One Year After Postville Raid, Immigration Reform Still Needed
May 12, 2009 - Posted by Antoine Morris
Hundreds of immigration reform advocates are meeting in Postville, Iowa, today to call attention to the one-year anniversary of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Agriprocessors meat packing plant that resulted in the arrest of 389 undocumented workers, mostly from Guatemala and Mexico. Immigrant rights advocates say the raid's anniversary serves as a grim reminder of the need to reform the nation's immigration system.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other civil rights advocates in the region organized bus trips to Postville for marches, prayer vigils, and other events. Similar events are being held nationwide.
Prior to the raid, Agriprocessors paid their employees well below the minimum wage, illegally garnished their wages for required uniforms, and had a history of workers suffering broken bones, eye injuries and hearing loss. After the raid, state authorities ultimately levied millions in fines against the plant for various labor violations.
As a result of the raid, the local economy worsened as Agriprocessors filed for bankruptcy, and families were torn apart after many of the workers pled guilty to identity theft charges, facing prison sentences and deportation.
In a recent press statement, National Immigration Forum Executive Director Ali Noorani said, "Postville will one day be remembered as a dark chapter in U.S. history that served as a catalyst for reforming our nation's immigration system into something we can take pride in again, something that honors our history as a nation of immigrants, and something that helps to renew and strengthen America."
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Congress Must Consider All Low-Wage Workers in Immigration Reform Legislation
May 6, 2009 - Posted by Lauren McGlothlin
Civil rights and labor organizations told Congress last week that immigration reform could happen this year if it takes into account the concerns of all low-wage workers in the legislation.
Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR, said that Congress must fix our nation's immigration system now because "it fails to keep up with economic realities, it fails to provide an orderly way to keep track of who is here, it inhumanely splits and keeps families apart, it penalizes children for the actions of their parents, and it is so unfair and so burdensome that it fails to give people enough incentives to play by the rules."
He added that Congress' immigration reform legislation must take into account the needs of low-wage workers, those that are citizens and those that are immigrants, by:
- providing more effective enforcement of antidiscrimination laws;
- improving advertising and tools to alert workers of job vacancies;
- increasing public education efforts to counter stereotypes about native and non-native born workers;
- enhancing job skills and training programs for all low-wage earners; and
- increasing enforcement of fair pay and overtime requirements and safety, health and labor laws.
In April, the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation, the two largest labor federations in the nation, announced their own standards for immigration reform, which has a similar focus on low-wage workers. "The key to designing a sustainable workplace immigration system is that the flow of future workers must be rationally based on the always-evolving labor market needs of the United States," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
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NALEO Holds Naturalization Workshops for Citizenship Day
April 17, 2009 - Posted by Corrine Yu
Tomorrow is national Citizenship Day, and workshops are being held across the country to help immigrants learn how to become citizens. NALEO Educational Fund will hold 13 workshops in various cities as part of the ya es hora ¡Ciudadanía! (It's Time, Citizenship!) campaign, a nonpartisan Latino civic participation effort launched as a response to the pro-immigrant mobilizations of 2006.
The workshops are designed to help legal immigrants learn about naturalization - the process of becoming an American citizen. Immigrants are eligible to apply for citizenship if they are at least 18 years old, have been lawful permanent residents for five years (three if married to a citizen), and meet certain other basic requirements. A naturalized citizen receives the same rights and privileges as a native-born citizen, such as the right to vote.
The campaign is the largest and most comprehensive effort to incorporate Latinos as full participants in the American political process. Latinos comprised nearly half (44 percent) of the 1,046,539 citizens naturalized last year.
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Conference Call with ACORN and Rev. Sharpton: Stop Sheriff Arpaio’s Attacks on Immigrants
April 3, 2009 - Posted by Cathy Montoya
ACORN is holding a conference call on April 7 to speak out against Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The fourth-largest county in the nation, Maricopa County contains Phoenix and several surrounding cities.
For months, Arpaio has been abusing his authority to detain undocumented immigrants by engaging in racial profiling, bringing back chain gangs, and treating the Latino community as if they were living in apartheid-era South Africa. But thanks to the efforts of civil rights advocates, the campaign against his abuses is rapidly picking up steam.
On the call, Rev. Al Sharpton will join ACORN CEO and Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis and other civil rights leaders to discuss Arpaio's anti-immigrant tactics and the need for immediate action. Reporters will have the opportunity to ask questions during the call.
The conference call is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, at 11:30 a.m. ET. You can register for the call online or by calling Charles Jackson at 504-994-4669.
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U.S. Immigration Policy Discriminates against Same-Sex Partners
March 23, 2009 - Posted by Marcus-Alexander Neil
Under current law, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents can sponsor their spouses or fiancés for legal residency to the U.S. However, gay and lesbian U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents cannot.
There are nearly 40,000 binational, same-sex couples living in the U.S., according to census data. However, the current policy often tears these couples apart once the visa of one expires or forces many couples who do not want to be separated to leave the country.
In addition, many same-sex couples live apart because one partner is not permitted to live in or even travel to the United States.
Since 1965, the priority of U.S. immigration policy has been to make it possible for families to be reunited here in the U.S. The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended earlier policies that prioritized immigrants from Europe and replaced them with a system that prioritized family immigration.
Since 1965, between 50 and 70 percent of the visas that have been given out have gone to family members of U.S. citizens and legal residents.
The Uniting American Families Act, introduced last month in Congress, would give gay and lesbian U.S. citizens and permanent residents the right to sponsor their foreign-born permanent partners for legal residency in the U.S. The act does not provide any other benefits and all other immigration requirements must be met.
Nineteen other countries have passed similar laws already.
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America's Voice Petition Urges Justice Department Investigation into Anti-Immigrant Arizona Sheriff Arpaio
February 26, 2009 - Posted by Cathy Montoya
America's Voice, a national immigration reform organization, has created a petition calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the actions of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz.
The petition comes in the wake of public outcry over Arpaio's recent humiliation of 200 undocumented immigrant inmates. On February 4, Arpaio marched them from the Durango Jail in Phoenix to a jail facility known as "Tent City" in full view of the public and television cameras.
The march was just the latest instance of Arpaio's anti-immigrant tactics. With more than 2,700 lawsuits against him, his prisons stripped of their health standards accreditation, and a backlog of 40,000 outstanding felony warrants to enforce, Arpaio instead focuses on stopping "Latino-looking" drivers and conducting sidewalk "crime sweeps" in low-income neighborhoods.
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Newspapers Show Support for Civil Rights
February 23, 2009 - Posted by Tyler Lewis
Civil rights issues were all over the editorial pages this weekend. Here are just a few highlights:
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Arizona Sheriff Humiliates Undocumented Immigrants during Transfer; Civil Rights Groups Call for Federal Investigation
February 11, 2009 - Posted by Antoine Morris
On February 4, Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio humiliated 200 undocumented immigrant inmates by marching them from the Durango Jail in Phoenix to a jail facility known as "Tent City" in full view of the public and television cameras.
The inmates will be segregated into their own section of the jail's controversial tent facility. Arpaio said in a press release that the move is necessary to provide increased security for the undocumented immigrants, who he believes are "more adept perhaps at escape."
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox called the inmate march a "publicity stunt," and civil rights groups like ACORN and America's Voice were outraged by the stunt, calling for the federal government to launch an investigation into Arpaio, who has a history of anti-immigrant behavior.
Today, a federal court ruled that a class action lawsuit charging Arpaio with illegally profiling Latinos can proceed.
Check out this Democracy Now video that shows the prisoners marching and features Joanne Lin of the ACLU talking about the anti-immigrant nature of Arpaio's treatment of the prisoners.
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