Immigration System
It is Time for Humane Immigration Reform
originally posted by Garat Ibrahim for IMAGINE 2050 » Immigration [click here]
Mar 18th
It is time to address the United States’ broken immigration system. Through comprehensive immigration reform many in the United States could benefit. The current immigration system weakens our economy and betrays human values. For many, the American dream remains elusive because our immigration system is broken. But, although reform is needed, pushing for legislative reformisn ’t the only way we can help our local immigrant communities. The most important thing we can do is help change lives, and no change is greater than the opportunity to apply for citizenship.
Comprehensive immigration reform would level the playing field for all workers by providing crackdowns on those who are manipulating our economy. For most, living here without documents places them in danger. Some of these immigrants work long hours in jobs that most of us could not stand to do day after one day – jobs that demand manual labor in harsh working conditions.
Providing 12 million undocumented immigrants a path to legalization would end unfair job competition, lift wages and increase tax revenue, whereas deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants would cost the United States dearly.
These costs are seen when some families of deported parents, who maybe previously never received public assistance from local agencies (that already face large cuts in funding); now have to request it because of the absence of a spouse. If the deported parent would have been allowed to stay in the United States to raise and support that family both financially and emotionally, the family would be liable to have more independent success. Nobody dreams of starting a family to later have that family taken from them.
It is a proven fact that children, our future, do better when they have a strong connection with both parents. A strong bond with one’s parents has long-term community benefits.
With few days left to shape the immigration dialogue across this great country, it is time for all of us to be involved in discussions with our communities and our leaders. Let’s make humane immigration reform possible in this country.
Crosspost: Gut Check for GOP on Immigration
originally posted by Imagine 2050 Editors for IMAGINE 2050 » Immigration [click here]
Mar 13th
Robert Creamer from Huffington Post talks bi-partisan support and the choice before the GOP when it comes to immigration.
There is a quiet battle underway within the Republican Party that may soon break out into the open — and it will heavily impact whether the GOP can continue as a national political party in the decades ahead.
The conflict is over how the Party will position itself with respect to the question of immigration reform — and just as importantly — the fastest-growing demographic group in country: Hispanic Americans.
President Obama has made it clear that he is intent on fixing the broken immigration system by passing immigration reform. He would do it with a package that combines smart and effective border enforcement with a crackdown on illegal hiring and unfair labor practices, and by modernizing the legal immigration system and requiring those who are undocumented to register with the government, pass background checks, study English, pay taxes, and get in line to work towards citizenship.
That would make sure that those who are here, are in the system legally; that all workers and employers are paying their fair share of taxes; and that those immigrants who come in the future do so legally.
But, more than with most any other issue, passing immigration reform requires bipartisan support — both as a question of legislative math and politics.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been deputized by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) — himself a strong advocate of reform — to be point man on this issue for the Democratic Majority. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has worked with Schumer for months to hammer out the specifics of a bi-partisan bill.
Most of the substantive issues appear to be close to resolution. The major outstanding problem is entirely political: will other Republicans be willing to join Graham and provide support for a truly bi-partisan effort?
Read more here.
Tanton Network Uses E-verify to Terrorize Immigrant Communities
originally posted by Jill Garvey for IMAGINE 2050 » Immigration [click here]
Mar 5th
The John Tanton Network is more interested in terrorizing immigrant communities than helping employers.
Nothing else can explain its recent response to a comprehensive report on the failure of E-verify. Rather than accept the program’s failures and promote more effective ways to fix the immigration system, the network of anti-immigrant groups led by John Tanton is attacking the report and trying to discredit hard facts. The anti-immigrant trifecta of the Tanton Network – FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA – came out swinging against the report which effectively debunks their data on E-verify.
Mark Krikorian of Center for Immigration Studies said, “Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that E-Verify isn’t tight enough yet, but in a glass-half-full sense, this isn’t really bad news,” and “…we know perfectly well what the problems are, and they don’t have much to with with the E-Verify system itself.”
We do indeed know perfectly well what the problems are. The problems are anti-immigrant groups with ties to racist organizations injecting themselves into a mainstream debate and distorting data.
Here is the truth: E-verify encourages discrimination in hiring. The harder it is for employers to properly utilize the system (and it sounds nearly impossible), the more potential employees they will pass over. Don’t be surprised to one day hear reports of employers who admit to resorting to racial profiling because it was easier than E-verify. Anti-immigrant leaders like Krikorian know this. They know that applying for a job while brown is hell and E-verify just makes it worse.
Putting aside undocumented immigrants for a moment, this has serious implications for all workers of color. Think unemployment among communities of color is bad now? Just wait.
Just as the anti-immigrant movement has tried to turn landlords, local law enforcement, and ordinary citizens into the federal immigration police, so too would it like to turn employers into immigration snitches.
We can’t afford it. America is in economic trouble, and lawmakers and employers can’t afford to spend their time tracking down and reporting every single potentially undocumented immigrant. It’s a waste of precious resources and will hurt American businesses.
When anti-immigrant groups make their motives clear, when they renounce all associations with white nationalist organizations, then we can talk about E-verify. Until then, their opinions on the matter simply aren’t valid.
Cross-post: Going to the Chapel Gay Marriage, Immigration
originally posted by Imagine 2050 Editors for IMAGINE 2050 » Immigration [click here]
Feb 14th
Faren D’Abell writes in Windy City Times about the ongoing struggle of LBGT people for equal marriages and the added complication of the flawed immigration system that doesn’t allow same-sex couples to sponsor one another for residency.
In Roman times, the story goes, when military enrollment was down, ‘Claudius the Cruel’ cancelled all weddings and engagements. The Christian priest Saint Valentine secretly married couples, and for this he was murdered.
This week, on Valentine’s Day, thousands of gay couples in committed relationships will again ask their local county clerks for marriage licenses. Groups like Lambda Legal, the National Organization for Women, and Human Rights Campaign have, for years, pushed the idea that equal rights for all includes the rights of GLBT people to marry.
While the city of Chicago has been seen by many as a progressive force for GLBT people, residents like Robert Castillo feel slighted by a seeming runaround when it comes to recognition of same-sex couples. Castillo and his committed partner of 12 years, WCT’s John Pennycuff, say Chicago discriminates when it co-sponsors the Fox News Chicago Valentine’s Day Wedding on Ice promotion.
In its ninth year, Wedding on Ice searches for ‘one lucky bride and groom to marry.’ Fox viewers choose one couple from a group of three who have been pre -selected based on essays. Castillo says the requirement of a marriage certificate to participate in the contest is discriminatory. He brought his concerns to both Fox News in the Morning executive producer Neil Woulfe and James Law from the city’s office of special events. With the program this year being transferred to the Chicago Park District, Castillo says he’s had to start all over.
Outside of city publicity stunts, Castillo says he and others lose financial benefits even from groups that would otherwise be supportive of gay partnerships. ‘John and I are basically responsible for each other—responsible emotionally, physically, and financially. I don’t see that as any different from heterosexual married couples. I actually tried to have John added as a family member atBally’s . They wouldn’t do it unless John had the same last name as I did or unless we had some sort of domestic-partnership registration and the city doesn’t have one,’ he said.
The group that championed the fight in Vermont for civil unions says that domestic partnerships and civil unions are progress, but that the country needs equal marriages for gays and lesbians. ‘Marriage, in the regime we live in, is the only true equality. Civil union was a wonderful breakthrough, but nonetheless in our minds, because it sets up a separate but equal system that makes no sense, it doesn’t work,’ said Gary Buscek , executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD). He said the ’separate but equal’ stance Vermont took highlights the holes left in equality when the state recognizes a union but does not call it a marriage.
One of the holes is in immigration rights. Federal law allows American citizens, in most cases, to sponsor their spouse for immediate residency in the United States. That’s not true for gays and lesbians whose same-sex partners are not American citizens.
Continue reading by clicking here.
No Doubt About It, Glenn Beck is Racist
originally posted by Jill Garvey for IMAGINE 2050 » American Identity [click here]
Feb 6th
Remember the time Glenn Beck suggested that President Obama was burning down the country by trying to repair the immigration system? When he pretended to be the President in a skit in which he doused an actor with make-believe gasoline and lit a match? Or the time he called President Obama racist? That was idiotic and insulting. But what he did Thursday was worse. Because this time he didn’t just insult the President, he insulted all of America.
Many of us know already what an obnoxious bigot Beck is, but somehow he has managed to keep his FOX network TV show and nationally syndicated hate radio platform. What he said a few days ago should leave no doubt about it, Beck is racist.
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.
A coalition of organizations, which includes America’s Voice, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Center for New Community, Color of Change, NCLR (National Council of La Raza), Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, and Media Matters, swiftly responded by releasing the following statement:
Glenn Beck’s comments reveal the depth of his failure to grasp the true nature of America and of the American people. Ours is a nation of immigrants. Ours is a nation of proud individuals who celebrate their heritage as surely as they love the country in which they live. Ours is a nation that draws strength from its diversity, rather than rejecting it. And America is not a country that defines citizenship or patriotism based on color, or creed, or name.
In 2004, Senator Barack Obama explained that when growing up, he possessed “the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.” And he was right. It does. Mr. Beck’s inability to accept this fundamental quality of our nation — or at the very least his willingness to pander to those who reject it — should trouble us all. He owes an apology to the people of this great country.
Glenn Beck is accustomed to crossing the line; it’s his shtick – say outrageous things, cause controversy, increase ratings, collect fat paycheck from FOX and repeat. It could be described as pure greedy opportunism but for the nasty hatred present in every rant.
As Americans, we are well known for our love of low-brow entertainment à la Jerry Springer. We get a kick out of the tacky, self-inflicted humiliation of our fellow Americans. Beyond lacking taste and incurring disdain from our international friends, there’s not much wrong with it.
But there is a line to be drawn between mere crappy TV and hate-mongering. Beck is that line. He is a bully and self-appointed expert on what it is to be “American”, which, ironically, makes him decidely un-American. It’s time to tell Beck to take his inflated ego and hateful rhetoric, and shove them where the sun don’t shine.
It’s time to tell Glenn Beck to shut up.
The Disappeared In America
originally posted by James E. Johnson Jr. for IMAGINE 2050 » Immigration [click here]
Jan 25th
Across the U.S. hundreds of thousands of good people have disappeared without warning; some say it happened in the blink of an eye. No, it is not the Divine Rapture. People have disappeared because they believed in the American dream. More than 369,000 people who believed in the dream and worked toward making the dream become a reality are being held in detention facilities for following it.
Recently, there has been a focus on how our broken immigration system is turning the American dream into a nightmare for those who are working to make it their own. As the New Year approached, Jean Montrevil, who worked not just to make the dream a reality for himself and his family but also for others, was snatched up when he appeared for his regular immigration check in. Jean Montrevil is an example of the American story that is a model of redemption. The type of story that Frank Capra made movies about and for which people shed tears. Montrevil paid his debt to society, with a three year stint in prison for a conviction in 1989. Since that time Montrevil has given back to the community and the country with hard work and dedication to the American dream.
There is also the case of Nurul Alam who gave all the people that he met kindness and joy by selling fruit and giving his heart. Suddenly, Alam was gone from his usual location on Park Avenue in New York City, leaving patrons and friends to wonder what had happened to him. These are just a couple of the cases taking place in cities around the country to thousands of people who are trying to make the American dream a reality for themselves and others in this country.
Many have suffered inhumane treatment while in U. S. custody. Family separation and the jailing of children were detailed in the New Yorker article, The Lost Children. Recent reports, such as the one by Human Rights Watch, US: Immigration Detention Neglects Health, have described the lack of concern for the health of those detained. Other reports detail the inappropriate treatment of people, held by order of the U.S. government, sometimes leading to death according to a NY Times article.
The government has turned to a policy of disappearing people that have been victimized by the broken immigration system in the U.S., a broken immigration system that criminalizes thoughts of or striving for the American dream. When did we decide that it was good that America should be mentioned in the same breath as Argentina, the Soviet Union, Iran, and others where people were routinely rounded up and disappeared?
While people are calling for reform of the detention system, let us not forget it is just one of the symptoms of a broken immigration system. Let us work to develop a just and humane immigration system that meets the ideals that we value as Americans. Let us work towards the ideals and values that are looked upon as the shining example of what we want nations of the world to be.