From Mexico to Morocco: People Failed by the Globalized Economy

by Dave Bennion

Published October 15, 2008 @ 10:09PM PT

I was struck today by two glimpses into migrant life I encountered online: the first on the other side of the border, and the second on this side.

First, via Dan Kowalski, a new collaborative book from writer Charles Bowden and photojournalist Julián Cardona titled Exodus/Éxodo aims to "put a human face on the issue of illegal immigration." (I think one step in that direction would be to use the term "undocumented" instead of the Dobbs-approved "illegal" moniker.  We'll chalk this up to the publicist ...)

The photos, one of which I've grabbed for this post, are gripping.  From the book's introduction:

People ask, why do they come here? People say México has such low unemployment, so what is the problem? Consider this: you get up at 5 a.m. You live in a one-room shack and pay $59 a month in rent. Your address is on the outskirts of the world's second largest megalopolis, México City. You share this shack with your woman, a niece and your child. At 5:30 a.m. you're on the bus, a ninety-minute ride for $2.45 a day roundtrip. You work in a tortilla shop for $1.64 an hour, eleven hours a day, six days a week. A gallon of milk at the store, the electricity that lights your shack, the fuel running the bus, all these things cost more than in the United States. Basically, everything costs more than in the United States-except labor.

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Debate in Long Island: Immigrant Nation?

by Dave Bennion

Published October 15, 2008 @ 06:25PM PT

As the last presidential debate begins tonight in Hempstead, NY, I wonder whether either candidate will realize that just next door, in Garden City, dreams are fulfilled and shattered every single day.

I spent many early mornings inside the McDonald's next door to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Garden City Field Office, waiting for the building to open for 7:00 a.m. green card and citizenship interviews.

While there were some officers with whom it was a pleasure to work, who treated my clients with respect and kept an open mind as to an ultimate decision, who were well-acquainted with the laws and regulations that guided their determinations, unfortunately not all the officers were that way.  Some possessed none of those attributes.  Officer Baichu was one.  Many futures have been destroyed in the cramped rooms at the Garden City office.  Many families have been split up.

So the question remains: Will either candidate talk about immigration tonight?  Or is there a gentlemen's agreement in place to completely avoid an uncomfortable issue out of fear of what the cable news networks and talk radio would say?

Update: 9:30 p.m. EST: McCain says Obama is running misleading ads about McCain's immigration policies.  He mentioned it--but that is all!  No response from Obama.

Second Update: Still no substantive discussion of immigration policy.  There's little chance now of this being a featured topic of discussion in either campaign outside of the fierce debate that's going on between the two camps in Spanish-language ads.

Nevertheless, we know the contours of a potential Obama administration immigration policy because he responded to a detailed survey compiled by the editors of the Sanctuary, a pro-migrant community website (of which I am an associate editor under the name "yave begnet.")  McCain's response?  We're still waiting for that ...

Blog Action Day: Fight Poverty

by Dave Bennion

Published October 15, 2008 @ 05:39AM PT

Today on Blog Action Day, take a moment to learn about about the Millenium Development Goals and where we stand on reaching the 2015 targets.  From the Blog Action Day website:

Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue - poverty. We aim to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!

You can make a difference, too: Donate here to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Update: Check out XicanoPwr's excellent Blog Action Day post on domestic poverty, immigration, and the Latin@ community.

Hateful "Obsession" DVD Has Intended Effect

by Dave Bennion

Published October 14, 2008 @ 05:46AM PT

Something happened earlier this month that many (myself included) may not have noticed, but which had a big impact on the Arab-American and Muslim communities.  From Jillian York at Global Voices last week:

Last week, many newspaper subscribers across the United States were surprised to discover a DVD inserted into their Sunday paper. The video, which can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube, is entitled Obsession: Radical Islam's War With the West and portends to compare the threat of radical Islamism with that of Nazi Germany prior to World War II. The DVD's release was timed to match the upcoming elections, and distribution of the DVD was almost entirely within swing states.

Almost immediately, newspapers began receiving complaints for their inclusion of the DVD, which was funded by The Clarion Fund, a group set up to combat "the most urgent threat of radical Islam." Bloggers in the U.S. and abroad have expressed anger at both the distribution of the DVDs and the related crime.

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Language Matters: John McCain Edition

by Dave Bennion

Published October 13, 2008 @ 08:50PM PT

Irwin Tang reminds voters that until 2000, John McCain routinely used an offensive racial epithet to refer to his Vietnamese captors.

Tang is promoting his book, Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters.

If some memories are short, Tang's is not.  From a February 2000 news article:

Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to apologize yesterday for his use of a racial slur to condemn the North Vietnamese prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the war.

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

Watch the clip for a reasoned articulation of why McCain's choice of words wasn't ok.

(Via Jesus' General.)

McCain Paying the Price for Bush's Enforcement-Only Immigration Policy

by Dave Bennion

Published October 13, 2008 @ 07:58PM PT

Via Greg Siskind, Ben Smith at Politico has an update on the conspicuous absence of immigration from the presidential race -- at least the English-language version.

Despite championing immigration reform in 2007, John McCain is poised to lose the Hispanic vote by a landslide margin that is well below President George W. Bush's 2004 performance.

Polls show Obama winning the broadest support from Latino voters of any Democrat in a decade, while McCain is struggling to reach 30 percent, closer to Senator Bob Dole's dismal 1996 result than to Bush's historic 40% four years ago.

McCain seems to have wound up with the worst of both worlds: He appears to be getting no credit from Latino voters for his past support for immigration reform, while carrying the baggage of other Republicans' hostility to illegal immigration.

And he's been unable or unwilling to attack Obama -- who was once thought to have taken a lethally liberal stance by supporting granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants -- from the right.

Perhaps he's not so foolish as to want to see his support among Latin@s really crater.

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Green Cards for Sale: $1 Million

by Dave Bennion

Published October 13, 2008 @ 03:43AM PT

Need a green card?  Got a million bucks?  Then head to Florida -- you're all set!

Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa has become Florida's first federally-designated EB-5 Regional Center.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service designation, known as the EB-5 immigrant investor program, allows foreign buyers to eventually become permanent United States residents by investing at least $1 million in properties.

The EB-5 program, created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, grants foreign buyers U.S. residency in exchange for investing $1 million in a project that creates at least 10 jobs.

Meanwhile, if you're like most of the millions who came through Ellis Island -- unskilled and poor -- your wait time for a green card "approaches infinity."  From Reason Magazine:

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