Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » Immigration

Ripping off Mexican & Caribbean Migrant Workers in Canada

dine — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:48:16 +0000

Buenos Aires One of the flash points in the USA immigration reform debate continues to be over the demand from farmers for help in their fields from migrant agricultural workers. Recently they left the Republican (and Obama Administration) consensus in droves as US-farmer organizations and Congresspeople bridled at the fact that employers, i.e. farmers, would have to pay steep fines for hiring undocumented workers. The so-called bracero program has long been out of business in the US, which used to bring up seasonal workers from Mexico into the fields of California, Texas, and Arizona, and from the Caribbean to help in tobacco, cranberry, and other harvests in the Northeastern states.

ACORN International crack researchers led by Carleton University (Ottawa) volunteer, Amanda Sullivan, and ramroded by ACORN International and Edinburgh University (Scotland) super-summer intern, Melanie Craxton, stumbled onto a huge program though in Canada while researching remittance ripoffs as part of ACORN International and its federated partners on-going Remittance Justice Campaign (www.remittancejustice.org). The Canadian SAWP is not an armed strike team, but 20,000 migrant workers from Mexico and the Caribbean Islands who are recruited through bi-national agreements and shipped up to the fields of Canada, largely in British Columbia and southern Ontario, as part of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. Needless to say conditions are regularly reported as substandard and exploitive by our long-time partners, the UFCW and its agricultural workers organizing program which has been in the fields for years with these workers.

In fact the Canadian government extracts a 25% of wages share for taxes and the like which will never benefit these workers who will return home after a maximum of eight (8) months in the field. Neither does the Canadian government seem to care much about how much money they actually go home with even though ostensibly that is one of the goals of this cooperative labor exchange. The workers are in fact even chosen according to the SAWP criteria because they have stable families, and that means invariably they send significant remittances (about 50% of wages while in Canada) back home to their families.

The money transfer organizations of choice according to our researchers interviews are Western Union and a smaller, somewhat cheaper company called Vigo. Either way a huge chunk of their checks are extracted by these MTOs, way over the 5% maximum demand that ACORN International has made as part of the Remittance Justice Campaign and that Canada as part of the G-8 has claimed to adopt as a world standard.

Talking to SAWP representatives though was like visiting Mars. Yes, Canada collected its taxes. Yes, the migrant workers made remittances home. No, the governmental representatives had no idea how much was extracted by the MTOs of the checks, despite these bi-national agreements with Mexico and Caribbean countries. It is impossible to escape the core immorality, even venality, of this predatory governmental operation. The Canadian government gets migrant help for its agricultural enterprises, profits from taxes that can’t benefit the workers, and then turns a blind eye as predatory fees are extracted from the laborers before they return home with what little is left.

ACORN International and its federated partners like ACORN Canada, ACORN Mexico, and ACORN Dominican Republic, have stumbled onto a scandal and are busily preparing demands to force immediate change in these practices along the lines we have continued to make in recent months for cost caps and desperately needed regulations. Without a doubt this is an outrage that demands the authorities finally listen and act!

DREAM On!

jstuart — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:39:38 +0000

New Orleans The California Supreme Court yesterday became one of the few bright spots in the dark tunnel that immigrants are facing for any kind of justice or resolution given the political storm clouds hovering everywhere. The Californians ruled that it would be discriminatory to deny California residents scholarship support from state institutions because of their immigration status. This ruling does not affect state and federal money, but protects an important financial aid program for immigrants in California where more than 50% of the students are Latinos according to some reports.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have also stated that they are willing to have a go at passing the DREAM Act in the lame duck Congress. As I have said earlier, this is good politics but passage would be so surprising that it might end all controversy about whether or not there is a God.

The DREAM act has had the most heat on the streets. Students have shown the courage of civil rights organizers during much of the year, even when the outcome was likely deportation to home countries that in many cases they had never seen or visited.

Let’s get some things straight. The DREAM Act is not a free “amnesty” ticket for teens. The language leaves rocks in the road and mountains to climb:

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (The “DREAM Act”) is a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that was first introduced in the United States Senate on August 1, 2001^[1] and most recently re-introduced there and the United States House of Representatives on March 26, 2009. This bill would provide certain inadmissible or deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. as minors, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. The alien students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have “acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor’s degree or higher degree in the United States,” or have “served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge.”^[2] Military Enlistment contracts require an eight year commitment.^[3] “Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated [according to the terms of the Act] shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act.” (from Wikipedia with sources in the House and Senate language of the bill)

Another way of looking at DREAM would be as an in-country visa program similar to what we now use to allow good students and other skill sets into the US now. Why only open the doors to those outside, if there are other students who are succeeding here now, performing productively as students, and willing to live on the tight wire of life in order to be provisional Americans? If we could get past the bias, there might be some common sense and the DREAM Act speaks not to a free ride, but at least a safe passage for those able to stay the course.

Reading the New York Times, it appears the only other viable option is laying tracks north for another underground railroad, but this time to Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada. It may be the frozen north, but at least they understand the value of the hard work and education of immigrants. In fact that is the American history and tradition for most of us, but it currently seems to be part of the national amnesia.

Win, lose, or draw, we might at least get a good fight out of this, and once we’re at close quarters, maybe we’ll make some progress, so DREAM On!

Brewer, Bankers, and Union Busters – Election Day!

dine — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:12:29 +0000

Grizzly Mom voted!

New Orleans Yesterday was the first day of our future and from all reports it was much, much scarier than Halloween might have ever hoped to be. Look at the cases in point.

In the federal hearing on immigration madness in Arizona, Governor Brewer took time out of her campaign schedule (ok, that’s a lie; the hearing WAS her campaign schedule after all!) to rubberneck at the federal judges parsing the hate from the law in SB 1070. From NDLON tweets at the trial and the story, it seemed many of the questions went to the issue of exactly why the state should be doing the federal government’s job. With the Republican Tea Party explosion, how many pieces of anti-immigrant can we now expect? Certainly, the hope for reform needs a total retooling to mount a push back from our base in progressive cities and states to offset the madness.

Our friend, Joe McCartin, labor history professor at Georgetown, was quoted liberally in the New York Times, on the coming attacks against labor unions with Republican Tea Party ascendancy, but all that did was put a little sugar in the coffee, because it was a bitter drink to swallow. Card check has been dead, but

they intend to bury it to no one’s surprise. Prevailing wages for construction workers is on the chopping block, but the Republicans may not have gotten the word on how much that has been eviscerated in many communities already. They must be just positioning to take early credit for some of what they have already done. The only good news is that there may be a stalemate, but given the decline in labor strength, a stalemate is another nail in our coffin, unless we finally shift directions and change strategy.

There is a great scene and line in the new movie, Social Network, where then Harvard President and always arrogant Larry Summers, turns to an aide, while meeting with the whining crew roaring elitists, and says, “punch me in the face, now!” This is how I felt this morning reading the Times story on the bailout bankers positioning themselves after their economy collapsing performances of recent years and their disaster tour on foreclosures. These guys are coming back to power. They are exulting at the prospects of defunding regulation under the Frank bill, SEC, and other regulatory agencies. They are buying each other t-shirts to wear under their silk ties that say: “F**k you – We Have Learned NOTHING!”

It’s one thing to go to the polls holding your nose. It’s another when you have to make sure you have a bag packed by the time you come back from voting, so you are ready to roll and run at any moment!

Immigration is All Politics: Arpaio Whitewash, DREAM Deferred

dine — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:17:36 +0000

Seoul No way! Reading the papers from Seoul (props to ROK as the most internet connected country in the world with free hookups at the airport!), I’m reading that Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa got good and passing grades from the federal Marshall’s audit of his jails in September 2009 and recently. How can you get good grades with inmates living in tents in 120 degree weather and wearing pink pantsuits? Something is wrong here! Sheriff Joe of course threw the DOJ division back at the DOJ and its lawsuit on discrimination.

He says it’s “all politics.” He’s right. Why aren’t we doing better then? Why are we not punishing politicians where there are immigrant voting blocks in the districts?

The ease with which the DREAM amendment suddenly materialized with Senator Reid in deep trouble for his reelection in Nevada would seem to be proof positive that when the case is clear, action can happen. Why didn’t this happen earlier? Of course the confusion in strategy between a half-loaf, the whole loaf, and not a single slice pretty much doomed us. Two votes blocking debate from Arkansas from Lincoln and Pryor make no sense when the demand for increase immigration has been on the front pages for years from Tyson, Wal-Mart, and the tomato industry in the southern part of the state. We have to be ready or not, and in this case it seems “not” was the answer. Worth noting again as I have before that the courage of the DREAM marchers and others that have stood up in the face of certain deportation in the future fuels this fire. We need the same courage on other issues.

Time to start playing hardball for immigration reform and admitting that without a better grassroots political strategy, nothing is going to happen good anytime in the future on this issue.

Criminal Employers

jstuart — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:35:39 +0000

Phoenix Immigration reform advocates have increasingly lodged the criticism that the Obama Administration, the state of Arizona, and many other jurisdictions is criminalizing immigrants. Part of this lies in the simple Arpaio aberration of taking a civil infraction, which is how an immigration violation exists in law, and making it a criminal issue, largely in the court of public opinion.

As part of the Administration policy, criminalizing the employers has become more aggressive and effective in their weapons against immigrants. From today’s Times:

“Under a policy that went into effect in April 2009, the Obama administration is taking a much tougher stance on employers who hire illegal immigrants than any administration in decades. Enforcement agents have subjected businesses across the country to much greater scrutiny, using tactics that were almost nonexistent until two years ago. Federal officials said they expected to announce record numbers of investigations and fines by the end of the year. As of July 31, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, had announced investigations of 2,073 businesses so far this year, outpacing the 1,461 conducted in all of 2009.”

In the story in the New York Times dining section the whole gamut of contradictions was on rare display. Our friends at the Interfaith Workers’ Justice, based in Chicago, were clear that restaurants should pay a fair wage. The Restaurant Association seemed to be warning that paying fairly and hiring legal would mean that prices would go up at your favorite chi-chi spot, though I’m betting prices are pretty stiff now. To no one’s surprise he Pew Research Center seems clear that the back of the house in a restaurant is an open door for employment for recent immigrants:

“Out of a total of about 12.7 million workers in the restaurant industry, an estimated 1.4 million — both legal and illegal immigrants — are foreign born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to 2008 estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, about 20 percent of the nearly 2.6 million chefs, head cooks and cooks are illegal immigrants. Among the 360,000 dishwashers, 28 percent are undocumented, according to the estimates.”

So, if 10-15% of the industry is undocumented, ICE is shooting fish in a barrel it would seem, but rather than continuing the old school system of raiding the fish and watching them swim, now ICE and the Obama Administration is shooting the fisherman – the employers – rather than the fish. And, there are recent examples of bagging some big ones:

“In June, the owner of two Maryland restaurants who pleaded guilty to hiring and harboring illegal immigrants was ordered to forfeit to the government more than $700,000 in assets — in addition to his motorcycle — and faces up to 10 years in prison. In November, a restaurateur in Mississippi who had pleaded guilty to hiring illegal immigrants was sentenced to a year in prison and a year of supervised release. Combined fines in the case, shared among several defendants, amount to $600,000.”

Many of the chefs and restaurateurs are making it easy for them by believing that they can slick this problem away by paying in cash. Whoa, Nellie! Not happenin captain! The hole got dug deeper and the net flung wider.

This new policy will scare some criminal employers into line, and for sure listening to their blushing whines about their practices doesn’t encourage much sympathy for them, but it won’t work, it’s simply too big.

If they want a new immigration policy and if we want immigration reform, ICE needs to read the industry and employers’ lament and go on and take the next logical step: criminalize the customers! Then hell will finally break loose in full helter-skelter. It’s the “going after the johns” strategy on prostitution by targeting the beneficiaries of the “criminal” activity. It’s just a matter of time at this rate before someone goes in and frog marches a bunch of high rollers at a fancy $100 a plate meal into some paddy wagons and listens to them squeal, so we finally have the public engaged in the issue and reform. Maybe then we will get somewhere.

In the meantime the pain of these policies spreads like a disease through the land.

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.

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!

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.

Game Changers on Health and Immigration

jstuart — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:00:55 +0000

Takoma Park Sunday in the early spring turns out to be a big event for a change in the DC area for two reasons.

The final votes are being wrangled into the corral for health care reform, and it looks like what Majority Leader Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) calls the “final yard” will be handled in heart stopping, breath taking fashion with prayers said and fingers crossed. Good news for millions without health care, warts and all.

And, in momentous timing simultaneously, tens of thousands, certainly no less than 50,000 immigrants and their supporters and maybe as many as 100,000, are rallying and marching to demand real, comprehensive immigration reform after more than a year of suffering through empty promises and holding back anger and what Gustavo Torres, the director of the CASA de Maryland, which is bringing more marchers to the rally than any other organization, calls “frustration.” If the numbers hit the high end of organizers’ hopes, then perhaps immigration advocates will take a lesson from the health care struggle that will be crunching to a close, one way or another, at the Capitol as they pass by on the way to their buses. The immigration organizers might realize that there is a real movement behind them pushing out of the pain and into the streets that must have relief and win reform. Perhaps they will stop stifling the grassroots base and unleash them por la causa. If they do, and the beltway lobbying machine finally becomes coupled to the strategy and tactics of a movement, then a real bill, and not simply a convoluted politicians’ “framework” might emerge.

I wonder how different the health care bill might have looked and whether or not these last ditch manueverings would have been necessary had the health care organizers also stopped “managing” the base, and moved patients, the uninsured millions, and the victims of the current system to the forefront? There’s a reason that the politicians don’t like to see these messy problems firsthand. It’s easier to wheel and deal in the cloakrooms of Congress than to have to wrestle with what the President is calling, “doing the right thing.”

The courage of the nuns in the ultra hierarchical Catholic Church is an interesting case study in how the base can trump the brass, or in this case, I should say the bishops. These quotes from an article on their split in the Times says it all for how the game can change:

“When I read the Gospel, where is Jesus? He’s healing the lepers,” Sister Simone said. “It’s because of his Gospel mandate to do likewise that we stand up for health care reform.”

“We have a number of nuns in his district, and they’ve been calling him [Congressman Stupak],” said Sister Regina McKillip, a Dominican nun who lives in Washington. “Who’s been on the ground, in the field? Who knows the struggles people have to deal with? It’s the sisters.”

It’s time to listen to the base, the brothers and sisters in the streets and barrios, and let them raise their voices and put their feet to the ground and change the way politics is done by reminding many in Washington, that this is not really a “game” at all.

Guest Worker Abuses

dine — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:10:09 +0000

Saket Soni and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice have beaten the drum in the more than four years since Hurricane Katrina about the abuses to south Asian guest workers pulled into the shipyards during the desperate labor supplies after the storm. Lawsuits against Signal International now coming to light reveal clearly the dark underbelly of the H-2B temporary guest worker program, and why it is so clearly not a solution to the immigration crises in our country.

Primarily Indian metalworkers paid brokers up to $20,000 USD, which is literally a king’s ransom in rupees, to undertake the work. They expected and put up with the terrible living conditions common in a labor camp in the shipyard, especially in the post-Katrina. What they also expected was that promises of a green card which would allow them to continue working in the USA would also be delivered, since that was so clearly the line that recruited them to the shipyards. Unfortunately, as any reader would know, that line was a total line.

As the 500 workers agitated about their conditions, circumstances, and the injustice of it all, supported by assistance from the Workers’ Center and national advocacy by NDLON, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, and its leaders, Pablo Alvarado and Chris Newman, the boss according to the court papers and an article by Julia Preston in The New York Times, saw the Indians as “whiners” and wanted to target and remove the ringleaders. Where did the boss go for advice in this area? Well, right to agents of ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement outfit so notorious throughout the land.

The advice was a classic labor busting technique more reminiscent of the old organizer tales of the Wobblies tarred and feathered and ridden out on the rails than anything else. The agent according to the boss said, “Don’t give them any advance notice. Take them all out of the line on the way to work; get their personal belongings; get them in a van, and get their tickets, and get them to the airport, and send them back to India.”

It didn’t work out so well in this one situation since folks like the Workers’ Center were all over this bad boy, but I have to wonder how many thousands of times this advice would have yielded exactly the expected result? This situation may see some justice through the courts, but this is rare.

The notion that we can build a “guest worker” program on the backs of desperate immigrant workers, almost classically exploitative labor contractors and recruiters, and still make a big deal out of the Statue of Liberty and any core values of the United States as a nation of immigrants, is the cruelest irony underlying all of this.

Police: No on 287(g)

jstuart — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:16:43 +0000

New Orleans Big city police chiefs from places like Miami,Sacramento, and elsewhere came out yesterday against 287(g). They don’t want local police forces to be confused with the immigration storm troopers of ICE.

The Miami chief in a published report cited the downturn of cooperation between immigrants and police in his city as dating from a “get-tough-on-immigrants” speech made by Senator John McCain during the campaign. He and others stated the obvious: new immigrants do not know the difference between the local police force and federal officials. No, duh, in many of the countries from which they hail the federales are synonymous with the local police and don’t have the nice qualms around jurisdictional limits we find (supposedly) in the states.

I’m not sure what it takes Secretary Napolitano and President Obama to throw out 287(g) and the ravages of blockheads like Sheriff Joe Apaio, but big city chiefs with significant populations of immigrants are shouting loudly and clearly, if they would just listen, that 278(g) is hurting, rather than helping their departments, their cities, and the real fight against crime.