The Minutemen Collapse

15-Minutes Are Up: National Minuteman Border Group Disbands
By Billie Greenwood, AllVoices.com
Posted on March 28, 2010, Printed on March 29, 2010

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps announced Thursday that it will disband after a five-year run. Carmen Mercer, the group's president, made the announcement only days after circulating a new call to action to its members to come to the border "locked, loaded and ready."

The group has struggled through leadership conflicts, financial mismanagement battles, and failed political campaigns over the years. This recent action reflects a split in the organization over accelerating liability threats due to its membership base which is difficult to control, increasingly hostile and aggressive.

Border Action Network, an Arizona human rights organization that works on the border is not surprised by the recent news. "There has been a growing disconnect from the national and the local Minutemen chapters," explains Jennifer Allen, the group's Executive Director.

"The national was getting absorbed into the political fights with candidates and lobbying while the local groups continue to attract fringe extremists that are attracted to the paramilitary culture and hate groups."

The Border Action Network notes the local groups' increasingly aggressive and hostile membership base. In one incident of alleged aggressive membership behavior, Washington State Minutemen chapter members, Shawna Forde and Jason Bush, are charged with murdering a Latino father and daughter in rural Arivaca, AZ in June 2009. They are expected to go on trial later this year.

The Border Action Network has documented repeated incidents of Minutemen and other vigilante groups abusing immigrants over the years. In a case they filed in 2005 with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, they relate that many of the one thousand individuals who were detained by vigilante groups and individuals reported were shot at, kicked, dragged, and, in other ways, physically and verbally abused.

Their case charges the U.S. government with human rights violations for failing to prosecute Minutemen and other vigilante groups. "We expect the case to be heard by the Commission later this year," explains Allen.

Allen continued, "The fundamental problem is that the U.S., at all levels, has turned a blind-eye to the growth of fringe, hate groups. The consequences have been deadly."

Ironically, Allen does not expect to see the human rights situation improve with the Minutemen's disbanding. Rather, she predicts an increase in violence by vigilante groups as a result of the restructuring.

"Without the U.S. officials stepping up or their own [Minuteman] national group attempting to keep the local radical organizations in check, we can expect to see more assaults on immigrants and those that live in the border region."


This Minutemen recruiting video was posted earlier this week on YouTube, only two days before the news of the group's disbanding was announced by Carmen Mercer, the group's president.

Billie Greenwood, an advocate, writer, and retired educator who lives in El Paso, TX, blogs at Border Explorer and reports for AllVoices.com.

© 2010 AllVoices.com All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/146202/

ICE officials set quotas to deport more illegal immigrants

The Agency goal is to remove 400,000 criminal alien...

By Spencer S. Hsu and Andrew Becker

Seeking to reverse a steep drop in deportations, U.S. immigration authorities have set controversial new quotas for agents. At the same time, officials have stepped back from an Obama administration commitment to focus enforcement efforts primarily on illegal immigrants who are dangerous or have violent criminal backgrounds.

The moves, outlined in internal documents and a recent e-mail by a senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official to field directors nationwide, differ from pledges by ICE chief John T. Morton and his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to focus enforcement on the most dangerous illegal immigrants. That approach represented a break from the mass factory raids and neighborhood sweeps the Bush administration used to drive up arrests.

In a Feb. 22 memo, James M. Chaparro, head of ICE detention and removal operations, wrote that, despite record deportations of criminals, the overall number of removals was down. While ICE was on pace to achieve "the Agency goal of 150,000 criminal alien removals" for the year ending Sept. 30, total deportations were set to barely top 310,000, "well under the Agency's goal of 400,000," and nearly 20 percent behind last year's total of 387,000, he wrote.

Beyond stating ICE enforcement goals in unusually explicit terms, Chaparro laid out how the agency would pump up the numbers: by increasing detention space to hold more illegal immigrants while they await deportation proceedings; by sweeping prisons and jails to find more candidates for deportation and offering early release to those willing to go quickly; and, most controversially, with a "surge" in efforts to catch illegal immigrants whose only violation was lying on immigration or visa applications or reentering the United States after being deported.

"These efforts must be sustained and will be closely monitored," Chaparro told field directors in the e-mail, which was obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and The Washington Post.

ICE spokesman Brian P. Hale distanced the agency from Chaparro's remarks, saying, "Portions of the memo were inconsistent with ICE, inconsistent with the administration's point of view and inconsistent with the secretary." He added that the agency has moved to "clarify" the situation.

Chaparro issued a new memo Friday stating that his earlier e-mail "signals no shift in the important steps we have taken to date to focus our priorities on the smart and effective enforcement of immigration laws, prioritizing dangerous criminal aliens . . . while also adhering to Congressional mandates to maintain an average daily [detention] population and meet annual performance measures."

In the new memo, Chaparro did not alter or rescind any of the strategies he had laid out.

An immigration official said deportations are falling mainly because the focus on criminals has added a complication: It takes an average of 45 days to deport criminals, compared with 11 days for non-criminals, creating a shortage of detention beds. The number of beds was also limited because costs were higher than Congress expected, the official said.

Deportations of convicted criminals climbed 19 percent in 2009 and are on pace to climb 40 percent this year, while deportations of non-criminal illegal immigrants fell 3 percent and are on pace to drop 33 percent this year, agency officials said.

Advocates on the right and left pounced on the memo and other ICE documents, saying they showed that the agency is being neither tough nor consistent in targeting the worst offenders.

"We cannot allow a preoccupation with criminal aliens to obscure other critical ICE missions," Rep. Harold Rogers (Ky.), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee for homeland security, said in a statement released by his office. "At best, it appears as though immigration enforcement is being shelved and the Administration is attempting to enact some sort of selective amnesty under the cover of 'prioritization.' "

Joan Friedland, immigration policy director at the National Immigration Law Center, countered that quotas will encourage agents to target easy cases, not the ones who pose the greatest safety risk.

"For ICE leadership, it's not about keeping the community safe. It's all about chasing this 400,000 number," said Chris Crane, spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 118, which represents ICE workers.

Since November, ICE field offices in Northern California, Dallas and Chicago have issued new evaluation standards and work plans for enforcement agents who remove illegal immigrants from jails and prisons. In some cases, for example, the field offices are requiring that agents process an average of 40 to 60 cases a month to earn "excellent" ratings.

Such standards present a problem, said one San Francisco area agent who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal. Instead of taking a day to prepare a case against a legal resident with multiple convictions for serious crimes, agents may choose to process a drunk driver or nonviolent offender who agrees to leave the country voluntarily, because it will take only hours.

The steps appear at odds with a statement made by Morton in August, when he told reporters ICE had ended quotas in a program to capture illegal immigrants violating court deportation orders.

"I just don't think that a law enforcement program should be based on a hard number that must be met," Morton said. "So we don't have quotas anymore."

Under the Bush administration, ICE officials in 2006 increased an annual quota from 125 to 1,000 arrests for each fugitive operations team. At the same time, the agency dropped its policy that agents focus on criminals and deportation violators.

Becker is a staff reporter for the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, Calif.

Escondido HS kids March for immigration reform 3/19/10

Kids from Escondido High School March for Immigration reform 3/19/10. An absolut honor to march with those Kids. We marched from A fast food restaurant next to their HS to City Hall.

See also the Undocumented Students Network




Miles exigen a Barack Obama en Los Ángeles cumplir su promesa de reforma migratoria

Los Angeles, 27 de marzo. Miles de personas, mayoritariamente latinoamericanos, se reunieron hoy durante la mañana en el centro de Los Angeles para exigir la reforma migratoria que prometió durante la pasada campaña electoral presidencial en Estados Unidos el entonces candidato Barack Obama.

Nuestra comunidad seguirá movilizándose para lograr una reforma migratoria lo antes posible, dijo Angélica Salas, directora de la Coalición por Derechos Humanos de los Inmigrantes de Los Angeles, una de las organizaciones que promovió la movilización de este sábado.

No puede ser que el problema de los trabajadores y las familias inmigrantes no sea tratado como una prioridad en nuestro país, agregó la activista.

Con pancartas en español e inglés, los manifestantes reclamaron Legalización y Derechos para todo por igual, tal como sucedió en años anteriores pero sin alcanzar a repetir la hazaña de marzo de 2006, cuando la comunidad latina en Los Angeles convocó cerca de un millón de personas en las calles.

Llamamos a los líderes del país a tomar en serio la situación por la que pasamos miles de trabajadores en Estados Unidos, que pagamos impuestos y vivimos sin derechos, dijo María, una señora de 40 años que no quiso dar su apellido y que tiene 15 años como indocumentada en California.

Unas 4 mil personas se concentraron en el punto de partida de la marcha, y aunque poco después llegaron más manifestantes, algunos activistas cifraron la multitud en poco menos de 10 mil.

La policía de Los Angeles señaló que no estaba autorizada a dar una estimación de la multitud.

El domingo pasado decenas de miles de personas marcharon frente a la Casa Blanca y al Congreso en Washington, también para exigir un cambio de las leyes migratorias, pero ocurrió justo el día en que la atención de Estados Unidos se fijaba en la reforma del sistema de salud pública.

En la marcha, convocada por organizaciones hispanas, religiosas y sindicales, al igual que en Los Angeles, las personas ondearon banderas de Estados Unidos junto a las de países de América Latina, de donde provienen la mayor cantidad de los 11 millones de inmigrantes indocumentados que viven en Estados Unidos.



Excluye reforma de salud a 11 millones de indocumentados



La ley de reforma al sistema de salud promulgada este Martes por el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, excluyó a unos 11 millones de inmigrantes indocumentados, alertaron grupos de activistas.

Los indocumentados no podrán comprar con su propio dinero planes privados de salud que participen en un programa de intercambio administrado por el gobierno para abaratar los costos, dijeron las fuentes.

La norma mantiene el requisito de espera de cinco años para que los inmigrantes legales de bajos ingresos accedan a servicios públicos de salud, al cual solamente pueden calificar mujeres embarazadas y niños con residencia legal en el país.

Legisladores hispanos y organizaciones como el Consejo Nacional de La Raza (NCLR) y la Liga de Ciudadanos Latinoamericanos Unidos (LULAC) apoyaron con reservas el proyecto de ley que aprobó el domingo la Cámara de Representantes. La iniciativa había sido aprobado antes por el Senado.

LULAC dijo que seguirá buscando que se eliminen los cinco años de espera para que inmigrantes legales accedan al programa Medicaid para familias pobres y que los indocumentados puedan comprar seguros médicos privados del programa de intercambio.

Pidió asimismo la reducción de las “barreras de identificación” para acceder al sistema de intercambio y que el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico reciba recursos de salud del Medicaid y otros programas federales al mismo nivel que el resto de los 50 estados.

“Tenemos serias preocupaciones de que la ley de salud continúe tratando injustamente a muchas familias inmigrantes y latinas”, sostuvo el director de LULAC, Brent Wilkes.Indicó que la histórica legislación beneficiará a casi 9 millones de latinos sin cobertura médica, dará mayores fondos del Medicaid a Puerto Rico y asigna 11 mil millones de dólares a clínicas comunitarias que no piden papeles a los pacientes.

La presidenta del NCLR, Janet Murguía, pidió al Senado que ratifique un proyecto de reconciliación aprobado por la cámara baja para proteger el acceso a servicios de salud a inmigrantes legales de bajos ingresos y residentes de Puerto Rico.

Los demócratas de la Cámara de Representantes, sin el apoyo republicano, aprobaron el domingo el proyecto de ley de salud del Senado, que contiene límites al acceso de inmigrantes a servicios médicos, el cual fue promulgado por Obama.

Un paquete extra de “arreglos” o enmiendas a la nueva ley fue aprobado esa misma noche para conseguir el voto de demócratas disconformes, que el Senado debe aprobar por mayoría simple, pero los republicanos prometieron que buscarán impedirlo.

El legislador demócrata Luis Gutiérrez dijo que avaló el proyecto pese a que excluye a indocumentados de la compra de seguros médicos con su dinero en un programa de intercambio, lo que juzgó “contrario a la salud pública y a la justicia”.

Indicó, sin embargo, que luego de numerosas conversaciones con Obama, “confío que él entiende que los gérmenes no responden a las fronteras, los gérmenes responden a la medicina y al buen cuidado preventivo”.

“Creo que él (Obama) coincide que para que funcione una reforma de salud, necesitamos aprobar una reforma migratoria integral para asegurar que todos tengan acceso a la cobertura y la atención preventiva”, enfatizó.

Señaló que la marcha el domingo en Washington por la legalización de indocumentados probó que es tiempo de una reforma que elimine “la injusticia de nuestras leyes de inmigración” que dividen a familias y permiten la explotación laboral.

Debate about Immigration Reform

WE NEED A BETTER ALTERNATIVE

By David Bacon,TruthOut, 3/22/10

http://www.truthout.org/we-need-a-better-alternative57871

OAKLAND, CA (3/19/09) - Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham announced Thursday their plan for immigration reform. Unfortunately, it is a retread, recycling the same bad ideas that led to the defeat of reform efforts over the last five years. In some ways, their proposal is even worse.

Schumer and Graham dramatize the lack of new ideas among Washington powerbrokers. Real immigration reform requires a real alternative. We need a different framework that embodies the goals of immigrants and working people, not the political calculations of a reluctant Congress.

What's wrong with the Schumer/Graham proposal?

1. It ignores trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA, which produce profits for U.S. corporations, but increase poverty in Mexico and Central America. Since NAFTA went into effect, income in Mexico dropped, while millions of workers lost jobs and farmers their land. As a result, six million Mexicans had to leave home and migrate north, looking for work.

If we do not change U.S. trade policy, millions of displaced people will continue to come, no matter how many walls we build.

2. People working without papers will be fired and even imprisoned under their proposal, and raids will increase. Vulnerability makes it harder for people to defend their rights, organize unions and raise wages. That keeps the price of immigrant labor low. Every worker will have to show a national ID card, (an idea too extreme even for the Bush administration). A problematic ID would mean getting fired, and maybe jailed.

This will not stop people from coming to the U.S. But it will produce more immigration raids, firings, and a much larger detention system. Last year over 350,000 people went through privately-run prisons for undocumented immigrants. That number will go up.

3. Schumer and Graham treat the flow of people coming north as a labor supply for employers. They propose new guest worker programs, where workers would have few rights, and no leverage to organize for better conditions. Current programs are already called "Close to Slavery" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

4. Schumer and Graham's legalization scheme imposes barriers making ineligible many of the 12 million people who need legal status. Their idea for "going to the back of the line" would have people wait many years for it.

Getting in the back of the line is like having to sit in the back of the bus. In 1986, even President Reagan, hardly a liberal, signed a plan in which people gained legal status quickly and easily. Many are now citizens and vote, run for office, lead our unions, teach in our schools, and have made great contributions to our country.

Schumer and Graham treat legalization as a carrot, to force acceptance of a program in which the main beneficiaries are large corporations, not immigrants, nor other workers.

Instead, we need reform that unites people and protects everyone's rights and jobs, immigrant and non-immigrant alike. We need to use our ideals of rights and equality to guide us.

For several years, immigrant rights groups, community organizations and unions have called for reform based on those ideals. It's time to put those ideas into a bill that can bring our country together, not divide it.

A human rights immigration bill would:

1. Stop trade agreements that create poverty and forced migration.

2. Give people a quick and easy path to legal status and citizenship.

3. End the visa backlogs, so there's no "get in the back" line.

4. Protect the right of all workers in their jobs - against discrimination, or getting fired for demanding rights or for not having papers.

5. Bring civil rights and peace to border communities.

6. Dismantle the immigration prisons, end detention, and stop the raids.

7. Allow people to come to the U.S. with green cards - visas that afford people rights, that are not tied to employment and recruitment by labor brokers.

8. Use reasonable legalization fees to finance job programs in communities with high unemployment.

9. End guest worker programs.

Those who say no alternative is possible might remember the "go slow" advice given to young students going to jail in the South in the early 60s. If they'd heeded it, we'd still be waiting for a Voting Rights Act.

Dr. King, Rosa Parks, the students in SNCC, and Chicano civil rights leaders like Cesar Chavez, Bert Corona, Dolores Huerta and Ernesto Galarza, asked the country a simple question: Do we believe in equality or not?

That's still the choice.

Reforma migratoria integral, el grito de miles en Washington

[English version below]
Obama se compromete, en un videomensaje, a forjar un consenso bipartidista este año
Trabajadores, líderes sindicales, del clero y defensores de indocumentados colman el Mall
Los inmigrantes nutren este país con su trabajo y por ello ya son ciudadanos: Jesse Jackson
Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo y Martín Esparza, entre los manifestantes

Picture: Procedentes de Dallas, Illinois, Oregon, Carolina del Norte, Georgia, Arizona, California y otros puntos estadunidenses, miles de trabajadores indocumentados exigieron ayer en Washington una reforma migratoria integral, prometida por Barack Obama durante su campañaFoto Ap


Washington, 21 de marzo. La primavera llegó este año aquí con el grito bilingüe de sí se puede de decenas de miles de inmigrantes y sus defensores para demandar al presidente Barack Obama y a los líderes legislativos que cumplan con su promesa de impulsar una reforma migratoria integral.

En lo que fue la primera manifestación masiva de las bases que ayudaron a Obama a llegar a la Casa Blanca, más de 100 mil (los organizadores calcularon 200 mil) inmigrantes y sus defensores llegaron de unos 35 estados de la unión para inundar el Mall –enorme parque central frente al Capitolio–, con el objetivo de presionar a la cúpula política de este país a promover una reforma migratoria integral este año.

Obama, en una maniobra de última hora, transmitió un videomensaje a la enorme concentración, donde recordó que él mismo se había sumado a una marcha y manifestación con la misma demanda hace cuatro años en Chicago, y reiteró que nunca ha abandonado su compromiso de reformar un sistema migratorio descompuesto. Agregó que una reforma es crítica para la seguridad y la prosperidad del país, y se comprometió a hacer todo lo que esté en mi poder para forjar un consenso bipartidista al respecto este año, lo cual le valió una ovación y elogios de los congregados.

Sin embargo, muchos reconocieron que el presidente no se comprometió a impulsar una ley de reforma este año, y ante las condiciones económicas del país, más la dinámica política de un año de elecciones legislativas intermedias, todos saben que con cada día que pasa se reducen las perspectivas de lograr una reforma integral en 2010.

Las palabras son bonitas, pero se las lleva el viento. Queremos acciones, exigió María Rodríguez, dirigente de la Florida Immigrant Coalition, desde el podio poco después del mensaje de Obama.

En demanda de acciones, y no de palabras, que unas 400 personas viajaron 20 horas en autobús desde Dallas, y otros cientos más de lugares tan lejanos como Oregon. Decenas de autobuses llegaron desde Nueva York, Carolina del Norte, Illinois, Georgia, Arizona, California y más. No bla, bla, bla. Queremos la reforma ya, coreaba un contingente.

Por otros lados se escuchaban coros de Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha y Queremos amnistía para tu tía, y amnistía para la mía. Pasaban mantas en las que se leía: ningún ser humano es ilegal y educación sí, deportación no junto a las siempre presentes imágenes de la Virgen de Guadalupe.

Los grandes protagonistas de este día fueron los trabajadores inmigrantes y sus familias, aunque en el podio se turnaban una infinita lista de políticos, líderes sindicales, del clero y profesionales de las agrupaciones latinas y de derechos inmigrantes de Washington que tras casi cuatro horas de discursos lograron agotar al mosaico que representa el futuro de este país. Sin embargo, la presencia del cardenal Roger Mahoney, de la Conferencia de Obispos de Estados Unidos, con varios presidentes nacionales de sindicatos, líderes de las principales organizaciones latinas como LULAC, Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, Consejo Nacional de la Raza, Alianza Nacional de Comunidades Latinoamericanas y Caribeñas y NALEO, y diversas comunitarias, y por primera vez, de organizaciones como MoveOn.org (con cinco millones de miembros), fue muestra de la existencia de una coalición amplia, como pocas, en torno a una demanda política. Por ello Obama envió su mensaje y por ello varios legisladores federales acudieron al acto.

El representante federal Luis Gutiérrez demandó acción de la cúpula política al hablar ante los manifestantes (fue el primero en proponer esta movilización). En declaraciones a la prensa y a preguntas sobre si será posible lograr una reforma este año, dijo: si el proceso legislativo no rinde fruto, nosotros tendremos que salir a las calles.
Además de la infinita variedad de organizaciones migrantes de todas las esquinas del país –la abrumadora mayoría latinoamericanos, y de ellos gran parte mexicanos, pero también coreanos, irlandeses y más–, fue notable la presencia de organizaciones y líderes afroestadunidenses en esta ocasión.

El reverendo Jesse Jackson, en declaraciones al inicio de una marcha que se sumaría a la gran concentración y después con periodistas, enfatizó que somos la coalición del pueblo, somos la coalición del futuro, al hablar de la alianza entre afroestadunidenses e inmigrantes. Subrayó que los inmigrantes nutren este país con su trabajo, y que por ello ya son ciudadanos, y es obligación del gobierno reconocerlo.

El cardenal Mahoney, quien habló en inglés y en español, denunció la continuación de redadas contra inmigrantes y dijo que los niños quedan separados de sus padres. Por ello, esta manifestación obliga a los líderes de Washington a escuchar las historias cotidianas de los inmigrantes, y afirmó que no cesaremos de defender los derechos de los inmigrantes.

La amplia gama de fuerzas y personalidades también ofreció mezclas sorpresivas. En el podio coincidieron, junto a dirigentes latinos, sindicales y religiosos, figuras como Lucía Méndez, Eddie el Piolín Sotelo, Juan Hernández, ex consejero de Vicente Fox y después asesor de la candidatura presidencial de John McCain, y el representante Lincoln Díaz Balart.

Y entre quienes acompañaron a los manifestantes estuvieron políticos y dirigentes mexicanos, entre ellos el ex gobernador de Michoacán Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, quien fue repetidamente saludado por paisanos – yo soy de Apatzingán, y mi hijo tiene corazón de Michoacán, pero nació aquí, le comentó una mujer.

Dirigentes del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, entre ellos su secretario general Martín Esparza, asistieron a la marcha. Viajaron a Washington para hacer una visita a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y para dialogar con representantes de la Organización de Estados Americanos, así como con contrapartes sindicales estadunidenses. Esparza declaró a La Jornada que estaba en esta manifestación de trabajadores inmigrantes porque la lucha obrera no tiene fronteras; la lucha aquí es la misma que en México.

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo también andaba en la marcha, después de concluir una reunión interparlamentaria, recordando su trabajo en el asunto migratorio desde hace décadas.

Todo concluyó, por fin, con un poco de música: la banda texana Los Lonely Boys, ganadora del Grammy, cerró con un rock para reanimar y dar fuerza a quienes ahora vuelven a todas las esquinas del país, muchos ya decididos a regresar a las calles para demandar justicia. Unas playeras lo afirmaban: indocumentado, pero sin miedo.

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Thousands marched to demand immigration reform


By Ilana E. Strauss

Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

Marchers walk to the National Mall on Sunday, waving signs to demand immigration reform. SHFWire photo by Ilana Strauss

WASHINGTON

- ¡Sí se puede! ¡Sí se puede!

This Spanish chant, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” flooded the National Mall from all directions Sunday as thousands marched to demand immigration reform.

People from around the country traveled by bus to demand reform from President Barack Obama and Congress. They chanted, waved signs and beat drums.

Speakers, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., encouraged the protesters.

“We’ve been waiting for this for 20 years,” said Manuel Guerra Casas, 26, spokesman for the Florida group Students for Equal Rights. “I feel strongly in my heart there’s going to be change.”

Juan Jose Gutierrez, 49, coordinator of the Los Angeles Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, said immigrants ought to be treated fairly. He is not related to the congressman.

“They have the obligations we all have as citizens,” Gutierrez said, noting that undocumented immigrants work and pay taxes.

Unlike citizens, they are “persecuted, arrested … treated like criminals,” Gutierrez said. “This is not the American way of doing things.”

Casas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, lives in Martin County, Fla., and traveled to Washington with a group of protesters by bus.

“I feel like I’m being a part of history,” Casas said.

He climbed over mountains for six days and nearly starved to cross into Texas in 2000. He attended high school in the U.S. and wanted to become a priest. But undocumented men weren’t permitted to enroll in the seminary. Casas has been in court procedures since 2006 trying to get a U.S. visa.

“If I don’t go, they’ll come and get me,” Casas said. “So I don’t have a choice.”

Charlotte Droogan, 67, a retired teacher from Joliet, Ill., came to Washington with her church group for the protest. She said she has first-hand experience observing the treatment of immigrants through her students.

“Every so often, I see one of their parents deported,” Droogan said. “Two weeks ago, one of the parents was stopped for having a broken taillight. Now she’s sitting in jail.”

Gutierrez said the protesters seek “fair humane and responsible” immigration reform.

“Most undocumented immigrants are impeded from realizing their full potential as workers or students,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said undocumented immigrants often graduate from high school and “run into a wall. … They can’t continue their education.”

Most protesters supported the Dream Act, which would allow undocumented students to go to college. First introduced in 2001, the bill has not come to a vote. The main aim of the protest was to encourage the government to enact comprehensive reform, something Obama promised during his campaign.

Nerida Maria, 23, an undocumented immigrant from Indiantown, Fla., traveled from Mexico to the United States at age 6.

“We had to cross the river,” Maria said. “I was scared. I cried.”

Maria graduated from high school in the U.S. and earned a full scholarship to a nearby college. But she was unable to attend because of her undocumented status.

“I’m stuck,” said Maria, who babysits.

She traveled by bus with 71 others from Indiantown to join the demonstration. She said the two-day bus ride was exciting, full of people singing, sharing their stories and their enthusiasm.

Maria said she hopes the march will bring change.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for all my life,” she said.

Morgan Guyton, 32, a youth pastor from Durham, N.C., said he teaches many Hispanic students, most of whose parents are undocumented.

“My faith brings me here,” Guyton said.

Guyton said he fears for his undocumented friends. “If they get pulled over while driving, I’ll never see them again,” he said.

Guyton said the U.S. is like an artificial gated community. Americans ignore poverty in other countries, he said.

It is as though Americans are saying, “Don’t come here and be poor,” Guyton said. “What we’ve lost is a sense of what it means to love thy neighbor.”

Gutierrez said the movement leading up to the march has been underway for years.

“Countless actions have been the building blocks of this effort,” he said, pointing to the Oct. 10 Los Angeles marches as precursors to the Washington march.

The plan for Sunday’s march came about in February, when Rep. Gutierrez met with immigration rights organizations. Juan Carlos Gutierrez attended the meeting.

“He decided we needed to make a mass mobilization in the nation’s capital,” Gutierrez said. “It came to us as a surprise.” He and a number of other activists came to Washington to organize the march. Gutierrez plans to return to California to help plan another demonstration for March 27 to urge the government and the American people to address immigration.

“We will not quit,” Gutierrez said. “We will not give up.”

Proyecto para legalizar en EU a 11 millones de indocumentados

19 de Marzo, 2010

Revelan una iniciativa bipartidista de reforma migratoria
Proponen senadores sancionar a quien emplee a personas sin papeles

De la Redacción
Periódico La Jornada
Viernes 19 de marzo de 2010, p. 39

Los senadores Charles Schumer (demócrata) y Lindsey Graham (republicano) revelaron una iniciativa bipartidista de reforma migratoria que, entre otros puntos, prevé la legalización, aunque “dura”, de 11 millones de indocumentados que residen en Estados Unidos y la creación de una tarjeta biométrica que garantizaría que los indocumentados no puedan hallar empleo.

La propuesta fue elogiada de inmediato por el presidente estadunidense Barack Obama, quien aseguró que buscará “consenso” sobre la reforma migratoria este mismo año, aunque no se comprometió a hacerla efectiva en 2010, tal como lo demandan los grupos promigrantes, que este domingo se manifestarán en Washington para exigirle al mandatario cumplir sus promesas de campaña...

ICE Secret Prisons

Detention Practices Used by U.S. Immigration Officials Questioned


First Part: Barack Obama has vowed this week to overhaul the American immigration system. And with half a million people entering the U.S illegally every year, the number being deported is growing. And there is criticism that officials dealing with the issue often resort to questionable methods, as RT's Cedric Moon reports.

Undocumented Immigrants May Be Loocked Up in Cruel Conditions Across America

Second Part: RT is continuing its investigation into claims illegal immigrants are being held in secret detention centres across America in inhumane conditions. In the second of his special reports, Cedric Moon tries to gain access to one of the alleged facilities...

Enorme retraso en casos de asilo y deportación

Enfrentan creciente rezago cortes de migración en EUA
Diario de San Diego, Mar 16 2010

Las cortes de migración de Estados Unidos enfrentan el mayor rezago de casos pendientes de deportación y asilo de su historia, al sumar más de 228 mil procesos por resolver.

Un reporte de la Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), una unidad de análisis de datos de la Universidad de Syracuse, estableció que el rezago de casos de inmigración aumentó 28 por ciento en el último año y 82 por ciento en la última década.

El creciente rezago y los tiempos de espera se deben en parte en la lentitud con la que se dan los nombramientos para reponer la falta de jueces en las 55 cortes de migración existentes en el país, apuntó la TRAC.

En la actualidad, de los 239 puestos de jueces en las cortes de migración, 48 están vacantes, lo que provoca que los inmigrantes tengan que esperar un promedio de 439 días para comparecer ante un juez y ventilar su caso.

La TRAC apuntó que el promedio de espera nacional no refleja, sin embargo, la situación particular de las cortes a lo largo y ancho del país.

Citó como ejemplo que en un extremo se tienen a las cortes de migración en Los Angeles y Boston, donde los casos pendientes tienen ahora un promedio de 713 y 612 días de espera, en forma respectiva.

En el otro extremo están las cortes de Florencia, Arizona, donde el tiempo de espera es de 75 días, y la de Miami, donde llega a 82 días.

California encabeza a los estados con mayor número de casos de migración pendientes ante las cortes con 59 mil 451, el 26 por ciento del total nacional, seguido por Nueva York con 16 por ciento de los casos, y Florida y Texas con 8.0 por ciento cada uno.

Las cortes de migración atienden los casos que involucran deportación, solicitudes de asilo, reducción de fianzas y otros asuntos legales que involucran inmigrantes indocumentados.

La mayoría de los inmigrantes acusados de haber violado su condición migratoria permanecen en libertad bajo supervisión, mientras esperan su procedimiento ante la corte.

Sin embargo, en la actualidad unos 30 mil esperan en centros de detención su cita ante los jueces de migración.

Deportations Stoke Community Panic in Linda Vista

La Migra ataca Comunidad Mixteca en San Diego
Adrian Florido, Voice of San Diego, Mar 15, 2010

On March 2, Josefina Perez' partner Manuel Guzman was arrested at their Linda Vista home and deported to Mexico. Perez and the couple's three children now face an uncertain future as they await orders from immigration officials.

Indicators of the paranoia escape notice at first.

But at the meat counter at Krist Market, a short walk from the Linda Vista apartment where Manuel Guzman was arrested and deported March 2, butcher Mike Jimenez's plummeting sales last week were as sure a sign as any that this community has withdrawn.

On Friday, Jimenez signed for a delivery of just three 70-pound cases of beef. "I usually order eight boxes a week and sell them all," Jimenez said in Spanish from behind his glass case. "This week I only sold three. Nobody has come to buy meat all week. There's a fear."

Along the sidewalk in front of the market, elementary school children normally escorted home by parents are walking home alone, their parents too afraid to leave home to pick them up. Some mothers, after picking up their children, are running back home.

"They're afraid," said Juan Agustin, whose wife has left the house sparingly, except to pick their eight-year-old son up from school. They keep the shades drawn.

Fears of immigration enforcement are a constant of life in communities like Linda Vista with large undocumented populations. But since Guzman's arrest, what was once a persistent caution has turned into a pervasive paranoia keeping fearful residents indoors. Rumors of checkpoints and patrolling authorities, some unfounded, have been racing across the community

The March 2 deportation was the most recent in a string of federal arrests of undocumented immigrants that have affected the Linda Vista community.

Word of the arrest spread quickly, and since, many shaken residents of this tight-knit, largely immigrant -- and in some pockets predominantly undocumented -- community have gone into hiding. They have refused to leave home for all but necessities out of fear of being picked up by authorities.

The courtyards that anchor the World-War II era apartment tracts dominating Linda Vista -- usually bustling with evening chatter among neighbors -- have been mostly empty of activity.

And on Friday, health and wellness classes at the neighborhood's Bayside Community Center were canceled after only one person of 20 showed up, said Jorge Riquleme, the center's director.

In the early morning of March 2, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Guzman, 44, as he walked out of his Linda Vista apartment to investigate a suspicious noise. They went into his apartment where his family was sleeping, the family said, and arrested Josefina Perez, his partner of 20 years.

The couple was loaded into an unmarked van that neighborhood residents say has been spotted in the neighborhood in the days since. Guzman, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was deported to Tijuana. Perez, also undocumented, was released to look after her three children but required to wear a device that will track her movements while officials sort out her case.

Perez, 40, had been previously deported for being in the country illegally, she said. But Guzman, who made a steady but paycheck-to-paycheck living maintaining the apartment complex where the family lived, had been working legally until his work permit expired. The couple had recently paid thousands of dollars to two "notarios" -- immigration consultants who claim, often fraudulently, that they can help undocumented immigrants gain legal status -- to help with Guzman's case.

His appeal for a renewal was denied before a judge, Perez said, and may have resulted in a deportation order against him.

Lauren Mack, an ICE spokeswoman, said she could not discuss Guzman's case without his consent.

But his family does not know where he is. Sitting in her living room with her three children, her two youngest U.S. citizens, Perez said she had not heard from Guzman for several days since he called from a Tijuana migrants' shelter using a prepaid phone card.

The couple was set to be married March 20. They had recently dipped into Guzman's modest earnings for a wedding dress, which Perez had on layaway.

"And now," Perez said, through quivering lips, her 6-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl at her side, "we don't even know where he is."

It's been years, Linda Vista residents say, since the neighborhood has seen so many immigration arrests in such a short period. It started in November, with the arrest of two undocumented women who were living in an apartment where ICE officials showed up with a warrant for someone else, residents say.

Earlier this year, an undocumented man was arrested after reporting that his U.S.-born son's Social Security card had been stolen. And last month, the son of a Linda Vista man from Peru was detained while driving a friend from San Diego to Los Angeles.

Since the most recent arrest, residents say they have spotted immigration authorities staked out in business parking lots and driving down neighborhood streets.

Within Linda Vista's cohesive community of residents from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, word gets around quickly. Housing in the neighborhood, with many of the units constructed in uniform tracts set around a central courtyard, is conducive to neighborly interaction, and many families have lived in the same rental complexes for years.

Phone calls and text messages have have spread across Linda Vista's and San Diego's immigrant communities, forwarded by friends and family trying to alert loved ones of immigration authorities at local grocery stores and intersections.

Though motivated by confirmed events like Guzman's arrest, many of the messages spreading by word of mouth, text messages and radio have had a paralyzing effect on local immigrant communities, said Christian Ramirez, a staff member of the American Friends Service Committee, a local immigrant rights organization.

They may be distorting the reality of the extent of the enforcement, he said. ICE does not give warning before engaging in enforcement activities.

On Friday, Ramirez spoke to a crowd of 200 Linda Vista residents who gathered at the Bayside Community Center seeking clarity and assurance over the recent deportations in the neighborhood.

"Those rumors are injecting terror into the community," Ramirez said. "They're injecting psychoses and they're generating unnecessary panic."

Unlike her neighbors who all are undocumented, Perez said, she leaves her apartment without much fear now. She doesn't have to run to and from her children's school. The bracelet around her ankle traces her every move.

The uncertainty of her family's fate is what most weighs on her, she said.

"Are they going to deport me too?" she said. "I don't know what's going to become of us."

Please contact Adrian Florido directly at adrian.florido@voiceofsandiego.org and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/adrianflorido.

DHS tries to spin Obama's Record on Mass Deportations

DHS tries to spin Obama's Record on Mass Deportations

"In the vast majority of cases when an individual departs the United States under a grant of voluntary deportation they automatically trigger a ten-year bar. The underlying order of removal also carries with it a ten year bar. Either way the individual MUST LEAVE the United States, and may not return to the Country for ten years. So in essence they must choose between a sharp stick in the eye, or a swift kick in the gut." (See bellow)

See: Matthew Kolken on Deportation and Removal

Facing harsh criticism from immigration advocates regarding the 387,790 people that the Obama Administration has deported from the United States since he took office, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is attempting to spin a report that contains deportation numbers for Fiscal Year 2009.

The Washington Post has reported that a DHS spokesman is trying to minimize the number of individuals "deported" by President Obama by excluding individuals who have received "voluntary departure" and who have not actually been removed from the United States under an order of removal (deportation).

This is nothing more than political spin. Voluntary departure is a euphemism for voluntary deportation. Although an individual may avoid the stigma of an order of removal if they are granted voluntary deportation by attesting to their willingness to leave the United States within a set number of days (a maximum of 120 days) and by paying for their own way home to their native country, make no mistake about it, the individual MUST LEAVE the United States, and there is nothing voluntary about it.

If a person fails to depart the United States under a grant of voluntary departure the order automatically converts into an order of removal, they are subject to being taken into custody, held without bond as a flight risk, and are then forcibly removed from the United States. Moreover, if the person fails to depart the United States as required they are further barred from obtaining relief from removal should their circumstances change at some point in the future.

In the vast majority of cases when an individual departs the United States under a grant of voluntary deportation they automatically trigger a ten-year bar. The underlying order of removal also carries with it a ten year bar. Either way the individual MUST LEAVE the United States, and may not return to the Country for ten years. So in essence they must choose between a sharp stick in the eye, or a swift kick in the gut.

Do not let the Obama administration spin their record of mass deportations. Obama is deporting people in record numbers, and my inside sources have told me that a temporary unofficial moratorium on the apprehension of non-criminal aliens has been lifted by our President. As the saying goes you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Is this the change you voted for?

We Undocumented Students ARE Americans

[English version below]


Sufren estudiantes indocumentados en la región
Alexandra Mendoza, Diario San Diego San Diego, Mar 10 2010
http://www.diariosandiego.com/bin/articulos.cgi?ID=84466&q=1&s=1

El profesor William Pérez explica en su reciente publicación las limitantes que deben enfrentar miles de jóvenes sin papeles

Los problemas económicos aunado a los recortes educativos que limitan los espacios a las escuelas, afectan la experiencia universitaria de miles de jóvenes indocumentados, cuyo único propósito es culminar sus estudios en busca de un mejor futuro, así lo documenta el profesor William Pérez en su reciente publicación “Somos americanos: Estudiantes Universitarios en Busca del Sueño Americano”.

En entrevista con Diario San Diego, el doctor de la Universidad de Claremont, recalcó que en el país existen 3 millones de jóvenes indocumentados que deben lidiar con las afectaciones que esto implica, además de las limitantes económicas.

“La mayoría de estos jóvenes vienen de familias de escasos recursos, aspecto que de alguna manera les impacta su experiencia universitaria”, mencionó.

“Para los estudiantes que quieren seguir sus estudios universitarios está el problema económico, es decir, que no califican para ningún programa de ayuda por parte del Estado o de la universidad”, añadió.

Asimismo, señaló que en muchas ocasiones, esta situación lejos de impedirles, les brinda mayor motivación, y la mayoría de estos estudiantes son de lo más sobresaliente en sus universidades.

“Son de los más destacados y sobresalientes, y lamentablemente no se pueden beneficiar porque no hay leyes de migración que reconozcan sus contribuciones”.

En el caso de San Diego, por ser ciudad fronteriza, lamentó que en los alumnos, el miedo a ser deportados esté siempre presente, ya que se han registrado casos de estudiantes que son regresados a su país de origen, interrumpiendo de esta forma sus estudios.

“Para los jóvenes que viven en la frontera, sobre todo en el área de San Diego, el miedo a ser deportados es latente, aunque en otros lugares de California, los estudiantes se espantan psicológicamente aunque estén muy lejos, solamente con verlo en las noticias”, mencionó.

“En el libro tengo la historia de un joven de preparatoria que iba a jugar futbol al Parque Balboa, una vez fue deportado en sábado y en su mentalidad solamente estaba regresar al país porque el lunes tenía que presentarse a clases”, mencionó acerca de un estudiante de esta región.

Afectan recortes educativos

Mientras el Estado atraviesa una crisis en el presupuesto de educación pública, luego de los recortes propuestos por el gobernador de California, muchos jóvenes ven reducidas sus posibilidades de ingreso a las escuelas, de acuerdo a Pérez.

“Con los recortes está ocurriendo que estos jóvenes no pueden ingresar a la universidad, porque van cortando el número de espacios que limitan sus posibilidades, estos son jóvenes que no podrán asistir aunque tengan la calificación, no pueden ir porque se reducen los fondos para educación superior en el Estado y también en las escuelas”

Por otra parte, mencionó que estas decisiones no solamente tendrán consecuencias inmediatas, sino a mediano y corto plazo, ya que se está atentando contra la preparación académica de millones de personas.

“Es una tragedia tremenda, no solamente social, sino económica hacia largo plazo”, finalizó el académico.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

We ARE Americans
Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream
William Perez

Foreword by Daniel G. Solorzano
Publisher: Stylus Publishing, August 2009

Winner of the CEP Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship


About 2.4 million children and young adults under 24 years of age are undocumented. Brought by their parents to the US as minors—many before they had reached their teens—they account for about one-sixth of the total undocumented population. Illegal through no fault of their own, some 65,000 undocumented students graduate from the nation's high schools each year. They cannot get a legal job, and face enormous barriers trying to enter college to better themselves—and yet America is the only country they know and, for many, English is the only language they speak.

What future do they have? Why are we not capitalizing, as a nation, on this pool of talent that has so much to contribute? What should we be doing?

Through the inspiring stories of 16 students—from seniors in high school to graduate students—William Perez gives voice to the estimated 2.4 million undocumented students in the United States, and draws attention to their plight. These stories reveal how—despite financial hardship, the unpredictability of living with the daily threat of deportation, restrictions of all sorts, and often in the face of discrimination by their teachers—so many are not just persisting in the American educational system, but achieving academically, and moreover often participating in service to their local communities. Perez reveals what drives these young people, and the visions they have for contributing to the country they call home.

Through these stories, this book draws attention to these students’ predicament, to stimulate the debate about putting right a wrong not of their making, and to motivate more people to call for legislation, like the stalled Dream Act, that would offer undocumented students who participate in the economy and civil life a path to citizenship.

Perez goes beyond this to discuss the social and policy issues of immigration reform. He dispels myths about illegal immigrants’ supposed drain on state and federal resources, providing authoritative evidence to the contrary. He cogently makes the case—on economic, social, and constitutional and moral grounds—for more flexible policies towards undocumented immigrants. If today’s immigrants, like those of past generations, are a positive force for our society, how much truer is that where undocumented students are concerned?

Table of Contents:

PART I: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
1) Penelope: “I know for a fact my success is because of my relentless determination”;
2) Jaime: “It’s almost like I am tied down to the ground with a ball and chain because I don’t have citizenship”;
3) Jeronimo: “It’s like someone giving you a car, but not putting any gas in it”;
4) Lilia: “I want a chance to work in an office with air conditioning rather than in the fields under the hot sun”;

PART II: COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS
5) Daniella: “I’ve always had a passion for community service”;
6) Isabel: “They say you can accomplish whatever you want or set your mind to, but they don’t say that it’s just for some”;
7) Lucila: “I don’t belong here because I don’t have my papers, so it’s kind of like I’m in limbo”;
8) Paulina: “I catch the bus at 5:15 a.m., I literally sleep with my clothes on”;

PART III: UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
9) Angelica: “I think I will do something big, I just need a chance”;
10) Sasha: “You'll never get an ‘A’ in my class because you’re a dirty Mexican”;
11) Eduardo: “I’m restricted in joining clubs, participating in school events, taking on leadership roles…it’s a bit damaging in the long-run”;
12) Raul: “I am always limited in what I can do”;

PART IV: COLLEGE GRADUATES
13) Lucia: “The biggest disappointment is knowing that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel”;
14) Michael: “It’s like a wound that never heals”;
15) Julieta: “Being undocumented is really depressing”;
16) Alba: “I know I want to be a high school math teacher, but I can’t”;

PART V: DOCUMENTED COLLEGE GRADUATES
17) Jessica: “I wanted to be a public interest lawyer, the kind that helps the community”;
18) Julia: “I would really like to teach college students, be involved in the educational system”;
19) Ignacio: “I would probably be working as a truck driver…earning minimum wage”;
20) Nicole: “Working with the students who are the most underserved….That kind of work is very meaningful to me”