Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Democrats on Immigration ?
WHERE ARE THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON IMMIGRATION?: Here's a breakdown from POLITICO's Ted Hesson:
On the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers deportation relief and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, most candidates agreerecipients should have a path to citizenship. Sen. Kamala Harris has added that she would take executive actions that could allow Dreamers to obtain legal status if Congress doesn't act.
Several Democratic candidates would decriminalize illegal immigration. Thirteen support repealing Section 1325 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, which makes crossing the border without undergoing an inspection by an immigration officer a misdemeanor offense. That was the statute used by the Trump administration to justify separating families under its "zero-tolerance" policy which separated thousands of families in the spring of 2018. The decriminalizers include Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand , former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Wayne Messam, Rep. Seth Moulton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Rep. Joe Sestak, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.
Six candidates believe criminal penalties for illegally crossing the border should remain in place. They include former Rep. Beto O' Rourke, Sen. Michael Bennet, Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Rep. John Delaney, Rep. Tim Ryan, and Gov. Steve Bullock. At Tuesday night's presidential debate, Bullock said, "We got a hundred thousand people showing up at the border right now. If we decriminalize entry ... we'll have multiples of that." O'Rourke said: "I expect that people who come here follow our laws" and "we reserve the right to criminally prosecute them." More from Hesson on POLITICO's 2020 Issues Tracker.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Immigrant Abuse in Yolo County
Are immigrants being abused in our own backyard? This jail needs real transparency
How, and Why Trump Uses Racism
Choosing Democracy: How, and Why Trump Uses Racism: The conversation surrounding Trump’s latest racist rants has provoked us to revisit author Toni Morrison’s 1975 keynote address at Portlan...
Guatemala's Government agrees to Asylum
Guatemala and the Trump administration have agreed an an asylum deal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/guatemala-safe-third-asylum.html?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/guatemala-safe-third-asylum.html?
In our (IRWG) resolution to the DSA convention, one of our points is to oppose any expansion of Guest Worker or H2A programs. Today, the Trump administration is seeking to expand H 2 A in an agreement with the ( corrupt) government of Guatemala.
This is an artful ploy, and we need to respond with precision. Those who primarily see an issue of humanitarian relief may support the Trump administration in this move.
The proposal would provide a new, expanded H2A work force for Guatemalan workers. The problem is not the workers, the problem is the exploitive, colonial program.
From the United Farmworkers Union.
We have to stop these Trump H-2A changes or farm workers will suffer.
See below. https://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2019/07/trumps-h2a-changes-hurt-farm-workers.html
See below. https://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2019/07/trumps-h2a-changes-hurt-farm-workers.html
Monday, July 29, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Trump's H2A changes hurt farm workers
  |
The hard working men and women who harvest our food are already paid very low wages, provided little or no benefits and excluded from basic protections. The Trump administration wants to make their situation worse. The regulatory rule changes on the H-2A guest worker program which will be posted in the Federal Register tomorrow, Friday July 26, could cut wages and protections even more for most farm workers. Help us block these changes.
If Trump's H-2A rules-changing scheme happens, there would be a huge negative impact on those currently working in agriculture. This scheme would deprive US citizens and lawful permanent residents of job opportunities by weakening the laws that require US citizens and legal residents to be offered these jobs first. The federal government indicates more than half of farm workers are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
The already flawed current H-2A program requires growers or farm labor contractors to make a separate application for each job. This small protection in the current law allows U.S. workers to apply for local jobs. Under Trump's new plan, what currently is one job in one location could in the future become a series of jobs in multiple crops and multiple locations -- even in different states. Many U.S. workers will be less likely to apply for these jobs because it would mean leaving their families behind. This drastic move could replace local U.S. workers with foreign H-2A workers. Instead of creating jobs for U.S. workers, it would take them away.
If this change takes place, it would lower farm workers' already poor wages. The Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) is critically important in protecting domestic workers' wages and jobs and preventing exploitation of vulnerable foreign workers. This includes changing the way the AEWR is calculated, resulting in lower wages. For example, the data used in the new rules comes only from farm labor contractors who tend to pay less than growers who hire directly.
The system permits H-2A employers to reject U.S. farm workers who seek jobs but are unwilling to accept the same poor wages as the exploited H-2A workers. In addition, these harmful pay cuts will undermine the labor market and severely depress wages for all agricultural workers.
In addition, it would allow for housing abuses. The proposed regulations would allow employers to bypass annual inspections by government agencies and to even self-inspect and certify their own housing. Can you imagine what would happen, when violations like the below were occurring even with regular inspection requirements?!
Neighbors Thwart ICE
Nashville Neighbors Thwart ICE Arrest
When ICE tried to arrest an undocumented man in Tennessee, neighbors and a network of volunteers formed a human chain to protect him. Time: “Residents in a suburban Nashville neighborhood came together to protect an undocumented man as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers attempted to arrest him Monday morning. After a four-hour attempted arrest — during which time the undocumented man and his young son barricaded themselves inside a van parked in front of their home — ICE agents left, and neighbors and activists on the scene created a human chain to allow the family to get indoors. ‘At that point it was being extra cautious and letting the family know, look, we got your back, we’re between you and the unknown, and here’s a safe pathway back to your front door,’ Tristan Call, a volunteer at Movements Including X (MIX), a collective of young activists who organize for social causes, tells TIME. Call was a part of the human chain. By the time the attempted arrest was over, dozens of people had showed up to support the undocumented man, including two city councilmen from Nashville. The volunteers showed up as part of a network called ICE Rapid Response to protect undocumented immigrants, just one example of communities throughout the country who have responded to increasing threats of ICE arrests.”
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Trump Speeds Up Deportations
U.S. To Speed Up Deportations Without Courts
U.S. to ramp up rapid deportations with sweeping new rule. Reuters: “The Trump administration said on Monday it will expand and speed up deportations of migrants who enter the United States illegally by stripping away court oversight, enabling officials to remove people in days rather than months or years. Set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the rule will apply ‘expedited removal’ to the majority of those who enter the United States illegally, unless they can prove they have been living in the country for at least two years. Legal experts said it was a dramatic expansion of a program already used along the U.S.-Mexican border that cuts out review by an immigration judge, usually without access to an attorney. Both are available in regular proceedings. ‘The Trump administration is moving forward into converting ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) into a ‘show me your papers’ army,’ said Vanita Gupta, the president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.”
Monday, July 22, 2019
Catholics Arrested on Capitol Hill in Protest of Trump Immigration Policies
 |
| Catholics Arrested Protesting Trump Policies |
In Washington, D.C., Capitol Police arrested 70 Catholic nuns and clergy Thursday as they held a nonviolent sit-in protest inside the Russell Senate Office Building against the Trump administration’s inhumane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers. More than a dozen protesters stood in a circle, holding the photographs of migrant children who have died in U.S. custody, and reciting their names. The latest protests came as immigrant communities across the U.S. have prepared for reported ICE raids that were scheduled to begin last weekend but have largely not materialized.
LULAC Scholarships
Lorenzo Patiño LULAC Council
No. 2862 of Sacramento
You are invited to Our
2019 LULAC Scholarship Awards Lunch
A Family Event for Members & Guests
Sunday, August18, 2019
1:00 – 4:00 PM
SIERRA 2 CENTER
2971 24THStreet, Sacramento, CA 95814
Lunch: Grilled Chicken, Salads, Fruit & Tea/Lemonade/Water, Dessert
Adults: $20 To reserve call Mike Vasquez Children(12 & under): Free! At 916-804-2502 May Pay at event
Two of the Five Scholarships will be named after donors:
Sacramento City Councilmember, Eric Guerra
Sacramento City Councilmember, Jay Schenirer
Sunday, July 21, 2019
We Are Here Because You Were There
Choosing Democracy: We Are Here Because You Were There: Refugees at the U.S. Border Pat Hynes Guatemala Why would so many Guatemalans make the arduous journey to the US-Mexican border seekin...
Monday, July 15, 2019
Trump's Diversion
The news media and the pundits are awash this morning with comments about Trump’s attacks on 4 Freshwoman Congress persons.
That it not the important point. That is a Trump misdirection.
The important point is separating families and putting children in cages.
Lets keep focused.
Duane Campbell, Immigrants Rights Working Group !
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Hungry, Scared, and Sick- Inside ICE Detention
From New York times.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/06/us/migrants-border-patrol-clint.html?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/06/us/migrants-border-patrol-clint.html?
 |
| Brittany Greeson , NYT. |
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Friday, July 12, 2019
Defend Our Families- Know Your Rights
 | |
Prepare Your Community to Assert Their Rights
Against Possible ICE Arrests! | |
|
¿ Conoce sus derechos ?
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Activists Demand: Shut Down Trump's Detention Camp...
Activists Demand: Shut Down Trump's Detention Camp...: A group of nearly two dozen prominent journalists, academics, and activists Tuesday called on Americans across the nation to use "an...
Justice for Immigrants Campaign
An appeal by the DSA National Immigrant Rights Working Group
The National Immigrant Rights Working Group (NIRWG)of the Democratic Socialists of America calls on DSA members and all working people to mobilize in support of actions such as the Lights for Liberty Vigils to End Human Detention Camps on July 12, the demonstrations organized in San Diego and elsewhere by the Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps and the July 13 Action to End Criminalization, Detention, & Deportations in Chicago.
Trump's attacks on the human rights of the most vulnerable has once again galvanized the nation's conscience.
We should make this the beginning of a concerted drive against immigration detention and child abuse, as well as the unjust immigration system that has empowered Trump's racist attacks as well as the campaigns to jail and deport the undocumented of past administrations.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
ICE Gets more Money: Plans New Jails
Congress not only told Immigration and Customs Enforcement to jail fewer people as part of a funding package last year, but also rejected a subsequent request for more money for more detention. Mother Jonesreports that ICE has now gone ahead with plans for more detention anyway.
“ICE is continuing to spend money it hasn’t been given. Mother Jones has learned that ICE has started using three new for-profit immigration detention centers in the Deep South in recent weeks. One of them has seen the death of three inmates following poor medical treatment and a violent riot in 2012 that left a guard dead.” The locations of the three private prisons—one operated by CoreCivic in Mississippi and the remaining two by LaSalle Corrections and GEO Group in Louisiana—are intentional. “Concentrating asylum seekers in Southern states makes it particularly likely that they will lose their cases because of the region’s harsh judges and shortage of immigration lawyers,” Mother Jones continues. “There are not enough judges in Louisiana to hear the new cases, and there are no immigration courts in Mississippi.” Detainees will be forced to appear for their court dates via video conference.
21 month old dies in Border Patrol Custody
Yazmin Juárez sat in front of a House subcommittee Wednesday and recalled the most horrible experience of her life. She watched her daughter die in ICE custody.
She spoke to the lawmakers about how her 21-month-old daughter, Mariee, died of respiratory illnesses after leaving Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last year.
“We came to the United States, where I hoped to build a better life,” said the 21-year-old mother, who fled violence in Guatemala in early 2018. “Instead, I watched my baby girl die slowly and painfully just a few months before her second birthday.”
Throughout her translated testimony, she choked up with tears recounting how ICE and medical officials continually endangered her daughter’s life, in some cases denying the toddler the care she needed or lying about her condition. Multiple House members wiped tears from their eyes as Juárez told her story and said she was testifying in hopes of preventing other children from dying.
Democrats convened the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to discuss the horrific conditions in migrant detention facilities. This issue has been in the national spotlight amid reports that U.S. Border Patrol stations are overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe for children who are often forced to sleep on concrete floors.
There have been flu outbreaks in multiple border facilities, and medical experts say the government is failing to provide children with adequate care and safe settings to recover in. Five children have died in Border Patrol custody since December, a few after being diagnosed with illnesses such as the flu or respiratory infections that doctors have told HuffPost were not properly treated. Lawyers who recently visited a Texas border facility told HuffPost they had to ensure that four severely ill toddlers were taken immediately to a hospital.
Juárez’s daughter was healthy after crossing the border, she told the subcommittee. But then she and her child were detained for a few days in a cold Border Patrol facility, where they were packed in a cage with 30 others and slept on a concrete floor. The family was then transferred in March 2018 to an ICE family detention center in Dilley, Texas, where Juárez said they were put in a room with other mothers and their sick children.
Tuesday, July 09, 2019
Monday, July 08, 2019
SINCE WASHINGTON D.C. WON'T OVERSEE ITS GUEST WORK...
The Reality Check: SINCE WASHINGTON D.C. WON'T OVERSEE ITS GUEST WORK...: SINCE WASHINGTON D.C. WON'T OVERSEE ITS GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS, WASHINGTON STATE WILL By David Bacon The American Prospect, 7/5/19 https:...
Saturday, July 06, 2019
Resisting Trump's Cruelty
Sasha Abramsky
Giving Refuge to Migrants.
https://www.thenation.com/article/immigrant-detention-trump-solidarity/
Giving Refuge to Migrants.
https://www.thenation.com/article/immigrant-detention-trump-solidarity/
THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY OF DAVID BACON - ...
The Reality Check: THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY OF DAVID BACON - ...: THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY OF DAVID BACON THE YEAR CESAR DIED: Rebuilding the UFW - March/April, 1994 Photographs and text by David Ba...
Thursday, July 04, 2019
Yes, We Do Have Concentration Camps
 |
T
he scene outside the U.S. Border Patrol station where lawyers reported that detained migrant children had been held under bad conditions in Clint, Texas, on June 26, 2019.
Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
|
Shaun King
June 29, 2019
The Intercept
“YES, WE DO have concentration camps,” began the stinging critique of the Trump administration’s immigration detention facilities. It was written earlier this week by the editorial board of the Salt Lake Tribune, in the reliably conservative state of Utah.
Andrea Pitzer, author of the definitive book on the global history of concentration camps, agrees. So do people who were once forced to live in another era’s concentration camps.
But amid the debate about what to call immigration detention facilities, few people have disputed the truly terrible conditions that exist within them. Migrants have long reported awful experiences in immigration custody, but in recent months, an increase in the number of people, especially families and children, crossing the border and being detained has led to severe overcrowding.
Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier was granted access to a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, and wrote in her report about it that “the conditions within which they are held could be compared to torture facilities.” They “felt worse than jail.” The kids she examined were forced to endure “extreme cold temperatures, lights on 24 hours a day, no adequate access to medical care, basic sanitation, water, or adequate food.”
It’s not an accident. These systems are cruel by design.
All Men and Women Are Created Equal - Including Migrants
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
We Demand: Close the Camps
Over 170 Demonstrations nation wide today.
Several hundred at Congresswoman Matsui's Office in Sacramento
Several hundred at Congresswoman Matsui's Office in Sacramento
Border Patrol Inspector finds conditions dangerous, intolerable.
Open Letter: All Members of Congress
It is unacceptable that there are thousands of children and families suffering right now in immigrant detention. Children are denied soap and toothbrushes, crowded into unsafe conditions, and are going hungry because they are not provided enough food to eat. Separated from their families, they are subject to cruel and inhumane treatment that leads to lasting traumas. And some are dying in custody—or dying with parents as they cross the Rio Grande.
These conditions are the product of the Trump administration’s cruel agenda to terrorize immigrant communities, criminalize migration, and dismantle our asylum laws.
Today, Close the Camps protests are happening across the country to declare that members of Congress must use all of their power to stop the atrocities now.
Here are three clear ways we request you to act:
Second, stop funding family for detention and deportation. Kids and families do not belong in cages, and immigrants strengthen, not harm our society. We must transform into a country that welcomes people with dignity and respect.
Lastly, we request that you go to a detention center this week, during the July Fourth recess, and connect with community organizations and direct service providers along the border or near a detention facility to get a sense of the full scope of the issues, and then become an advocate for these kids and families to be freed and reunited. Your visit is needed to add to the mounting public pressure and achieve a breakthrough.
Here are some resources to help with your visit.
It is unacceptable that there are thousands of children and families suffering right now in immigrant detention. Children are denied soap and toothbrushes, crowded into unsafe conditions, and are going hungry because they are not provided enough food to eat. Separated from their families, they are subject to cruel and inhumane treatment that leads to lasting traumas. And some are dying in custody—or dying with parents as they cross the Rio Grande.
These conditions are the product of the Trump administration’s cruel agenda to terrorize immigrant communities, criminalize migration, and dismantle our asylum laws.
Today, Close the Camps protests are happening across the country to declare that members of Congress must use all of their power to stop the atrocities now.
Here are three clear ways we request you to act:
- 1) Close the Camps.
- 2) Not One Dollar for Family Detention and Deportation.
- 3) Bear Witness and Reunite the Families.
Second, stop funding family for detention and deportation. Kids and families do not belong in cages, and immigrants strengthen, not harm our society. We must transform into a country that welcomes people with dignity and respect.
Lastly, we request that you go to a detention center this week, during the July Fourth recess, and connect with community organizations and direct service providers along the border or near a detention facility to get a sense of the full scope of the issues, and then become an advocate for these kids and families to be freed and reunited. Your visit is needed to add to the mounting public pressure and achieve a breakthrough.
Here are some resources to help with your visit.
- ● Guide to visiting an ICE Detention Facility: https://bit.ly/2YjHXbd
- ● Visit United We Dream’s ICE and CBP tracker:
https://unitedwedream.org/the-truth-about-ice-and-cbp/ice-and-cbp-abuse-tracker/ - ● Contact Ana Maria at RAICES for advice on setting up a visit and which local
organizations to contact. Ana Maria Rea, anamaria.rea@raicestexas.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)