Stop this Deportation ! DACA

Nelly is in a detention center in Texas and can be deported to El Salvador this coming Tuesday. She is DACA eligible and should be able to apply for an initial application, but because USCIS refuses to open up the application process for new applications regardless of the SCOTUS decision, ICE is refusing to allow her to apply and stay. She came to the US from El Salvador at age 8 in 1993 and has lived here ever since. Nelly is Jewish and has lost 60 pounds in detention because ICE refuses to give her the Kosher diet she needs.

It would be incredibly helpful if Democratic Socialist of America could write a letter of support for her before Tuesday and send it to ICE in SA. Would this be possible? You can also post about it on SM and help spread the word. Here's the info you can use:

• Sample letter here.
• ICE Emails: SanAntonio.Outreach@ice.dhs.gov; arturo.gonzalezjr@ice.dhs.gov; Melissa.Lopez@ice.dhs.gov and Jesus.Ramos@ice.dhs.gov
• RAICES Tweet here.
• IG post here.
• The graphic is attached. 

Thank you so much for your support in advance ������.

Best,

-- 

Erika Andiola

Pronouns: She/Her

Corona Virus in Central Valley of California

On Monday, California  Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $52 million grant from the federal government aimed at slowing the coronavirus’s rampage through California’s Central Valley, where residents of predominantly Latino communities have consistently been required to keep showing up to work in fields or meatpacking plants and warehouses


The money will go toward more focused testing efforts to identify outbreaks, education for employees and employers about rights to sick leave and other safety issues, and improvements to quarantine and isolation protocols.

“It’s not the fact that an employee is tested positive,” Mr. Newsom said, standing before a banner for Diamond Foods, a company based in Stockton where at least six walnut processing plant workers recently tested positive for the coronavirus, according to The Stockton Record. “It’s how we respond.”

Mr. Newsom praised Diamond Foods for its response and its place in the community.

He also emphasized that the money would not be used for initiatives “in a punitive mind-set.” Instead, he said, teams sent to the Central Valley will work with employers to fix their processes.

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Trump Attacks the Census and the Undocumented

LULAC Condemns
Trump Executive Order

Nation’s Leading Latino Civil Rights Organization Calls Excluding Undocumented Immigrants from Census A Denial of Basic Rights

Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today announced it is taking action against President Trump’s Executive Order issued to block undocumented immigrants from taking part in the U.S. Census referred to as the basis for “Apportionment”.

In signing the order, President Trump said, “I have accordingly determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President's discretion under the law.”

Domingo Garcia, LULAC National President fired back, “The Executive Order signed by President Trump today is illegal on its face, unconstitutional and plain dumb. LULAC condemns and we are taking steps to keep it from being implemented. It is un-American to deny millions of people living in the United States access to healthcare, education and even representation since the census is how the number of congressional delegates are determined.”

In attempting to justify Trump’s action, the Administration states, “Increasing congressional representation based on the presence of aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status would also create perverse incentives encouraging violations of Federal law. States adopting policies that encourage illegal aliens to enter this country and that hobble Federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws passed by the Congress should not be rewarded with greater representation in the House of Representatives."

“This is clearly a desperate attempt engineered by Stephen Miller to create a massive undercount. President Trump's true motive is to silence our voice, our representation, and our power. We will not fall prey to White Supremacy led strategies whose only objective is to suppress immigrants and communities of color. This is a ploy to shift attention from the failure of this administration to protect all Americans from Covid19,” added Sindy M. Benavides, LULAC’s National Chief Executive Officer.

“What President Trump conveniently leaves out is that the hardworking essential workers he’s targeting are also taxpayers with $1.5 trillion in buying power benefiting the U.S. economy every year!” says Garcia. “Bottom line, this Executive Order is playing politics with people’s lives and LULAC will not allow it,” he added.

Farmworkers Need Your Support

TAKE ACTION: Nearly 100 Primex Farms workers have gotten COVID and workers say the company is still failing to protect them E-mail CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Ask him to investigate and make Primex obey the law. Primex Farms workers in Wasco, CA are sharing grievances over what they're saying is the company's failure to properly protect them from COVID-19. According to a UFW census of employees, the number of workers positive for the coronavirus is now at 97. An additional 63 family members are also positive for the coronavirus including a 9-month-old baby. And more are testing positive on a regular basis. Primex provides mostly year-round employment for 400 packing shed workers. Remigio Ramirez has been working at Primex as a maintenance worker for 13 years. He repeatedly tried to tell his supervisors that he was sick. “I started feeling sick like three days before (the diagnosis) and I asked my supervisor to let me go home and he said there was a lot of work and not enough employees... Now, most of us are infected, my wife, my daughter... What are we going to do?" Workers have told us they learned about colleagues testing positive from other workers and media reports, not from the company. Some of the workers who requested to stay home to protect their health were advised they could resign instead. We've even heard reports that some workers who tested positive were told to keep it quiet. Out of frustration with the company giving them the runaround, worker leaders staged a strike on June 25th. At that time the company said they would shut down to do a deep cleaning against the coronavirus. However, workers say all the company did was a regularly scheduled in-house fumigation against pests with in-house workers who themselves could have been exposed to COVID-19. The company disputes this, but workers insist that no deep cleaning has occurred. Additionally, the company is still scheduling some workers to come to work who have been tested at the plant but have not yet been provided with their written results. In a press statement, the company promised to pay all workers for all the time they lostwhether they have symptoms or test positive. According to workers, the company has since failed to do so. Not only that, workers report that Primex is failing to pay all employees for the time they are unable to work under the federal CARES Act as well as CA Gov. Newsom's executive order mandating two weeks of paid sick leave. Please help Primex workers. Send a message to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today. Tell him to investigate and make Primex obey the law. Workers are demanding Primex institute social distancing, pay wages during shutdowns and for workers who've tested positive or have been told to self-quarantine, do a thorough third-party COVID-19 specific cleaning, continue to sanitize facilities daily and test all current and new employees for COVID-19. Take action today!

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White House Incompetence is dangerous. 

Immigration: A focus on undoing Trump policies

Biden Sanders Task Force

Immigration: A focus on undoing Trump policies

The report indicated that the immigration agenda of a Biden administration would focus on undoing President Trump’s restrictionist policies, which have been anathema to Democrats.

The task force recommended that Mr. Biden work with Congress to maintain protections for about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation, a program that Mr. Trump is trying to end. It also recommended ending Mr. Trump’s travel restrictions against 13 countries, most of which have substantial Muslim populations.

The report said Mr. Biden should end a program that forced more than 60,000 migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases wound through immigration courts, and should stop diverting asylum seekers to Central American countries. Mr. Biden should increase the number of refugees who can be allowed into the United States to 125,000 per year, from Mr. Trump’s level of 18,000, and raise that cap over time, the committee said. And it called for ending the national emergency declaration that Mr. Trump has used to siphon billions of dollars in Pentagon funding for a wall along the southwestern border.

The task force stopped short of calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished, as some in the party have called for. Instead, the report recommends increasing oversight of immigration enforcement and border agencies with the creation of an ombudsman and a panel. There was also no suggestion that unauthorized border crossings should be decriminalized and made a civil offense, a change Mr. Sanders has supported, although the committee recommended prioritizing prosecutions of human traffickers.

Sydney Ember contributed reporting.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/us/politics/biden-sanders-task-force.html?

Biden Platform and Immigration

On Wednesday, the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force announced their policy recommendations. The goal of these task forces was to create the foundation for the Biden and the Democratic Party official policy commitments. I took part in the immigration task force as one of the people brought on by the Bernie Sanders campaign.

 

I accepted because we had to make sure Biden’s platforms reflected the demands that immigrant and Latinx communities have been organizing towards for years.

 

I accepted because if we could set the pace now, we would expand what is possible for our organizing during a Biden administration.

 

Going into these task force negotiations, I knew we would have to push Biden past his comfort zone, both to reconcile with past offenses and carve a new path forward.

 

That’s exactly what we did, unapologetically. 

 

It has been my privilege to bring our community’s demands to the table, and we have some wins to celebrate. Some of Biden’s commitments include:
 

- Establishing a 100 day moratorium on deportations including a full ICE audit;

- Ending private detention;

- Ending 287(g), and similar programs;

- Ending the infamous Operation Streamline;

- Guaranteeing free health coverage to all people regardless of immigration or economic status during a public health crisis like COVID-19; and

- Retiring some of the old slogans and solutions that have not served us and do not meet the moment.

With these recommendations and many more, we already know a Biden presidency will stand in stark contrast to the Trump policies of today. We are ready to make sure Biden and the Democratic Party implement these commitments in their entirety when Biden is elected.

In order to get there, however, we have some very important work to do now. And we are really going to need your help.

Today and every day until the November election, we have to mobilize Latinos against Trump. Because the only way our people, and our demands will have a fighting chance, is to get Trump out of the White House. Will you commit to be in the fight by making a contribution to our Fuera Trump campaign right now?

COUNT ME IN

Thank you for being with us this far. Now, let’s get it done.
 

Marisa Franco

Mijente Director and Co-Founder

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Developing Effective Strategies

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Trump’s Immigration Order: Fast Track to an Abusive Past

Trump’s Immigration Order: Fast Track to an Abusive Past: The president limits U.S. entry to farmworkers with no rights—a boon to both Big Ag and nativists.

ICE is Leaving Immigrants to Die of Covid in Detention

ICE is Leaving Immigrants to Die in Detention, and Retaliating When They Speak Out  https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/30/ice-is-leaving-immigrants-to-die-in-detention-and-retaliating-when-they-speak-out/

by BIANCA SIERRA WOLFF – LISA KNOX

The spread of COVID-19 to immigrant detention facilities poses a mortal danger to everyone who is unjustly detained. Formonths now advocates, organizers and those detained have urged elected officials and governmental agencies to take affirmative steps to prevent needless deaths and suffering inside immigrant detention facilities.

Despite the spread of COVID-19 in these facilities, and the threat it poses to those detained, facility staff, and surrounding communities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has refused to exercise its legal discretion to release those detained and save lives. By some estimates ICE has chosen to release less than 2% of those held in its inhumane jails. In California the situation is compounded as the majority of those detained are held in facilities operated by for-profit corporations with an egregious record of negligence and misconduct.

In an attempt to shed light on these horrific circumstances, immigrants in detention in California have launched coordinated hunger strikes, calling attention to their plight, the death of their fellow detainees, and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. These acts of heroic resistance have been coordinated with and supported by community members, advocates and organizers.

In response, ICE and their for-profit henchmen have undertaken a vicious campaign against activists in detention, retaliating against them with acts of violence and seeking to delegitmize their words and actions in the press. This includes using pepper spray against detainees who have peacefully protested or refused to sign a legal waiver in order to obtain masks, as well as threatening those who have taken part in hunger strikes.

In addition to threats of violence against detainees, ICE has sought to undermine resistance in detention facilities by making outlandish claims that detainees have been coerced into hunger strikes or that advocacy on the issue “exploits the plight of detainees”. In recent weeks ICE has blocked phone calls between local advocates and those in detention in order to sever communication and coordination with the outside world.

These actions are a blatant attempt to silence the free speech and expression of those detained, and a cruel attempt to sever the strong ties and solidarity that has developed between those in detention and their community of supporters. These cruel acts demonstrate just how desperate ICE is to stamp out the flames of organized resistance.

The simple truth is that ICE will do everything in its power to avoid admitting the most basic truth, that its detention system is unnecessary, unjust and inhumane. ICE’s unwillingness to release individuals is based solely on the fact that it does not want to acknowledge that it has the power to do so, and has always had this power, and does not need to detain immigrants in the manner and at the rate in which it does. ICE would rather facilitate mass deaths in its detention facilities than  threaten the multibillion-dollar detention infrastructure it has built.

We condemn ICE’s retaliation against detainees who have organized in resistance and who continue to lead a brave struggle to protect their lives and assert their humanity. We demand that ICE cease all forms of retaliation against those detained, restore phone access at the Otay Mesa detention facility, and free all those who are unjustly and needlessly detained.

We call on elected officials to intervene to protect the civil and human rights of those in ICE custody, and demand a full and independent investigation into the cruel and inhumane actions that continue to take place in these facilities.

Bianca Sierra Wolff is the Executive Director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. Lisa Knox is the immigrant rights managing attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza.

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