Nativism
One Year Later: Remembering Marcelo Lucero
Published November 05, 2009 @ 02:23PM PT
Where were you on November 8, 2008?
I clearly remember that I was smarting from the passage of Prop 8 and demonstrating out in the streets of San Francisco one week prior to the huge Join the Impact rallies in 16 states. The brutal killing of Marcelo Lucero in New York was not on my radar at the time but the hatred directed towards people who are deemed 'different' was certainly plaguing my conscience and affecting my choices.
While local law enforcement officials pledged ignorance to tensions in the community, an investigation by the New York Times established a clear pattern of white youths preying on Latino residents for several years. One of Lucero's attackers told law enforcement that they would routinely go "beaner jumping," which meant they would hunt down and assault Latinos.
I wish I could say that we have come a long way as a country since the election of the first Black person as President of the United States. However, it is wrong to make any such proclamation especially in light of the latest deportation of the Mejia-Perez family. The comments at Marin Independent Journal are vile and racist, one in particular calling for the execution of Gilbert Mejia--their DREAM-eligible Guatemala-born son still in the United States fighting for asylum.
Citations for Driving While Mexican
Published October 23, 2009 @ 11:00PM PT
The Dallas Police Chief, David Kunkle, has admitted that his officers wrote 39 citations to people over the past 3 years for not speaking English.
It would make a great Onion piece, except it is true.
Who would actually pay this ludicrous citation? The most vulnerable people who are either new to this country and do not know the law or those that feel bullied into paying citations for offenses they never committed simply to avoid additional prosecution under the law.
Kunkle probably wants to sweep this under the rug by calling it a 'rookie mistake.' After all, when six officers are found issuing citations for 'Driving while Mexican' it looks more like a department policy. Unfortunately for the Dallas police, they picked on the wrong person, who dragged them to court over the citation.
It seems like the anti-immigrant lunacy has led to the construction of new laws or rather, the enforcement of laws that do not exist.
In a country with a growing Latino electorate that may become the largest ethnic group within a hundred years, it might be wise to start learning Spanish especially if one is in law enforcement and expected to serve a diverse community.
(Photo Credit: WFAA)
Offenders: The 'Illegal Alien' Halloween Costume
Published October 16, 2009 @ 03:34PM PT
This 'illegal alien' Halloween costume, complete with a fake green card is available at several online stores, including Buy.com, Amazon, Target, and Walgreens.
The overwhelming message sent through this particular costume is that 'illegal aliens' are subhuman, which legitimizes their detention in orange jumpsuits. Gitmo anyone?
There's also 'illegal alien' masks, as well as an 'over-sexed' costume for women complete with a sombrero hat to remind us that those 'illegals' are from Mexico.
Considering many of the companies selling these costumes, especially Target and Walgreens, employ undocumented immigrants, has anyone seen this 'escaped convict' in their customer service departments?
Sorry, we usually look more like this, and love our corporate Gap, Navy, American Eagle, Banana Republic, smokin' wheels and bling-bling. Maybe there is some money to be made on suing for misrepresentation. We have much better fashion sense. Try again.
10/19/09 Update: Target, Walgreens, Amazon and Toys R Us have apologized, pulling the costume off shelves.
H/T: Latina Lista
Progressive Principles for Immigration Reform
Published October 12, 2009 @ 05:11PM PT
Pre-empting Representative Luis Gutierrez and his 'broad' principles for immigration reform, Duke from Migra Matters--a co-founder of The Sanctuary--was front-paged over at Daily Kos today with the following principles for comprehensive immigration reform:
- End policies that rely only on enforcement and deterrence as the sole means of regulating migration.
- Address the root causes of immigration, and change US policy so that it doesn't foster and produce conditions that force hundreds of thousands of people each year to leave their countries of origin in order to simply survive.
- Tie all current and future trade, military, and foreign aid agreements to not only worker protections both here and abroad, but also to their ability to foster economic progress and social justice for the working class and poor in sender nations.
- Formulate a reasonable, humane, fair and practical method for determining the levels of immigration going forward. Establish an independent commission free from the pressures of political expediency and business interests to review all the pertinent data and set admission numbers based on labor, economic, social, and humanitarian needs.
- Provide a path to legalization for all current undocumented immigrants living and working in the US, free of restrictions based on country of origin, economic status, education, length of residency, or any other “merit based” criteria.
- Secure the borders by first ensuring that the vast majority of new immigrants have the ability and opportunity to legally enter the country through legal ports of entry by increasing the availability and equitable distribution of green cards. This would curtail the flow of migration through illegal channels. Only after that, should enforcement begin to ensure compliance, or any work to physically secure the border take place.
- Increase the focus on enforcement of all labor and employment laws. Increase penalties on employers who engage in unfair or illegal labor practices. Increase funding for government oversight and inspection.
- Opposition to a "temporary guest worker" program on the grounds that it provides no benefit to the American people or the immigrants themselves. It only provides big business with a disposable work force, and prevents immigrants from becoming a viable force in the workplace or full fledged members of society.
- Foster an immigration policy that strengthens the middle and working class through encouraging unionization, increased naturalization, and immigrant participation in the electoral process.
- Include the language of the DREAM Act that would allow children and young adults brought here as children, and raised in the US, a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for a mandatory two years in higher education or community service. Undocumented young people must also demonstrate good moral character to be eligible for and stay in conditional residency. At the end of the long process, the young person can have the chance to become an American citizen or legal residency by completing their educations and contributing to society.
- Included the language of the Uniting American Families Act that would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow permanent partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including same-sex partners, to obtain permanent residency.
- Include the language of the AgJobs bill that seeks to relieve chronic farm labor shortages by supplying undocumented migrant agricultural workers a legal opportunity to enter the county and a path to legal status and eventual citizenship. It also bolsters labor rights and protects workers from exploitation.
- Repeal the sections of the 1996 law that redefined vast numbers of crimes as deportable offense when committed by immigrants. Imposing harsh penalties--often permanent exile--on immigrants for minor criminal convictions like shoplifting or possession of marijuana.
- End permanent detention of all migrants for immigration violations not related to violent crimes.
- Simplify the immigration system by eliminating and condensing the hundreds of various visa classes into a smaller, more manageable, classification system that allows for not only easier navigation of the system, but better analysis of current immigration needs.
- End policies and programs that rely upon state and local law enforcement agencies to usurp the role of the federal government and engage in the enforcement of federal immigrations codes.
- Bring U.S. immigration law in line with international human rights law by reforming asylum and refugee law and strengthening protections for children, crime victims, and victims of human trafficking
- Modernize and streamline the immigration process and eliminate the backlogs for those already in the queue. Simplify the paperwork process and utilize technology to cut wait times and bureaucratic delays.
- Make family reunification simpler by expanding the “immediate family” classification to reflect the cultural realities of many non-western or traditional societies from which immigrants come.
- Allow immigration judges the discretion to treat cases on an individual basis and make decisions based on the specific the circumstances and outcomes of the case.
- Make punishments of immigration crimes commensurate with comparable crimes in other areas of the law. A misdemeanor or civil violation of immigration law should not carry with it a punishment that would be comparable to a felony in a criminal case.
- End, or raise, the per-country cap that favors smaller nations with fewer immigrant applicants over larger developing nations and those countries that have long traditional ties to the US.
- Update the Registry Date in Sec 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to reflect the historical pattern of periodic updating. Current date should be updated to 1996.
- Eliminate 'crimes involving moral turpitude,' an amorphous legal holdover from Jim Crow
- Recognize that immigration is a vital part of maintaining a healthy and vibrant America. It is what has set this nation apart from all others since its inspection. To close our borders to new immigrants is to cut off the lifeblood that has always made this nation grow and prosper.
This broad list of principles is certainly not for the faint-hearted or those who think that immigration enforcement is the only solution to the so-called problem of 'illegal immigration.' These principles offer a way to fix our present broken immigration system in the most just and humane way, taking into account both the push and pull factors of migration. It is probably a far cry from what Congress will end up adopting, but it is undoubtedly the single-payer of immigration reform.
ALIPAC Feeling Challenged by Volunteer-Run Network
Published October 12, 2009 @ 01:19PM PT
In order to combat the upcoming introduction of an immigration bill, a hilarious message came from nativist William Gheen over the weekend about his efforts to increase ALIPAC's social media presence:
Currently we have 1,012 supporters on Myspace, 2,624 supporters on Facebook, and 8,067 supporters on Twitter!
As usual, William Gheen is exaggerating. His numbers on Myspace and Facebook are not even close to impressive and he has 6900 followers on Twitter, courtesy the fact that he follows more than 7500 people. Obviously, people usually reciprocate and follow back. ALIPAC has been on the web since September 2004 and yet, there is nothing impressive about the pageviews it gets when compared to recently established promigrant spaces:
Nonetheless, his exaggerations turn into outright lies a little later:
Our biggest competitor and the current leader out of all of the pro/con groups are the Dream Act Amnesty activists with their large financial budget. While ALIPAC is kicking their tails on Twitter, they are ahead of us on Myspace with 5,569 supporters and 43,070 people in support of their cause on Facebook!
It is a huge compliment that William Gheen considers a handful of undocumented youth to be his main competitors rather than the multi-million Reform Immigration for America. But he is certainly wrong about any 'large financial budget.' The DREAM Act network is volunteer run and funded by undocumented youth who are working 2-3 jobs at a time, struggling to afford college, bearing the brunt of deportation proceedings while living in poor social conditions.
But this is also the same volunteer-run network that put on 108 actions in 26 states last month and 'mock graduation' events in 16 states this past June, drawing thousands of participants for these grassroots actions. By comparison, William Gheen has only 24 people signed up for his astro-turf 'tea parties against amnesty' in over 3 states on November 14! The fact that nativists can only draw about two dozen protestors is not news to anyone. But William Gheen, just be honest about who you are competing against: less than a dozen unfunded, undocumented youth who simply want to stay and contribute to this country, through passage of a legislation that will benefit only about 300,000 educated young people.
If that is your biggest competition in your battle against what you label as amnesty, good luck winning the war.
Modern Population Control Movement Motivated By Nativism
Published August 17, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress yesterday criticized recent pieces by David Friedlander and Joseph Chamie arguing that the U.S. should "rethink its 'pro-growth immigration policies' and consider the 'demographic realities, future population projections and likely environmental costs' of immigration."
Andrea nicely takes apart the argument on its merits and highlights the rather odd statement from Chamie:
As a result [of increased non-European immigration], America will increasingly look, sound and act differently over the coming decades – which is neither good nor bad but different.
Well, I'm glad he cleared that up. I wonder if that sentiment drove the choice of the photo he used to accompany his article, which shows a group of Latin@ migrants of indeterminate nationality (read: "Mexicans") which could have been used for any still shot or photo reel on every single Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs story about immigration for the past four years.
[Image: Workers who to Chamie are "neither good nor bad but different"]
Looking at the votes for immigration restrictionist group NumbersUSA's favored nativist politicians, it's clear that the population control movement which puts these ideas out there for "respectable" figures like Chamie and Friedlander to parrot has absolutely no commitment to environmental policy, only to the messaging benefits of environmental bandwagoning.
The politicians in the House who NumbersUSA rates most highly voted against the recent climate change bill 5 to 1. (And I am fairly certain that those who voted against didn't do so out of disappointment over an insufficiently pro-environment bill). Based on this analysis, politicians are in favor of protecting the environment or in favor of deporting immigrants en masse, but rarely both.
I asked restrictionist leaders John Tanton, Mark Krikorian, Roy Beck, and Dan Stein to respond to this information 40 days ago, and none of them bothered to answer. Maybe this is an issue they'd rather not get into, because if you look very closely, the shallowness of the population control movement's commitment to the environment becomes quickly apparent. I hope someone will notify Joseph Chamie and David Friedlander.
Kris Kobach Appears on Colbert Report
Published August 10, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
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Restrictionist attorney and activist Kris Kobach appeared last week on the Colbert Report. As when Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio appeared on the show, I felt like Colbert’s humor ended up not putting the guest on the spot, but rather allowing a deft operative to dodge tough questions and take refuge behind the jokes. (Stephen Lemons from Feathered Bastard had a different take on Arpaio’s appearance.) Perhaps this is Colbert’s MO and the reason why conservatives continue to appear on the show—I don’t have cable and don’t watch the show enough to know.
But Kobach was able to get off shots like this pretty much uncontested:
For all of the 11 million illegal aliens currently in the United States, you have to remember there are 5-6 million people waiting in line outside the United States trying to come in legally and doing it the right way.
There will always be people willing to come to this country legally, we should reward those people.
First of all, for most of the undocumented migrants here already, there is no line.
It makes sense that there should be a line, and we hear stories about family members waiting for ten years or more to reunite here in the U.S. So people assume there actually is a line where people can apply and eventually come into the country if they are patient and stay out of trouble.
There isn't! It's a fantasy. In a reasonable world there would be such a line, but in this world there’s not.
The whole concept of a specific “line” in which people can wait is designed to mislead people about how immigration policy actually works. Some of the undocumented immigrants currently present might now qualify for some kind of visa based on family relationships, but if they leave now, penalties implemented by President Clinton’s 1996 IIRIRA law will bar those people from returning to the U.S. for at least ten years, in most cases regardless of whether the person has immediate family members who are U.S. citizens.
Kobach isn’t interested in talking about family separation, lengthy detention for civil immigration violations or even for the “crime” of seeking asylum, or the ballooning costs of immigration enforcement. He talks about "doing things the right way,” but won’t talk about the continued efforts of the Tanton network (of which his employer, Immigration Reform Law Institute, is a part) to reduce legal immigration and restrict channels for people to enter lawfully. (Read more about Kobach from Jill Garvey at Imagine2050.)
Colbert didn’t ask Kobach about the reforms of the Board of Immigration Appeals which he designed and implemented under former Attorney General John Ashcroft to purge the Board of liberal members and cut the number of immigrant-favorable asylum decisions in half. He didn’t ask Kobach about his ongoing efforts to enable local mayors and law enforcement officers to racially profile nonwhite residents and create a climate of fear more suited to a totalitarian state than the United States.
Kobach specializes in making unreasonable policies sound reasonable, and in my estimation, last week on the Colbert Report, he succeeded.
