Help us welcome Senator Barack Obama on Friday, July 18, 2008 at the Bonaventure Hotel for dinner, and engage him on the issues that are important to our community. https://latinocongreso.org/registration.php.

Join us in engaging Senator John McCain in a discussion on the war, the environment, immigration reform, the use of torture, global warming, and other issues on Friday, July 18, 2008 at the Bonaventure Hotel for lunch. https://latinocongreso.org/registration.php.

The Congreso first broke new ground in 2006 with delegates from 20 states creating a platform of 70 resolutions. In 2007, delegates from 300 endorsing organizations and individuals from 15 states passed 98 additional resolutions.

The resulting 168 resolutions, created by Congreso delegates from over 500 organizations, encompass traditional issues such as educational reform and immigrant rights as well as issues of growing concern for Latinos nationwide - public health, urban greening, foreign policy, climate change, and much more.

Make no mistake about it - the pressing and urgent task before us collectively is to register to vote millions of new Latino voters, encourage those already registered to get involved in electoral campaigns, and mobilize our collective voter strength in the millions to make use of the vote on Election Day in November.

There is a role for every member of the family. Those too young to vote or those who haven’t obtained citizenship status are important players in this campaign. They can make the difference in the mass mobilization of our community to march in the streets and march to the ballot box. This year we must move and act as one united family, and leave no one behind.

We welcome you to join MAPA or Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana and become a delegate or observer as we prepare our multiple delegations to attend and participate in all the town-hall discussions, debates, votes, and exchanges.

Join the many organizations that are conveners, co- conveners, and endorsers to the National Latino Congreso - www.latinocongreso.org.

Willie C. Velasquez Institute

League of United Latin American Citizens

Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

National Day Labor Organizing Network

Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project

National Alliance of Latin American and Carribean Communities

Hispanic Federation

Mexican American Political Association

Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana

National Hispanic Environmental Council

You and your organization can also become an endorser to the Congreso. Join us today in forging the broadest unity between Latino organizations in the United States.

Si Se Puede,

Nativo V. Lopez

National President

www.latinocongreso.org

https://latinocongreso.org/registration.php

He’s been described as Hitler and a member of the Klu Klux Klan by Hispanic critics and immigrant rights groups, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio prefers to see himself as an equal opportunities advocate. “We lock everybody up,” he says.

Arpaio, the self-styled “toughest sheriff in America” has ruled his fifedom in Arizona’s Maricopa County with a steely, zero-tolerance that has enraged human rights activists but delighted headline-writers the world over.

Demonstrations and picket lines follow his sweeps of largely Hispanic neighborhoods. He’s been criticized by mayors and the governor of Arizona.”*

As federal authorities expand immigration enforcement in California and throughout the nation, teachers, mental health professionals and immigrant rights advocates are raising concerns about the effect on children like Yesenia who are U.S. citizens.

Last month, a California congresswoman held a hearing on the raids’ consequences for children.

“The administration must take the necessary steps to ensure that these raids are conducted in a humane fashion and they are protective to kids, not harmful,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma).”*

More than a hundred demonstrators marched more than three miles from Valley High School to the UNLV Alumni Amphitheater May 23, in support of the DREAM Act – proposed legislation to grant undocumented students a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.

The demonstration, organized by UNLV’s MEChA chapter – a national Chicano student organization, along with the United Coalition for Immigrant Rights, included community supporters, UNLV students and high schoolers around the city.”*

Each day, over 30,000 people are housed within detention centers across the United States. The New York-based Detention Watch Network says that last year, over 276,000 immigrants were deported.

Deportations have increased significantly since 1996, when laws became much more punitive. A criminal charge results in jail time and guarantees deportation of non-citizen immigrants, regardless of legal status and family “*

A group of about 50 immigrant rights activists rallied in south Minneapolis Friday afternoon to protest the arrest of nearly 400 people at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa this week.

At least 390 people were detained on immigration charges at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville on Monday.”*

No one has bragging rights over the Latino vote, not yet. And after the massive immigrant rights marches of 2006, the old token “tamale politics” won’t work — if they ever did.

With Sen. Barack Obama emerging as the probable opponent to Republican Sen. John McCain, the Latino media and blogosphere have been abuzz with speculation on how the two might fare head-to-head.

Obama did poorly among Latinos against Sen. Hillary Clinton (On Super Tuesday, Latinos voted for Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin). The conventional wisdom has been that he is woefully vulnerable in this demographic. But McCain is not necessarily ideally positioned, according to Los Angeles political columnist Pilar Marrero. “*

Thousands of workers waved American flags, marched to mariachi music and rallied for labor and immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, as May Day gatherings drew light but peaceful crowds.

Turnout across Southern California and the nation was markedly lower than in the last few years, when millions of marchers in more than 100 cities hit the streets on May Day to urge a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and other reforms.”*

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students participated in the “Day Without Latinos” immigrant rights march, which took place on Milwaukee’s south side at 11 a.m. on May 1.

The march of 30,000 people, organized by Voces de la Frontera, included the help of The Progressive Students of Milwaukee and the Latino Student Union at UWM, whom organized a bus from the student union, of which 50 students attended.

“I’m excited so many student organizations were involved and more students were involved in this year’s march,” said Veronica Sotelo, Vice President of the Latino Student Union at UWM.”*

“Unfortunately, the history of the United States as popularized on TV or classrooms seems like it was made by Disney,” explains journalist Roberto Lovato, who’s written on the subject for diverse publications like The Nation, Los Angeles Times and more, and also served as executive director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), one of America’s largest immigrant rights organizations. “It’s not real. We talk a lot about the Holocaust, but we don’t talk about Native Americans. There’s no Holocaust museum for them. We don’t have an Ellis Island for the black slaves. Most of the slaves came through Sullivan’s Island, and it should be a monument, but it’s not. A sense of history is profoundly and institutionally lacking, and so you’re going to have a population that looks at this treatment of immigrants as natural.”

Such a permissive attitude toward criminalization has led to everything from the boom in the immigrant security complex, which has turned into a billion-dollar bonanza, to the tacit endorsement of militias like The Minuteman Project, whose border patrols and presence at immigrant rights protests and rallies has caused no shortage of damage and controversy.

But for every so-called Minuteman who has showed up to inflate patriotism or disrupt undocumented day laborers at work, it seems there have been many more immigration rights supporters, including groups such as The Center for Community Change, The Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, International ANSWER, Brown Berets, and many more. That imbalance mirrors the national battle over immigration criminalization; indeed, most election-year polls have shown that the public doesn’t rate immigration as a higher priority for candidates than other topics, such as the economy or the Iraq war.”*

The choir had just finished raising the roof inside St. Basil/Visitation Catholic Church in Englewood when a visitor, Mauro Piñeda, stepped up to the pulpit with an unexpected invitation.

March with us on May 1, Piñeda urged the mostly black parishioners, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.’s call in 1963 to “lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice.”

As another Immigration march is scheduled to wend through Chicago on Thursday—now an annual rite of political passion for some and traffic frustrations for others—such pleas to African-Americans represent a new experiment in the fight for immigrant rights.”*

Valley Hispanics will march for immigrant rights today in downtown Fresno for the third year in a row. But activists are divided on whether another march is the best way to push for changes in federal immigration law.

Fresno’s march is among a number of immigrant demonstrations planned nationwide in major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago. Unlike 2006, when marches drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, there’s no hot-button immigration bill this year.

But some advocates say the marches have run their course. Those advocates say immigrants should press their case more directly with federal lawmakers and the candidates running for president.”*

Activists supporting the rights of illegal immigrants have lost big in the past two elections when Arizona voters decided measures to take away in-state tuition, some social services benefits and the right to sue for punitive damages.

During the past two years, Immigrants Without Borders and other groups have urged supporters to march for immigrants’ rights. As November approaches, however, Bermudez and others are moving to a strategy that speaks to a slogan chanted during those demonstrations: Today we march; tomorrow we vote.

“There isn’t going to be any demonstrations. The voter registration drives are going on as we speak,” said Daniel Ortega, a lawyer and activist for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.”*

The Mississippi bill, SB 2988, requires employers to use an electronic system to verify immigration status, called E-Verify. It will become a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job. David Bacon is the author of “The Children of NAFTA” (University of California Press, 2004). He sits on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Committee of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition.”*

CONTACT:  Maria Archuleta, ACLU, (212) 519-7808 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union, Immigration Policy Center (IPC), National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and Low Wage Immigrant Worker (LWIW) Coalition presented new evidence today that confirms that if the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed “no match” rule goes into effect, it will result in the mass firings of U.S. citizens and other authorized workers and have a devastating impact on American businesses and the economy.

The rule, which was republished on March 26 for public comment, would unlawfully use the error-ridden Social Security Administration (SSA) database for immigration enforcement by requiring employers to fire workers who are unable to resolve discrepancies in their Social Security records.

Today was the final day the DHS accepted comments on the rule. A broad range of organizations from civil rights to business groups have submitted comments in strong opposition to the rule, including the ACLU and the LWIW Coalition.

The LWIW Coalition’s comments and a new report from the Immigration Policy Center include data from a new economic analysis commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and authored by Richard B. Belzer. Belzer, who holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University, is an expert in federal agency regulatory policies and practices. For ten years he served as an economist with the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Belzer’s analysis shows unambiguously that the proposed “no match” rule would have significant negative economic costs to employers and work-authorized immigrants.

The statements below can be attributed to the following:

Michele Waslin, Immigration Policy Center Senior Policy Analyst
“By attempting to turn the Social Security Administration ‘no match’ letters into an immigration enforcement tool, DHS will not stop the flow of undocumented immigration nor substitute for meaningful immigration reform. The new rule, however, will result in U.S. citizens and lawful residents losing their jobs, will be costly for employers, and will place additional burden on an already overworked, understaffed and under-resourced Social Security Administration. More than 165,000 lawful U.S. workers could lose their jobs because of their inability to resolve discrepancies with the SSA. The cost to employers will be at least $1 billion per year. While the ’no match’ program began as an effort to correct the SSA records so that workers could receive the benefits they earned, it will end up sending more workers into the underground cash economy where they will no longer contribute taxes to the SSA, and it will harm those hardworking Americans who can expect longer delays when applying for benefits.”

Lucas Guttentag, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Director
“Relying on the error-filled Social Security database is a recipe for disaster. The Bush administration rule will punish hardworking lawful workers, deny jobs to U.S. citizens and cause discrimination and retaliation against workers who may appear foreign or who assert their workplace rights. Rather than punishing American workers who will be the innocent victims of a fatally deficient database, the administration should abandon this rule unless it can guarantee that no American worker will lose her job.

Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice Executive Director, representing Low-Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition
“This ill-conceived rule will undermine the rights of all workers and do nothing to address the reality of some seven million vulnerable workers at work in America. We have already seen that employers, to protect themselves from liability under immigration laws, incorrectly assume that workers listed in ‘no match’ letters are undocumented and simply fire them without giving them a chance to correct their records. Other even less scrupulous employers have used no-match letters as a tool to get more cover to hire and exploit undocumented workers, and thereby undermine all workers’ rights.”


A copy of the ACLU comments is available at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/workplace/35016leg20080424.html

A copy of the LWIC comments is available at: www.lwiw.org/SSA_NM/lwiw_comments_4-24-08.pdf

The executive summary of the IPC comprehensive analysis of the SSA “no match” rule is available at: www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factcheck/IPCNoMatchRegs03-08.pdf

Belzer’s analysis is available at: www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&d=ICEB-2006-0004-0324.1

The following includes a sampling of organizations from across the country that are on record as being opposed to the DHS proposed rule:

National and Regional Organizations
ACORN
AFL-CIO
American Civil Liberties Union
American Friends Service Committee
Center for Community Change
Change to Win
Fair Immigration Reform Movement
Interfaith Worker Justice
Jobs with Justice
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
National Employment Law Project
National Immigration Law Center
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
Northwest Federation of Community Organizations
Northwest Workers’ Justice Project
South Asian Americans Leading Together
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

State and Local Organizations
California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., CA
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, CA
Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, IL
Conexión Américas, TN
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, CA
El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos, NM
El Centro, Inc, KS
Greater Boston Legal Services, MA
Hate Free Zone, WA
Idaho Community Action Network, ID
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, IL
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center, IL
Korean Resource Center, CA
La Fuente, NY
La Raza Centro Legal, CA
Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, CA
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, MA
Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, NE
North Carolina Justice Center, NC
Oregon Action, OR
Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, PA
Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network, CA
South Chicago Workers Center, IL
Sweatshop Watch, CA
Washington Community Action Network, WA
Working Hands Legal Clinic, IL
YKASEC - Empowering the Korean American Community, NY

Over the last few years, a quiet but powerful alliance in Mississippi of African-American lawmakers, immigrant rights advocates and labor unions had successfully defeated a series of punitive bills aimed at the state’s fast-growing Latino and new immigrant population.

But last month, that string of victories came to an end. Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law a bill with the most far-reaching employer sanctions in the United States. “*

National immigrant rights groups are blasting Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning’s stance against giving legal aid to illegal immigrants and are laying the groundwork for a possible lawsuit.

The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund says it is investigating the issue but stopped short of saying that it would definitely try to sue Bruning.”*

On March 27, Gov. Donald Carcieri ‘65 signed an executive order to address undocumented immigration in Rhode Island. This order will negatively impact all Rhode Islanders.

The new policy relies upon racial profiling, turns state police officers into federal agents and uses terminology that describes Rhode Island public school students born to undocumented immigrant parents in America as a “tremendous strain” on the state despite their equal status as full U.S. citizens.

In a letter delivered to Carcieri on March 31, immigrant rights groups including Immigrants United, We Can Stop the Hate Rhode Island, the Hispanic Ministerial Association and the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Coalition called the order “the biggest attack on the rights of immigrants in Rhode Island in at least a generation.” Their frustration is understandable. The order contains six provisions almost all of which will harm Rhode Island and its citizens. “*

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

With praise from Jewish, Korean and Hispanic immigrant rights activists, the Los Angeles City Council, voting 11 to 1, passed a resolution Wednesday to oppose the controversial Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act that would mandate employers to verify the immigration status of workers and require local police to enforce federal laws.

According to the opponents, major U.S. cities including San Francisco, Boston and Chicago already have expressed opposition and are considering adopting a resolution similar to the one passed in Los Angeles.
“*

*From: http://news.ncmonline.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

The mainstream press in New York went into a feeding frenzy over the Spitzergate sex scandal, but Spanish language news media provided sober and non-judgmental coverage of the sex flap, focusing instead on immigrant rights. NAM contributing editor, Marcello Ballvé reports from New York City.”*

*From: http://news.ncmonline.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish