Courage comes in many different forms. For Esmeralda a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico who faced horrific circumstances in immigration detention, it came in the form of seeking justice. Kept in a segregated cell with other transgender detainees, Esmeralda never realized that her experience in detention would match the trauma of discrimination she had faced back home. But her story is also one of hope for change.
Napolitano Says "Hands Tied?" We Don't Think So.
Published November 15, 2009 @ 02:25PM PT
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has expressed support for the DREAM Act but making excuses for inaction does nothing for her credibility. When asked about the plight of undocumented students in an interview with Think Progress, Napolitano backed away from immediate solutions:
"This illustrates again, why we need immigration reform. And the DREAM Act should be part of any bill that comes out of Congress. It is heartbreaking when you have a case of a young person who has been raised in this country, wants to go to college and can’t — or commits a minor crime and must be deported. And our hands are tied, we have very little discretion in those matters. So if we want to change that, we need to have the reform. And I think the members of Congress who are working on this all agree that some form of a DREAM Act-type provision would be an important inclusion."
-Janet Napolitano
With all due respect Ms. Napolitano, the Department of Homeland Security has absolute discretion in immigration cases. Rather than practicing this discretion to keep DREAM Act eligible gems in our country and refrain from silent raids that still hurt our communities, the agency would rather detain, separate and deport us from our families at their discretion.
Napolitano Speaks: The Price for Immigration Reform
Published November 13, 2009 @ 05:00PM PT
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke at a Center For American Progress conference revealing a three-legged stool plan on immigration reform that "includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here."
After backing away from its promise of immigration reform in 2009 and revisiting raids, the President and his lackeys have persistently pointed to early 2010 as a timetable for reforming our broken immigration system.
With that timetable, comes a steep price. Can we afford the cost of immigration reform? This does not refer to monetary cost, since the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a legalization program would bring an excess of $60-$130 billion into our coffers. Cost refers to the human cost of an enforcement and crimmigration regime, a get-tough crackdown mentality that increasingly targets people of color and their employers for alleged transgressions.
The question has been flipped by some to say, "Can we afford not to reform our immigration system?" Indeed, some are willing to pay the price, no matter what it entails. That's noble and understandable, given the desperation of a population denied the right to exist in a country they call home.
But what price does Napolitano have in store for undocumented immigrants to finally gain a pathway to citizenship?
My Name is Jamie and I am an Undocumented American
Published November 13, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
[This week's DREAM Act guest post comes from Jamie, who already has a BA and an important message of social change and action for all of us. Visit Dreamactivist.org to find out how you can help pass the DREAM Act].
I was brought here like many other undocumented students at a young age. My sister and I lived in East LA for a short time until we moved to a better part of Los Angeles. Unlike some others, I did know about my legal status from a very young age. Because of this situation, I was constantly living in fear of being exposed and was very shy as a result of it. I can truly say that living in the shadows of society has an effect psychologically. It feels like I am always hiding something from people that I wish I didn't have to. Despite these challenges I still have the ambition to prove to myself and others that we Dreamers can still get ahead in life.
I have noticed throughout this time that not only am I in the same situation as many others but I also have built the same character as them. We share the same ambitions to prove wrong to those that doubt us, to be something more than a stereotype we have been portrayed in the media. I learned to stop feeling sorry for myself and pick myself up from this mental prison we have all been placed in. Ironically in many ways it has made me stronger to deal with challenges in life. My hope is that it doesn't beat me to the ground.
Transgender Asylum Seeker Speaks Out Against Detention
Published November 12, 2009 @ 05:20PM PT
Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.
Immigrants Serve Abroad While Fighting Deportation At Home
Published November 11, 2009 @ 11:27AM PT
Pfc. Kham Xiong, was one of 11 children of Hmong refugees. He followed in the footsteps of a younger brother and his father, who fought Communists in Laos during the Vietnam War and fled with his family to Thailand, where Kham Xiong was born
Xiong was only 23 when he died in the gunfire at Fort Hood last week.
One bad apple does not represent all apples but it might be hard to gain that wisdom from mainstream media coverage around the Fort Hood tragedy, which gets no awards for racial or religious sensitivity. Today, as we honor our veterans and fallen soldiers, Muslims in the military fear a backlash in return of their service. It is crucial to lay rest to a cloud of xenophobia that threatens the safe existence of immigrants in the military, where they have served proudly since the Revolutionary War.
A newly released timely report from the Immigration Policy Center, Essential to the Fight: Immigrants in the Military, Eight Years After 9/11, highlights the critical role immigrants are playing in today's military. Non-citizens make up 5% of all troops in the U.S. military and since 9-11, over 150 immigrants have been killed while serving. The report notes that "without the contributions of immigrants, the military could not meet its recruiting goals and could not fill its need for foreign-language translators, interpreters and cultural experts."
Some notable statistics from the report:
- As of June 30, 2009, there were 114,601 foreign-born individuals serving in the armed forces, representing 7.91 percent of the 1.4 million military personnel on active duty.
- In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 alone, 10,505 members of the military were naturalized. Naturalizations of immigrants in the military are at their highest during times of war."
Letting the Right People Into San Francisco
Published November 10, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
The City of San Francisco has certainly been in the news lately for the power struggle between Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors on the sanctuary city policy. I testified at the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission hearing yesterday where officials were gathered to hear recommendations on what role San Francisco should play in the immigration reform arena.
Stanford Law professor and entrepreneur, F. Daniel Siciliano, gave an enlightening keynote on how immigrants are net contributors to the United States. Praising immigrants for risk-taking and innovation, Siciliano urged people to focus on economic analysis rather than getting distracted by the fiscal side of the immigration debate. Everyone is a net user of resources and the irony is that immigrants consume fewer resources IF they are allowed to integrate fully into society.
Siciliano pointed out the fact that immigrants, regardless of status, were responsible for 25% of publicly traded companies and the same disproportion was apparent in the start-up of small businesses, which often employ American citizens. The heightened mobility of migrant labor also means that immigrants can move out of places with low demand for jobs into places with higher demand. Siciliano also claimed that 91% of Americans enjoy enhanced earnings due to immigration and even if one is a bad person who hates immigrants, s/he still stands to gain financially from immigration.
Letting the right people in helped the country more than keeping the wrong people out, although Siciliano did stress that the 'right people' constituted a broad and dynamic spectrum.
Best Twitter Lists to Follow on #Immigration
Published November 09, 2009 @ 11:30AM PT
Immigrant rights is fairly new to the social media sphere hence many pro-migrant organizations are still trying to gain a foothold online. Twitter is the social network of choice for pro-migrant advocates. While technology is supposedly the 'great equalizer, Twitter is getting more exclusive by allowing users to filter 'noise' through the creation of lists.
Lists are useful if one uses Twitter online. They are particularly useful to curate during live streams and events. However, lists can invite drama at times; 140 character twidramas that are sometimes quite fun to follow. Just imagine if someone excludes you from a list that you should be listed in while putting you in some other category:
@anonymous You removed me from your immigrant rights list! What do you know about immigrants and our rights?
@desidyke You talk too much about Fiji and gay rights. I'll put you in some other category. Maybe the 'rainbow coalition?'
@anonymous Don't! The state already does so. I don't want to be categorized by you too!
Even a change in how the United States chooses to arbitrary categorize human beings and shift us around may cause drama:
@dreamact Why did you remove me from your DREAM Act list?!
@exdreamie Didn't you get your asylum application approved last month? You are no longer an undocumented youth!
@dreamact But I can't apply for a green-card for another year! I can still be deported if things change in my country. I am still eligible!
@exdreamie I'll have to review this new information and get back to you.
@dreamact What? Stop acting like USCIS on Twitter!
@exdreamie I can't even if I tried. They haven't twittered for four months now. Too busy with lawsuits.
Granted, the second bit was just for humor that I can envision sometime in the near future. However, I have actually seen people whine about what lists should be renamed and what categories certain people should be placed in. Lists give us all an opportunity to 'box' people in without requiring permission from them. That is why it presents us with a great opportunity to locate and question the prejudices of others while rethinking our own classifications.
Just last week I was pondering why @DreamAct was only listed under Latinos and not Asian, Pacific Islander and Blacks. It raised questions about both our marketing and outreach and the assumptions of the person categorizing us as such.
For now, here are some of the best twitter lists for immigration rights advocates in social media, in no particular order:
Dream Act Students (Dreamact)
Immigrant Rights (Willcoley)
Racial Justice (Mikhail)
Promigrant (blogdiva)
Human Rights (JonHutson)
Latinos (ColombianCoffee)
If you have a pro-migrant immigration-related list, please share the link here.
(Image courtesy: DreamActivist Flickr Photostream CC Attribute)
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