Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » immigration reform

The Rubble around SB1070 Injunction

jstuart — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:33:01 +0000

New Orleans The good news on the judge’s issuance of an injunction is that: boy, this was a close call and could have been soooo much worse! But, let’s be honest, we’re trying to pull “gold out of the garbage” as our ragpickers say. There’s still no reason for great joy and celebration because the opposition will be scheming at how to come closer next time, the appeals will be queued up a mile long, and we lost important issues here even while we are claiming a “win” on what is now routinely being called, the “most controversial” elements.

So local police will be enjoined from asking every conceivable person that they think might be illegal to show papers and stand to be arrested. The judge correctly saw through the governor’s baloney that local law enforcement offers were so well trained that they could avoid discrimination. Can you say the words, Sheriff Arpaio, and still repeat that sentence with a straight face, Governor? They can’t hold people for deportation by the feds based on SB1070, but we still have DHS Napolitano’s 287(g) for that mischief. Various civil penalties cannot be converted into crimes and everyone with a tan will not have to carry their paperwork to prove citizenship, but as today’s rallies in Phoenix “against the hate” make clear, these are symbolic victories when the anger at immigrants is being fanned to a vengeful and violent level of anger and potential attack.

Washed away in the headlines are huge concerns about the future of day laborers, which the National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network has indicated could cripple the ability for day laborers to find work and lead to huge legal oppression everywhere in the country. This was a confusing piece of the injunction story. The judge enjoined the efforts of Arizona to essentially drive day laborers off of the sidewalks and any public areas where they could look for work, but allowed the language that was based on the old ACORN v. Phoenix suit to stand which allows day laborers to be harassed and arrested if they seem to be a traffic nuisance. NDLON has correctly worried that day laborers would now be walking a tightrope thin line in trying to both protect their livelihoods and at the same time avoid arrest and prosecution (and therefore also potential deportation depending on the charge and jurisdiction) because traffic safety would trump everything and everybody.

I’m not whining. We desperately needed to win this injunction, so all good there, but “happy” and “celebrate” are not two words that come easily in this moment when so little is solved, other rights are eroded, and the forces of hate and repression are still gathering mightily in cities and states throughout the country with no real relief in sight.

Slim & None for Immigration Reform

jstuart — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:31:36 +0000

Dallas Organizers involved in immigration reform were talking throughout the week about what strategy and tactics they could devise to have a chance to win real reform in 2010. It’s probably the wrong question and with any frankness no one would like the answer since the odds are so improbable for any real reform in 2010 and possibly for years after that unless….

The imponderable would lie in fanning the embers of a real movement still burning from place to place, scaling that work, engaging deeply and fully in the firefights that matter (Arizona, DREAM, enforcement resistance, boycotts, Utah, and more!), and finally getting realistic about both winning and politics. Like I say, the chances of a change in strategy this radical, regardless of how necessary, are slim and none, but that shouldn’t change the arguments between organizers looking for a real plan.

The various initiatives and campaigns seem to be squandering the opportunity and challenge presented by SB 1070 in Arizona. There are depressing divisions between the local efforts and the national campaigns. There are splits around voter engagement and registration efforts which have created two “tables” squaring off in the squabbling for outside resources and funding on a 50,000 new registrant goal. I’ve been told that SEIU, which had been the largest labor participant in the reform efforts, has virtually left the campaign over the split. Now the Arizona work has devolved more into a legal battle than a field effort, and this is tragic, regardless of the outcome. Without full support for a field operation and movement building operation in Arizona, we have lost the messaging war already to preemption rather than human and family rights, and the Governor and the right have done surprisingly – depressingly! – well arguing that they are “little ol’ Arizona” doing what the feds and Congress wasn’t willing to tackle. Ugh! I understand messing with the major leagues about the all-star game next year, but I do not understand why there has not been a drastic national step up in the boycott efforts around Arizona? This seems to be a more critical ball that is squiggling into a blooper pay on the battlefield.

The squandering of resources and beltway bull has created a campaign culture that is better at creating a funding strategy and a something that might sustain a few organizations than accepting the burden and necessity of having to really take the risks to build a real movement. The arguments around targets between the White House and President, Democrats and Republicans are classic examples of this tension, where the campaign cannot win. Only a movement recognition that realizes that both have to be common and constant targets so that the movement can build the moral force to transcend partisan politics to demand simple and incontrovertible justice has any chance of breaking through this mess. And, that is not something that needs to be polled, messaged, and focus grouped. It has to be organized.

Without a movement the legislative map is bleak. The President is playing politics with immigration around the midterm election now, and too many of the immigration reform leadership and organizations have moved to toe his line, which is both inappropriate and embarrassing. There clearly is no chance for comprehensive reform in 2010, and building an organizing plan on sand is a certain disaster. The President’s decision to make immigration a wedge issue for the elections means that not only will comprehensive reform efforts lose critical votes in the election, but with even fewer supporters is likely to face wildly contentious reactionary efforts that will come out of this politicization of immigration in these polarized times. Soberly, unless something changes the only slim hope would be a 2^nd term reelection and a realignment of majorities that allowed a real Congressional push in the first six months of 2013 as the #2 or #3 issue after inauguration.

Without a real movement tactically sails need to be trimmed. Immigrants need some wins now, not in the by-and-by at 2013 or later. We need to start breaking the parts out so that we can win whatever is possible, no matter how piecemeal. My vote would still be DREAM works because there has been courage and heat there, and no adequate response from the opposition yet. We also have to move to our strengths locally, rather than sitting on our hands while the right and our opponents creates one hotspot after another through local initiatives. We need our own islands in the storm. We need to start pushing in areas of our core support and strength for “model” programs that go the other way, and polarize the debate on the good side, rather than for the forces of evil.

Voter registration is all well and good, but if not targeted it is unclear how it can build our movement or any movement. The midterms are looking like a disaster and simple VR efforts will be swept up in that tide if not targeted. We need to pick 2, 3, 6 races around the country where we can make a difference and punish the enemies of reform. Regardless of the dominant narrative that emerges for the parties and the President, an autonomous movement for immigration reform needs to be at the podium citing the proof our emerging and potential strength not in statistics, but in a body count with real heads mounted on the wall.

It’s time for some real discussions about field, strategy, and tactics in immigration reform, but it’s also time for some changes so that we can deliver real relief now and build the movement that we need for the comprehensive reforms that immigrants are demanding. And, we need to do this yesterday!

Bancos de los Trabajadores

jstuart — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:00:14 +0000

Tegucigalpa and Mexico City Early on Sunday morning walking through the centro in Tegucigalpa I noticed a branch of the Bancos de los Trabajadores, the Bank of the Workers. I had heard about them repeatedly the day before while meeting with the women in the colonias Ramon Amalia Amador, and we found ourselves discussing them at length in the morning before I left for Mexico. The Banco de los Trabajodores was until recently what the name implies, a Bank of the Workers, had had financed many of the home improvements and loans in the colonias when it was a public entity. Ten percent of the families now were behind on their payments and having difficulty with the bank, and like so many questions about Honduran institutions, the answer was now todos privado or all private.

It was a little more complicated than that from what I could tell. The bank had been swept up in a public/private takeover which was going to require ACORN International to do a fair amount of research and figure out, but especially since the golpe de estadio, it was no longer a worker and poor family friendly institution. Even with the political turmoil which only exacerbated the worldwide Great Recession, the bank had now become unwilling to meet and was maintaining interest rates that were way out of whack in these times.

What about the unions? Had they moved their money out of the bank and stopped endorsing the bank once the private interests took over? The answer according to the organizers seemed to be “No.” How could they not be ashamed of what was being done with their money now? They would be according to the people I talked to but no one had looked hard enough at their practices yet.

This might be some leverage in moving forward to improve living conditions in the colonias with an active campaign and care to avoid the political repression that seemed to weigh so heavily on every sentence and each part of every conversation. Yes, the organizers were saying, it could be done, si se puede, but we would have to be very, very careful. People could be killed.

This is not the normal nature of an organizing and campaign conversation obviously!

Walking around the colonias, the huge towers for TIGO, the telecommunications giant were everywhere in the middle of the barrio? What were they doing?

Looking at the waste water runoff, I found myself looking down the mountain at a runway of the international airport. I talked to the organizers about a giant banner that we could put up and take down and spread around to sent our message clearly and carefully: Beinvenidos Turistas! You are drinking our shit! In Spanish of course, but powerfully making the point that without potable water or any sewerage facility, the runoff from the colonias was going right down to the airport grounds.

Even with the government paralyzed, the Banco de Los Trabajadores could put up the loans for housing improvements needed in the colonias and TIGO and the Airport, managed by the Swiss incidentally, could guarantee them.

It would take careful planning, lots of work, and great care, but there were many ways to skin this cat! And, that’s what community organizing is all about!

Wedging Immigration for the Democrats

jstuart — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:00:44 +0000

San Pedro Sula There was a strange meeting hosted by President Obama and some administration officials at the White House this week for a small group of immigration reform advocates including Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum, Eliseo Medina of SEIU, the head of the National Council of La Raza, and a couple of others, surprisingly even a representative of the Florida DREAM folks. Emerging from the meeting various people were interviewed and all of the statements looked like thy had just been to an old Democratic Party club meeting planning for the next election, rather than honing strategy around the prospects of reform, no matter how narrow. There was talk of the President making a speech about the importance of immigration reform, and generally all of the interviews I read seemed to be singing from the same hymnal and the stanzas focused on bashing the Republicans.

God knows they probably deserve it on this score and so many others, but the Democrats have hardly showered themselves with praise from the President through the Congress for the ways they have equally pandered to the worst impulses around immigration fears and in some cases xenophobia and old school racism in the shallow debates thus far about immigration reform.

Talking to people knowledgeable about the meeting, most of the participants seemed to feel that they had been brought in to the White House by the President for a close inspection of the woodshed. Seems that for an hour he read the “reformers” the riot act about how they needed to stop pushing the Democrats and start bashing the Republicans because they had not carried their weight at all in the President’s view and the Democrats were heads taller than the Republicans in their steadfastness for reform. Implicit in the President’s sudden affection for bringing forward the immigration issue now though has to be his belief, and the Party’s, that it is a good wedge issue for the Democrats in the mid-term election, especially with close contests at stake in the southwest like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s rough race in Nevada.

Admittedly, the reformers strategy has been weak and beltway-centric and all admonitions to bring the fight into home turf and vulnerable, battleground districts where a movement could build and we could prove that we could punish and win, have been rejected, and too often even obvious engagements like Arizona, first with Arpaio and now with SB 1070, have seemed to win support from funders and national efforts weakly and almost with fingers holding noses near the ground. But, even saying that, it hardly justifies a free ride for the Democrats who have run from the issue as well and under Obama and Secretary Napolitano have been enforcement firsters, reformers whenever folk.

The midterm elections are important in keeping reform efforts alive in many areas, granted Mr. President, but for immigration reform to become a reality it has to win as a moral issue, not simply a matter of party politics. All of these efforts are going to be setback if the Democrats from the top on down simply try to insert the issue as a wedge with or without the help of the reformers, and still have no plan for how to make reform a reality.

Immigration Fee’s Up

jstuart — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:22:02 +0000

Toronto Short squib in the papers in the US caught my eye. Immigration fees for green cards and work permits all were announced as increasing by 10%. Reason: business down. Fewer applications were submitted in this bad climate for immigrants and in this terrible economy so there was a $200 million shortfall in the “business plan” of these departments.

The unstated point is that for all of the uproar about immigrants and competition in scare times for jobs, this seems more evidence that in fact the numbers tell a somewhat different tale. The numbers also seem to say that you need a job to get a job in this area just like in so many others, since the fees are around $1000 a pop! Cash on the barrel head.

The Administration announced no increases in the cost to become a citizen. That seems not to be an issue because as long as we’re not solving that problem, increased costs are not a problem since we are not speeding up the process, but delaying it for years.

Immigration Footsie at White House

jstuart — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:39:30 +0000

Houston Of course Governor Brewer (R-AZ) wanted a meeting with the President at the White House. Her agenda was clear: she needed cover for the racist bill she had signed while steadily trying to put lipstick on the pig. She needed Obama to allow her to say she was putting Arizona first, but “protecting” the country through her foolish and cowardly acts as governor. All of that’s easy to understand, but here’s the hard one: what did Obama have to gain from this meeting and why did he wimp out so badly on the immigration issue? Was this a bad day or just another hugely bad play? Was he distracted by the first Celtics vs Lakers game being played later? WTF?

He seems to have told her more about the troops and maybe (according to Ms. Self-Serving) have promised her that the majority of the 1200 National Guard troops would be along the Arizona border. He seems to have stayed with the bad message line that he is doing more to secure the borders. When it came to suing her and everyone else with their hands around the throats of any Arizona resident with even a good tan, he seems to have said he’s leaving that the Justice Department to figure out. When he really got hard on her, Obama seems to have said that he was sending “federal officials” down to the desert to “dialogue” with Arizona officials about the law. I know this wasn’t a threat, and who even cares if it was a promise. It certainly was not an example of an exercise of the art of Presidential power!

I live in Louisiana, so I know the President is drowning in his own private Katrina with oil up to his ass (though this is another case study in the flacid and flabby exercise of Presidential power as well (when are we going to ask Napolitano to resign and when are we going to chant with Carville “whose your daddy” to BP?!?), but of all of the contradictory signals Obama has sent about immigration, playing footsie with Governor Brewer in his own house, has to be in the running for the worst of the lot.

Profiling in Arizona? Hell Yes

jstuart — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:58:11 +0000

Phoenix SB 1070 is on the two month countdown to implementation barring action by the Justice Department or others to block its enforcement. The biggest rub has been the preemptive racial profiling of anyone by color or accent might seem to be an immigrant. Governor Brewer of Arizona has claimed that this is not the case largely “because she says so,” by maintaining that if you say the sky is green that does the job no matter how many times your eyes scream the lie.

My Rathke great grand parents and grandparents were German immigrants who had been farming in the Ukraine on a special program but refused conscription and ended up first in the Midwest and then in my grandfather’s case working as a foreman on the orange groves and ranches of Orange County, California, when there were still oranges, with the Mexican laborers. They were born there but came to live and work here. In this country we all have a story. As a second generation American, my chance of being profiled is nil.

On Thursday we were driving from Glendale back into Phoenix. Suddenly, a bubble light was signaling us over. The prototypical, large white cop was dressed in a flak jacket, which seemed odd for traffic duty in Glendale. A window next to me on the passenger side had been broken by vandals who failed to rob the car, but still left the spider web of dented and broken glass as the footprint of their effort. The cop wanted the license and registration of the Mexican-American driver of the vehicle. She gave over the registration and recited her license number from memory since she didn’t have it on her. Despite the fact that he didn’t ask, I offered and turned mine over, since the policeman was claiming that the only reason for stopping us was the window and the need to prove that the car was not stolen. The cop was uniformly friendly. He checked on his computer, and sent us on our way.

So, was this racial profiling? Hell, yes! Would I have been stopped if I were driving, as a red headed white guy? No. And, as my friend pointed out, what would have happened had I not been in the car? Would he have asked to search the car? The trunk? If he had noticed her purse on the back floor, would he have asked to verify if she really did not have her license and ID with her? Where could this have gone? Where might the story have ended?

On Friday evening I walked into a Circle K gas/food store with another friend, also Latina. She asked me to take a six pack of Corona up and pay for her while she looked for something else. The young voluble clerk, took the beer and my money, and then asked if he could see the ID of the woman who he had seen walk in with me. I said I don’t think she has any ID on her. For that matter neither did I, having just strolled out a couple of blocks to lend a hand. He starts spouting that Arizona law requires that everybody who comes in together has to show an ID to prove age. He seemed to feel absolutely no irony that he was lecturing me about an ID and had still not asked me to produce mine?!? I said, OK, I get it. I said, hold the beer, and I’ll be right back. We left, and I walked back 5 minutes later alone. He pulled our beer from behind the counter for me and reached out for my money. Still not asking me for an ID. So, I said, hey, buddy, I’m from Louisiana, what is this nonsense all about? He claimed they had been stung by the police a couple of days before with a young girl, and a co-worker had lost his job as the eyes were batting and had not asked for an ID. Well, yeah, but we were a long way from under aged, bub? He then claimed that Circle K had a policy formerly of asking for ID for anyone who looked under 30, but now were recommending a request for under 40. It was all so preposterous, that I just laughed since he seemed to be making it up as he went along.

As I hit the door to leave, he yelled back at me, “Welcome to Arizona!”

My point exactly, Madame Governor! This is now your state where racial profiling is the status quo and standard operating procedure.

Simply claiming at the school house door as Governors Ross Barnett of Mississippi and George Wallace of Alabama did in their day that you aren’t racist and you love darker people in your own way, is not enough to change the reality of every word and deed all around you.

Whether the deep South 50 years ago or the border states now, this has to change!

With the Movement in Arizona

jstuart — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:17:33 +0000

Phoenix Talking briefly with Pablo Alvarado, head of NDLON, and Salvador Reza, perhaps the principal spark plug behind the march and rally to block implementation of SB 1070, the racial profiling, anti-immigrant law that is scheduled to be implemented in two months, I asked how it was looking and what they were hoping for. Salvador laughed as he tried to be restrained and said, “20,000,” and then with a delay, added, “plus 100,000,” and we all laughed. How long would the march be today in temperatures expected to snuggle up to towards 100 degrees? Salvador again quickly said, “Five and a half miles.” Good, I said, I had heard it might be over six. Salvador quickly laughed and said, “don’t repeat that and get a rumor started.” I rejoined, “hey,the door’s shut.” Salvador has a reputation for the long march, and this was going to be a great one.

If the numbers nudged past 20000 towards 50000 with an opening rally at Indian Steel Park from 8 until 10 AM, it could take between 30 minutes and an hour to empty the park, and on the slow pace maybe three hours to march to the capital and four to get everyone there. Best case scenarios would have tens of thousands marching through the midday heat on the blistering Phoenix streets. This was serious business!

On the day of the rally and march the competition of the Memorial Day weekend may have pushed the numbers a little. I think we hit Salvador’s 20,000, but not sure how many more were there, if any. It was an exciting crowd with whole families piling out of pick-up trucks to come down. Sun was hot in this “sweat for justice,” people were prepared, Mexican vendors were everywhere as if we were in a town plaza in old Mexico. Once you looked past all of the Legalize Arizona t-shirts everywhere, it was all DYI, American and Mexican flags, costumes, union and other shirts, and, my favorite, white t-shirts with magic markers with 1070 messages. The DC communications folks would have gone crazy at this event!

But, from Pablo’s opening remarks, the message was clear: (1) Obama stop 1070 with lawsuits (2) Stop profiling, (3) Obama end cooperation with local and state authorities on immigration, (4) create real reform on immigration with a path to legalization. A big sign the shape of a huge sheet called on Obama to walk his talk.

This was a good crowd and a great event, led by the Arizona local organizations and driven by the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) more than anyone else. They have kept the pressure on.

It can’t stop. Arizona can’t be allowed to become Alabama decades ago. The America of today cannot be allowed to become the America of the 50’s, Dwight Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon.

We all took a stand for the future in Phoenix.

Marching to Arizona with the Troops

jstuart — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:24:55 +0000

New Orleans Time to pack for Arizona! It’s important to join the mobilization on May 29^th with the assembled forces to stand and protest against the implementation of SB 1070, the anti-immigrant, racial profiling bill that is terrorizing good people in Arizona.

I was surprised talking to a friend in Arizona yesterday when she told me that the President was sending troops to the border. I thought this might be a rumor. Wrong. Later it was all over the papers that Obama was dispatching 1500 National Guard ostensibly to deal with drug trafficking and crime along the border.

At the same time I watched Obama being interviewed before the Suns-Lakers game on a basketball court mostly about, well, basketball. He also said he “was personally” opposed to SB 1070 and was in support of the Suns having worn their Los Suns jerseys in solidarity against the haters on Cinco de Mayo. Charles Barkley and his buddies talked about Obama being the “omni-president” with his fingers on everything since he also had opinions on the 1^st draft pick choice for the Washington Wizards and the step up in Rondo’s game for the Celtics.

You can’t have it both ways. I can’t pretend that Obama is all over the basketball schedule and predictions, but is not mindful of the message he sends when he dispatches troops to the border posturing to beef up enforcement at the same time that tens of thousands are assembling to march in Phoenix this Saturday morning to demand justice.

There’s politics and then there is right and wrong.

The omni-President cannot be all things to all people.

The days on the calendar are steadily being crossed off to the point when enforcement of this grotesque travesty. We need the President to do the right thing then and refuse to cooperate with this cynical and racist legislation. When are we going to hear his real plans to act? Tick. Tock. Tick-tock!

Meanwhile it looks like all of us will be marching, but in this case the federales will be running for the border, while the rest of stand to be counted in the streets of Phoenix.

We need you with us there on the hot streets, Mr. President, and not sitting on a basketball court talking about draft picks.

Hope for Immigration Reform: Kennesaw State and Highland Park

jstuart — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:57:09 +0000

Cusco In the last several days two separate, but in my view, related events in very, very different parts of the country are starting what it takes to create change: make reform impossible to avoid because it’s too close to home! First, the girls’ basketball team in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park voted to boycott Arizona, stop their bake sales and not go to Scottsdale for their tournament. Secondly, there were again loud protests at Kennesaw State in George over the arrest and potential deportation of one of their fellow 21-year old senior students close to graduation. Different parts of the country, but the same theme – something has to be done about immigration reform. I bet they are related in ways that are less than obvious as well. I would bet money that the girls basketball team in Highland Park knows fellow students who are undocumented and are standing in solidarity with their friends just as the supposedly rock-rimmed conservative campus of Kennesaw State did in Georgia, a thousand miles away.

The Kennesaw story is also about the continued abuse that President Obama and Secretary Napolitano are allowing of the 287g program since the local yokel sheriff turned upside down a deal between ICE and the student because he got bent out of shape about a wrong address somewhere in the file. Heck, bubba, she’d already admitted to no docs, what did you expect a pristine passport or something. She was on a study release deal with ICE to roll out after graduation, but you have to get all out of shape.

Arizona over and over again and soon there will be hundreds and thousands of these very local fights about the immigration status of people we know and love. And, it will cost votes and it will build a movement. Where will you be then, Mr. President?

Since it’s a story about Georgia, I’m betting many have missed it, but here’s to the kids in Highland Park and Kennesaw State – lead on, brothers and sisters, lead on!

Kennesaw State student leaves Cobb jail

By Rhonda Cook and Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
12:55 p.m. Friday, May 14, 2010

The Kennesaw State University student at the center of a heated debate
over immigration left the Cobb County jail late Friday morning. Jessica
Colotl had turned herself in earlier Friday. She posted bond, which had
been set at $2,500, and left the jail, accompanied by her attorney, around
11:40 a.m.

Cobb County Sheriff Neal Warren secured a warrant to arrest Colotl, 21,
Wednesday night on charges of lying on a jail booking form. A KSU officer
had arrested Colotl in March for driving without a license.

She was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but a
month later, at the urging of KSU, Colotl's friends and advocacy groups,
ICE agreed to defer her case until she completed her degree. She was
released from a federal detention center in Alabama and allowed to return
to the metro Atlanta area.

Warren said he issued the arrest warrant this week after learning that
Colotl gave a false Duluth address when she was booked into the jail for
the traffic violation in March.

In another development Friday, federal immigration officials said they
will revisit the decision to defer the case against Colotl.

Ivan Ortiz-Delgado, spokesman for the federal department of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday
the recent charges brought against Colotl will require the agency to
reconsider her status.

"The charges brought against her changed the conditions" that led to ICE's
decision to defer her case and release her from custody, Ortiz-Delgado
said.

"ICE will review Ms. Colotl's case agian and make an appropriate
determination. However, that has not happened yet," Ortiz-Delgado said.

Her attorney, Chris Taylor, and advocates will hold a news conference
Friday afternoon. It is not known if Colotl will attend.

But Taylor said in a  statement Thursday that he did not foresee any
complications in her posting bond and being released from jail.

"It is obvious from all the documents that I’ve seen that she has done
nothing wrong and has given her proper address to Cobb County and
immigration officials," Taylor said. "There has been no crime committed.
Jessica looks forward to defending herself against these false and
baseless charges.”

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday accused Warren of  "misplaced
priorities and abusing the power granted to him" by the 287(g) program,
which trains local law enforcement officers to work with federal
authorities in identifying illegal immigrants who are arrested. The
Georgia ACLU office has asked the Department of Homeland Security Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties Division and the Department of Justice Civil
Rights Division to look at the case.

“Jessica’s case is yet another outrageous example of the unaccountable
local enforcement of immigration laws in Cobb County gone awry,” said
Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia National Security/Immigrants’ Rights
Project director. “It is past time to put an immediate end to the 287(g)
program in Cobb, which has led to racial profiling and the targeting of
hard-working members of the community, the separation of families and the
creation of an atmosphere of terror among immigrant communities in Cobb.
287(g) in Cobb has led to a less safe community for us all.”

Nancy Bodiford, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said authorities
were tipped off about the false address by a member of the media and that
led to the arrest warrant. A reporter went to the residence listed on
Colotl's public booking records and discovered she did not live there. The
reporter was not identified.

Workers in the leasing office for the Duluth apartment complex at the
address on the arrest warrant told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on
Thursday that they didn't have anything "to share at this time."

Colotl, a Mexico native, has been in the United States for much of her
life, coming here with her parents when she was 10. Friends said the
family moved often until Colotl graduated from DeKalb County's Lakeside
High School in 2006 with a 3.8 grade-point average.

Her troubles began March 29 when she was stopped on the KSU campus and
charged with impeding the flow of traffic. She reportedly told the officer
she had a Mexican driver's license but could not find it; she offered him
a Mexican passport that expired in August 2007 as identification. While
driving without a license is a relatively minor offense, making a false
statement is a felony with a maximum punishment of five years in prison
and a $1,000 fine.

The student, who will turn 22 next week, was arrested the next day, taken
to the Cobb County jail and handed over to immigration authorities under
an agreement the county has with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
the 287(g) program.

Colotl was then taken to the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama to await
deportation.

At the urging of KSU President Daniel Papp, she was released May 1 and the
federal immigration agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave her
a year’s reprieve so she could complete her degree. Friends say she is two
semesters away from graduating.

ICE spokesman Ivan Ortiz said Colotl was granted "deferred action" status,
which did not change her immigration status but effectively delays her
deportation. If conditions change, she could be placed back into removal
proceedings.

Ortiz said ICE is waiting to assess the new charge before any decisions
are made.

"Our priority is to remove those who pose the great risk to the security
of our communities and national security," he said. "In this case, this
woman is not a criminal alien. That does not mean we are going to look the
other way and we are not going to process her. But our priority is the
removal of dangerous convicted criminal aliens."

Colotl's situation has sparked debate between human rights groups and
advocates for stronger immigration laws.

Human rights organizations and Latino community groups decried the
sheriff's actions as being a "witch hunt" and a waste of money.

“We are very concerned that Cobb County is taking action against Jessica
in retaliation for speaking out," said Mary Bauer, the legal director of
the Southern Poverty Law Center. "We think these actions are illegal, and
we’ll be in looking into that closely. This highlights the urgent need for
Congress to reform our broken immigration system.”

D.A. King, an outspoken critic of what he says is lax enforcement of
immigration laws, said the major concern is Colotl's enrollment at a
public university.

"The focus of these violations should be on the Board of Regents [of the
University System of Georgia]," he said. "The young lady who was in this
country illegally is by far the most sympathetic figure in this mess."

University System spokesman John Millsaps with the university system said
college applications ask about citizenship but there is no process for
verifying it if the would-be students says they are a U.S. citizen. The
question of immigration status becomes an issue only if a college
applicant says he is from another country. Out-state-students and exchange
students pay four times the in-state rate and Colotl was assumed to be a
Georgia resident because she graduated from a DeKalb County high school.

Papp has said that Colotl will now be charged out-of-state tuition.

Others argued over whether a federal program that trains local law
enforcement on immigration enforcement is Draconian or a necessary tool
that should be applied the same for everyone.

Cobb was the first law enforcement agency in Georgia and one of a few
nationwide to be accepted into the federal 287(g) program, an agreement
with immigration officials to check the status of everyone taken into the
jail. Cobb just renewed its contract with the federal government in
October.

The 287(g) program was designed to find violent illegal immigrants, but
critics say it more often catches minor offenders such as those violating
traffic laws.

Debbie Seagraves with the Georgia office of the American Civil Liberties
Union said local law enforcement abuses the program and the handling of
Colotl was evidence of that.

Warren, the Cobb sheriff, defended the program in a written statement
Thursday.

“I value any tool that helps me enforce the law and remove violators from
our community," he said.