Our struggle is to bring social, political, and economic justice to our nation. This is an effort of the Chicano/Mexican American Digital History Project. https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Choosing Democracy: Solidarity with Student Actions
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The Reality Check: THE HUMAN COST OF A STRAWBERRY WAGE
Monday, April 15, 2024
Growers Spend Millions to Oppose UFW - Unions
Ag groups spend millions on ads to discourage California farmworker unionizing. Supporters and members of the United Farm Workers union march in Galt on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022 on their way to Sacramento to ask for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on AB 2183. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com
What to know BY MATHEW MIRANDA AND MELISSA MONTALVO UPDATED APRIL 15, 2024 10:38 AM
Major agriculture organizations have combined forces to spend millions on Spanish-language radio advertisements discouraging farmworkers from voting in union elections. Radio ads promoting anti-union rhetoric on multiple popular radio stations across the state and Spanish-language digital media over the past nine months have attacked a 2023 California “card check law” aimed to make it easier for farmworkers to vote in union elections. In some cases, the ads platform misinformation, according to labor experts. Behind the majority of the radio ads is the California Farmworker Information Center, a registered nonprofit and charity founded in 2023 by executives from the Western Growers Association, California Fresh Fruit Association and California Citrus Mutual — all groups that opposed the “card check” law.
Friday, April 12, 2024
On Immigration
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Wednesday, April 10, 2024
: Happy Birthday Dolores
Tuesday, April 09, 2024
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Republicans’ New Border Target: Migrant Aid Groups
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
College Scholarships Available From LULAC
https://www.lnesc.org/scholarships/lulac/
For high school students planning to go to college next year. Must be a resident of the Sacramento region.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Immigration Reform - Not MAGA Politics
As a former immigration attorney and a daughter of immigrants, I promise to keep speaking up for immigrants’ rights. I’ve been horrified at the dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies from Democrats in Congress and the White House. In both bodies of Congress, we’re seeing members voting for xenophobic, fear mongering bills including spending billions of our taxpayer dollars on war and on far-right U.S. border policies to end asylum protections, speed up mass deportations, and lock up more refugees. President Biden endorsed that bipartisan Senate border bill, invited Trump to “join” him in working on it, and referenced it in last week’s State of the Union address as a priority. In that State of the Union speech, the president called undocumented immigrants “illegals,” prompting a response from human rights groups to affirm that No human being is illegal. We must decriminalize the deeply human act of migration, affirm the rights of all people, and finally create a real path to citizenship for our immigrant neighbors who’ve lived here for years. As Michigan United explains: “We need citizenship and family reunification, not detention and deportations.” In my community, thousands of U.S. citizens can’t get their spouses access to a legal pathway to citizenship because of layers of bureaucracy that leave people waiting 10 or 20 years for an interview. I’m reaffirming the promise I made to the residents of my congressional district when they sent me to Congress: I will continue taking meaningful actions to end hateful Trump-era immigration policies, reunite families, welcome migrants and asylum seekers, and reform our outdated and inhumane immigration system. President Biden and other Democrats also made campaign promises to reduce deportations, reunite families, protect people fleeing danger, and support the millions of undocumented people who are already living and working in our communities. But since Trump left office, deportations have increased, and many Trump-era immigration policies have continued or expanded. This “prisons first, humanity later” approach fails our immigrant communities. The recent Senate bill, which President Biden endorsed and again referenced in his State of the Union address as a priority, would spend an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars to expand notoriously inhumane detention centers—including for-profit prisons that work with ICE. The bill would also send over a billion of our tax dollars for 24-hour “suspicionless surveillance” technology that could be used to profile and harm all immigrant families in the U.S.. Kids are still in cages, and ICE still runs hundreds of abusive jails across the country as part of the world’s largest immigration detention system. Progressives and activists have talked about the need to defund ICE, not send them more money to violate more people’s rights. Thank you. Together we can build a future with dignity and safety for all people. In solidarity, Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Congress |
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Immigration Reform
Immigration reform
The truth is: Republicans in Congress want a broken immigration system. They want to campaign on the issue. They can’t win elections without it.
And Democrats shouldn’t play Republicans’ cynical game on immigration.
Right-wing policies like Title 42, Remain in Mexico, and mass deportations do nothing to fix the issue – they only cause chaos in border communities and harm to immigrants and asylum seekers.
We need real reform to invest in our ports of entry, open up more legal pathways for migration, provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and address the root cause of migration—which is often the conditions in Latin America driving families to our border.
That is the kind of real immigration reform I’ll continue to fight for. I won’t abandon our nation’s values to score a cheap political win. I hope you’ll have my back in that fight.
Greg Casar
U.S. Congress. Texas
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Its Time to Organize
Dear Dolores Huerta Foundation Community,
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Get Out the Vote web page! This civic engagement hub is a one-stop destination for all your voting needs, designed to empower you with essential information and tools for the upcoming elections. Don't forget California's primary election is Tuesday, March 5, 2024!
On our Get Out the Vote page, you can:
- Learn how to register to vote
- Understand your voting rights
- Explore what's on your ballot
- Track your ballot
This page will be continuously updated with relevant voting and civic engagement information, serving as a valuable resource leading up to the elections. While it is designed for California voters, everyone is welcome to explore and benefit from its offerings.
Want to get directly involved?
Join us by phone banking from anywhere, or if you're in Kern County, why not canvass in Tulare or Bakersfield? We will host many more phone banking and canvassing efforts, so please stay tuned to our website and follow us on Instagram.
In Partnership,
-- Your Allies at the Dolores Huerta Foundation
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Monday, February 12, 2024
The Reality Check: FORCED MIGRATION AND DETENTION ARE THE REAL IMMIGR...
Thursday, February 08, 2024
Are Republicans Setting the Debate Terms ?
Is Biden Letting Republicans Set the Terms of the Immigration Debate?
“We have given into the Republican narrative in such a way that we’re beginning to sound like them”: A roundtable discussion with Rep. Delia Ramirez, Heba Gowayed, Victor Narro and Carlos Rojas Rodriguez
NATASCHA ELENA UHLMANN FEBRUARY 8, 2024
In These Times.
Going into the 2024 election, the GOP’s position on migration is abundantly clear. In June 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stood at a presidential campaign podium emblazoned with the words “Stop the Invasion” and likened border crossings to home break-ins. On the campaign trail in December 2023, Donald Trump declared immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Mere weeks ago, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lamented the state’s inability to shoot asylum seekers crossing the border because “the Biden administration would charge us with murder.” These pronouncements mark a mainstreaming of eliminationist rhetoric: Where conservatives once coyly hinted at nativism, they now openly fantasize of murder.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/biden-letting-republicans-set-terms-immigration
What should the border conversation look like?
See. First They Came for the Immigrants.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/first-they-came-for-the-immigrants
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/the-5-biggest-trump-republican-lies-about-illegal-immigration
and more.
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
The Border Bill Fails.
The Senators and the Biden Administration may have forgotten about Operation Wetback, but we have not.
U.S. immigration policy is a mess. It was made worse by the Trump administration, 2016-2020. And, it is unlikely to change in the current political era.
In his campaign this week Trump has promised the largest deportation in U.S. history.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html?
For background, readers should look at Operation Wetback under President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the so-called Mexican Repatriation project of the 1930’s.
The implementation of Operation Wetback was a result of Attorney General Herbert Brownell's tour of Southern California in August 1953. It was there that he made note of the "shocking and unsettling" issue that was illegal immigration.[2] The short-lived operation used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants—some of them American citizens—from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century and some were naturalized citizens who were once native, Operation Wetback was designed to send them to Mexico.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
Operation Wetback was a follow-up to the prior Mexican Repatriation when as many as 2 million were deported, many of them children. Up to 40% of those deported were U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation
Currently there is a competition among Republicans to be the toughest on immigration policy by focusing on fentanyl, which commonly begins production in China.
Tuesday, February 06, 2024
Senator Alex Padilla on Proposed "compromise" Immigration Bill
Sen. Padilla Statement on Senate National Security Supplemental Agreement
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
We have a new post up on our blog.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/sen-padilla-statement-on-senate-national-security-supplemental-agreement
Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, issued the following statement on the Senate’s national security and immigration supplemental agreement:
“After months of a negotiating process that lacked transparency or the involvement of a single border-state Democrat or member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, it is no surprise that this border deal misses the mark. The deal includes a new version of a failed Trump-era immigration policy that will cause more chaos at the border, not less. It is in conflict with our international treaties and obligations to provide people with the opportunity to seek asylum. It fails to address the root causes of migration. And it fails to provide relief for Dreamers, farm workers, and the other undocumented long-term residents of our country who contribute billions to our economy, work in essential jobs, and make America stronger.
“When I was sworn into this office, I made a promise that I would fight to fix our outdated immigration system and to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who have been forced to live in the shadows of our country for far too long. Not a day has gone by that I have not tried to reach out across the aisle to do exactly that. It is critical that we support our allies in their fight to defend democracy and provide humanitarian relief, but not at the expense of dismantling our asylum system while ultimately failing to alleviate the challenges at our border.”
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Also:
Immigrants Make the Economy Stronger and Richer
Paul Krugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/opinion/immigration-republicans-economy.html
Monday, February 05, 2024
Border Wars
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The Republicans have a migration bill. It is HR-2. It passed the House in May with only Republican votes.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2
It includes endless negative proposals such as building the wall plus including the following.
DIVISION B--IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS
TITLE I--ASYLUM REFORM AND BORDER PROTECTION
This title imposes additional requirements for asylum eligibility.
(Sec. 101) This section expands provisions that bar certain individuals from applying for asylum.
Currently, an individual may not apply for asylum if that individual may be removed to a third country (i.e., a country that is not the applicant's country of nationality or last habitual residence) if that third country has (1) a full and fair asylum process that the individual could use, and (2) an agreement with the United States allowing for such removals. This section expands this provision by authorizing removal to third countries that do not have an agreement with the United States.
This section also bars an individual from applying for asylum if the individual traveled through at least one third country before arriving in the United States, with certain exceptions (e.g., the individual applied for and was denied asylum in that third country).
The Speaker of the House Johnson says today that these are the minimums to achieve progress on resolving the enforcement at the border.
Duane Campbell
Sunday, February 04, 2024
First They Came for the Immigrants
New post on our blog.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/first-they-came-for-the-immigrants
First They Came For the Immigrants
Max Elbaum,
Today’s hatemongering reflects a deeply rooted problem: a global “crisis of the right to stay home” due largely to Washington’s role in structuring the world’s economics and politics.
It Is Happening Here
Yes, a large number of migrants are trying to reach the US via crossing the US-Mexico border. But this is not at root a “border crisis.” The underlying problem is that tens of millions of people across the globe face a crisis of their right to stay at home. Migration has been a basic part of the human experience throughout history, and the right to migrate should be defended. But what the world faces today is forced migration, where millions who would prefer to stay in their homelands safely cannot do so:
“The movement of people from country to country, displaced by war, insecurity, and neoliberal economic policies, is enormous and growing… Nothing can stop this global movement, short of a radical reordering of the world’s economy and politics.” —David Bacon, Dignity or Exploitation: What Future for Farmworker Families in the United States, The Oakland Institute, 2021
As of 2020, the number of international migrants—people living outside their home country—was 281 million. This is 3.5% of the global population, compared to 2.8% in 2000 and 2.3% in 1980. And US policies are a big part of the reason for this steady increase: “neoliberal strictures, [US] support for oligarchs, and the War on Drugs have impoverished millions and destabilized Latin America.” Additionally, US militarism and failure to deal decisively with climate change are major contributors to forced migration globally.
Immigration policy in whose interests?
https://convergencemag.com/articles/first-they-came-for-the-immigrants/
Photo by David Bacon
Friday, February 02, 2024
The Reality Check: A NEW LIFE FOR MEXICO'S OLDEST UNION
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
MAGA Republicans Already Have Atrocious Migration Bill
The Maga Republicans Already Have a migration bill.
The discussion in January is about the Senate Bill. Maga Republicans see the proposals as too generous.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/the-maga-republicans-already-have-a-migration-bill
The Republicans already have a migration bill. It is HR-2.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2
But, the Republicans already have a bill passed in the House. HR 2. On May 11, 2023
This is what the House will start from.
Introduced in House (05/02/2023) This bill addresses issues regarding immigration and border security, including by imposing limits to asylum eligibility. requires DHS to create an electronic employment eligibility confirmation system modeled after the E-Verify system and requires all employers to use the system. Passed on May 11, 2023.
It includes endless negative proposals such as building the wall plus including the following.
DIVISION B--IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS
TITLE I--ASYLUM REFORM AND BORDER PROTECTION
This title imposes additional requirements for asylum eligibility.
(Sec. 101) This section expands provisions that bar certain individuals from applying for asylum.
Currently, an individual may not apply for asylum if that individual may be removed to a third country (i.e., a country that is not the applicant's country of nationality or last habitual residence) if that third country has (1) a full and fair asylum process that the individual could use, and (2) an agreement with the United States allowing for such removals. This section expands this provision by authorizing removal to third countries that do not have an agreement with the United States.
This section also bars an individual from applying for asylum if the individual traveled through at least one third country before arriving in the United States, with certain exceptions (e.g., the individual applied for and was denied asylum in that third country).
The Speaker of the House Johnson says today that these are the minimums to achieve progress on resolving the enforcement at the border.
Border policy
Congressman Casar on the border crisis.
http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2024/01/policy-on-migrant-crisis.html
Lets not be Stupid.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/let-us-not-be-stupid-about-immigration
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/let-us-not-be-stupid-about-immigration
2023
2018. Steps toward a labor informed policy on immigration.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/steps-toward-a-labor-informed-position-on-immigration
2018..
The U.S. needs to develop new policies about immigration. The Congress has failed to come to a compromise for over 30 years. In response to the current economic crises in Latin America, Africa, and Asia and the world wide environmental crisis, the migration crises continues to grow.
It is not sufficient to develop and repeat slogans.
Here is the resolution written by members of the IMWG, and adopted by the convention. It provides a good start for consideration of the many interactive issues.
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/us-faces-migration-crisis
What can we do? Recommendations from Robert Reich
All good reasons to be outraged.
But do me a favor right this moment. Take a deep breath and consider what you’re doing with your outrage.
Outrage on its own is exhausting (take this from someone who’s spent the better part of the last 77 years feeling outraged about one thing or another).
It can also lead to two disempowering states: despair and cynicism.
I know many who are in despair about the possibility of another Trump presidency. Their despair follows them around during the day and wakes them at night. It is robbing them of most joy in their lives.
I know others who have sunk into deep cynicism. The system is rotten to the core, they tell themselves. Why even worry about Trump? Nothing can be done in any event. They’ve stopped listening to or reading the news. Why bother?
Maybe you fall into one of these camps. I don’t mean to criticize you. I understand completely. Hell, I’ve been there myself.
But despair and cynicism can be self-fulfilling prophesies. They can stop you from taking political action. As such, they make it more likely that Trump will become president — and that neofascism will prevail.
Outrage can be a positive force if it fuels activism — if it gets people off their butts to do any number of things that individually don’t seem like much but taken together can have a big impact.
What sort of things? Forgive me if I’ve suggested this before, but for example:
1. Becoming even more politically active. For some of us, this will mean taking more time out of our normal lives — up to and including getting out the vote in critical swing states. For others, it will mean phone banking, making political contributions, writing letters to editors, and calling friends and relations in key states.
2. Starting now to organize. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life for direct politics, you will need to organize, mobilize, and energize your friends, colleagues, and neighbors. A number of effective groups can help you (I’ve added their names and web addresses at the end).
3. Countering lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it. This will require that you prepare yourself with facts, logic, analysis, and sources.
4. Not tolerating bigotry and hate. When you come across it, call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too.
5. Not resorting to name-calling, bullying, intimidation, violence, or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using. We cannot save democracy through anti-democratic means
posted by Duane Campbell