Illegal immigrant population declined last year.

Why this is a fucking surprise I don’t know. We are going through a recession that shows few signs of abating for Joe and Jill Public. That also includes Joe and Jill Immigrant. We have a major water shortage in California, which means the farmers aren’t planting much because their water rations have been cut in half, just for starters. From the Jurist link:

The Office of Immigration Statistics of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report [text, PDF] Wednesday estimating that the total number of illegal immigrants living in the US fell to 10.8 million during the year ending in January 2009. The DHS calculates the “unauthorized resident population” by subtracting the number of legal permanent residents, asylees, refugees, and non-immigrants from estimates of the total foreign-born population. The seven percent decline from 11.6 million in January 2008 is attributed by many to the economic decline during that period. According to DHS estimates, 10.8 million is the smallest population of unauthorized residents since 2005, when there were an estimated 10.5 million [report, PDF]. A Pew Hispanic Center report [text, PDF] released in July showed a similar decline in the Mexican immigrant population in the US. The report clarified that although the recession has hurt employment of Latino immigrants, the decline resulted from decreased immigration into the US rather than from immigrants leaving the US to go back to Mexico.

In December, Democratic lawmakers introduced an immigration reform bill in the US House of Representatives that would give undocumented immigrants an easier path to seek legal status in the country. The proposed legislation, which is titled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) [bill summary, PDF], follows the Obama administration’s announcement that it would seek immigration reform early in 2010. In November, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the proposed reform legislation would be a “three-legged stool” that combines effective and fair enforcement, an improved process for legal immigration, and a “firm but fair way” to deal with illegal immigrants who are already in the US. The proposed bill is also the first attempt at immigration reform since the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in 2007. At that time, detractors called the bill too lenient on illegal immigrants and said that by granting legal status to illegal aliens, the US was granting “amnesty.”

I am so fucking sick and tired of everyone who blames the brown people for anything and everything. Having a bill that the idiots, Rethugs and racist’s call ‘too lenient’ sounds about right because anything those fuckers hate, must be a good thing.

Sphere: Related Content

Myth-busting: Immigrants and Health Care

As the health care debate rages across the US, it appears that some are trying to derail badly needed forward progress by using immigration scare tactics. Some scapegoat immigrants and argue that we should exclude even legal immigrants from our health system. Myths and misinformation abound. In the spirit of Detective Joe Friday who cautioned crime witnesses on the 1950’s TV show Dragnet with a terse: “Just the facts, Ma’am,” consider this data from the Immigration Policy Center.

Myth: The U.S. is spending “too much” on health care for immigrants.

• Insured immigrants had much lower medical expenses than insured U.S.-born citizens according to a July 2009 article in the American Journal of Public Health.  Insured immigrants’ per-person medical expenditures were 1/2 to 2/3 less than the U.S.-born with similar characteristics.
• Recent immigrants constituted 5% of the nonelderly adult population, but were responsible for only 2% of adults’ total health care costs, making their share disproportionately low.

Myth: The vast majority of people in America who don’t have health insurance are U.S. citizens.

• U.S. citizens are the majority of people who don’t have insurance (80%). Noncitizens make up a relatively small portion of the uninsured population.  Legal and undocumented immigrants account for 22% of the nonelderly uninsured.
• U.S. citizens account for most of the growth in the number of uninsured individuals between 2000 and 2006. Citizens represent about 80% of the growth; noncitizens accounted for approximately 20% of the growth.
• The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that in 2005 undocumented immigrants made up only a small share of California’s uninsured population.  Nearly four in five of California’s uninsured adults and children were citizens and legal immigrants.

Myth: Contrary to popular belief, noncitizens are significantly less likely to use emergency room services than U.S. citizens.

• According to the non-partisan Kaiser Commission, although noncitizens have poorer access to care and receive less primary health care than citizens, they are also less likely than citizens to use the emergency room.

In 2006, 20% of U.S.-citizen adults and 22% of U.S.-citizen children had visited the emergency room within the past year.  In contrast, only 13% of noncitizen adults and 12% of noncitizen children had used emergency room care.  Don’t believe the myths.  Immigrants use less health care, including less emergency room care, than U.S. citizens.

• A 2006 study published in Health Affairs found that communities with high rates of emergency room usage tend to have relatively small noncitizen populations.  Cities with large immigrant populations such as Miami-Dade County, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona have much lower rates of emergency room use than areas with small immigrant populations such as Cleveland.

For more information on immigrants and health care, see:

• IPC Fact Sheet: Sharing the Costs, Sharing the Benefits: Inclusion is the Best Medicine
• IPC Blog Post: Including Immigrants in Health Care Reform Makes Economic Sense
• Allvoices Post: It’s $mart to Include Immigrants in Health Care Reform

Sphere: Related Content

It’s $mart to Include Immigrants in Health Care Reform

National health care reform aims to insure as many Americans as possible because most agree it’s less costly in the long-run. But what do we do about the approximately 12% of the population that is foreign-born?

While including undocumented immigrants in any kind of coverage plan seems out of the question at this time, Congress is uncertain about permanent legal residents: US citizens-in-waiting. There’s lots of good data showing why it makes more sense to be inclusive according to the Immigration Policy Center:

• Immigrants are working and paying taxes.

• It’s better for all of us if everyone we come into contact with has preventive health care. It’s also better if people are treated early rather than wait until expensive health care is needed down the line.

• Immigrants want to pay into the system and help offset other costs.

• Immigrants are generally younger and healthier and use less health care and cost less than U.S. citizens.

Health insurance works by pooling risks, using premiums collected from the healthy to pay for the medical care of those who need it. So the more people who pay into the health care system, the more the risk and the cost are spread over the entire population. Especially now with an aging U.S. population more money is going to be needed for health care for the elderly. With more people paying into the system, the more those costs are spread out.

Also, if more people are receiving regular health care and well care services, public health improves. It’s much more expensive when people don’t receive regular health care and wait until they’re very sick to receive care. Providing preventive care saves everyone money.

According to the IPC, U.S. citizens make up the majority of the uninsured. Legal and undocumented immigrants compose less than one-quarter of the non-elderly uninsured. While it’s true that non-citizens are far less likely than citizens to have health insurance that’s mainly because their work doesn’t provide health care or they are not eligible for government-sponsored health care. While undocumented immigrants don’t qualify, legal permanent residents-those we’ve admitted into the country on a permanent basis who work, pay taxes, serve in the military, become U.S. citizens-are also ineligible for most federal assistance programs for at least 5 years.

When health care costs are distributed across a broader pool of people, the overall costs for everyone goes down. By including immigrants, who are generally younger and healthier than U.S. citizens, we can lower overall costs. Immigrants will pay in, take less out, and receive less-expensive preventive care. It just doesn’t make sense to refuse to accept people who want to pay into the system.

Immigrants are the not the cause of the health care crisis, but they can be part of the solution.

For more information: Sharing the Costs, Sharing the Benefits: Inclusion Is the Best Medicine (July 22, 2009), Immigration Policy Center PDF

Sphere: Related Content

New Info: Trends Are Changing in MX Migration to the US

Some surprising new facts appeared in the news last week.

Regarding how many Mexicans are coming to the US:

The number of Mexican immigrants entering the US has fallen sharply. It has hit a 10-year low (in the 12 months ending in March 2009).

Regarding how many are here:

A third of all foreign-born US residents and two-thirds of Hispanic immigrants to the United States come from Mexico.

Nearly everyone who leaves Mexico heads for the United States.

The US is currently home to one in 10 people who were born in Mexico.

Regarding how many illegal entries are caught:

2008 saw the lowest number of apprehensions of would-be illegal immigrants from Mexico by the US border patrol in 25 years.

Regarding Hispanics who die on the job:

The number of Hispanic workers who die on the job in the US has risen by 76 percent (since 1992), although the nation’s total number of on-the-job deaths is on the decline.

Regarding the economic downturn’s affect:

While traditionally Mexicans living here send money back home, reports are surfacing on the Border of the reverse. Some Mexicans are sending money to support their relatives in the United States due to the economic crisis north of the border.

Latinos, especially immigrants, are suffering a disproportionate share of the joblessness that is officially rising to engulf close to 10 percent of the overall US population.

Sphere: Related Content

Volunteer/Humanitarian Convicted of Littering while “trying to save lives”

Walt Staton labels water to be left for migrants.

Web-designer Walt Staton, 27, a volunteer with a Tucson AZ humanitarian aid group, routinely places sealed jugs of drinking water in the Arizona desert at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, in the paths undocumented migrants use as they to attempt to enter the US. For that, he was convicted this month of littering. This criminal misdemeanor carries a punishment of up to one year of in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to information provided by the group he assists called, appropriately enough: No More Deaths.

In the brutal Arizona desert south of Tucson, summer temperatures regularly top 110 degrees. Shade is scarce. Every year literally hundreds of undocumented migrants die trying to walk north from Mexico through this merciless environment. It is virtually impossible to carry sufficient water. No More Deaths’ website reports 79 migrant deaths in the southern desert already this year, with 20 bodies of deceased migrants recovered from Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge alone since 2002. For the past five Staton has attempted to alleviate migrant misery by providing them with food, medical care, and–most importantly–emergency water.

“I was just trying to save lives,” Staton stated. “I was trying to end the death and suffering in the desert. The best we can understand, the United States wants to enforce the border by making the desert itself a deterrent.”

His defense lawyer Bill Walker held a full gallon jug of water high during closing arguments and declared: “When the government tells you this case isn’t about water or this isn’t about saving lives, they’re wrong! This is valuable, life-sustaining water.”

In December Fish and Wildlife Service officers cited Staton and three other volunteers, against whom charges were later dismissed, after Border Patrol officers tracked them in a helicopter. Officers confiscated eight jugs of water that they had positioned for migrants, and then seized an additional six gallons from the group’s vehicle. The group of volunteers was carrying out empty water jugs and other trash at the time of the citation.

Staton’s sentencing is set for August 11; he plans to appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit. Staton, unrepentant, says he will continue to leave out water for illegal immigrants walking through the desert, even if that means risking further citations. And No More Deaths has not given any indication that they’ll change their motto:

“Humanitarian aid is never a crime.”

Sphere: Related Content

Naco Procession, April 2008

I don’t know anything about the faith community who produced this video. But when I watched it, I felt a great affinity to them. If you watch this, or even just the first part of it, you’ll hear some good comments about borders and see some people of faith in action for the poor:

Crossposted at Border Explorer.

Sphere: Related Content

More Immigrant Abuse At The Hands Of Government

The case of Jason Ng and his abuse, neglect and death at the Donald D. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island described in my previous post here this week and my post last August was not an isolated incident.  A consistent pattern of delays of or a lack of adequate health care and mistreatment of persons held in federal detention is widespread, throughout the country.  In an article titled: “Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Detention Centers”, Dan Frosh writes in the New York Times:

Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States…

Researchers examined the conditions facing women in the process of deportation proceedings at three federal immigration centers in Arizona. An estimated 3,000 women are being held nationwide.

The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, who rarely posed a flight risk, and that as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions, and, in some cases, being mixed in with federal prisoners.

True to form for any bureaucratic functionary caught apparently sanctioning (by allowing it to occur on her watch) the abusive practices, Katrina S. Kane, the local director of detention and removal operations for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Arizona tried to deflect the truth in a statement she made:

Katrina S. Kane, who directs Arizona detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dismissed the study as unsubstantiated accounts from a limited number of detainees and their advocates.

“Reports such as this, while alleging to be unbiased, do great harm to the public’s understanding of the complex issues involved in immigration law enforcement,” Ms. Kane said.

Ms. Kane’s blatant stone walling does not hide the truth, nor does it offset incidents of abuse of immigrants at the hands of our government such as that suffered by one West African woman as reported by Dan Frosch:

In one of several cases documented in the study, a woman being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence who experienced excruciating abdominal pain for months after she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation in West Africa was told by the center’s staff to “exercise and watch her diet,” her lawyer at the time, Raha Jorjani, said. After nearly six months, the woman, who had been convicted of a nonviolent crime, was taken to a hospital where an ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a five-month-old fetus, Ms. Jorjani said.

Immigration officials then suddenly released the woman with no money or health insurance to treat the cyst, Ms. Jorjani said.

The three detention centers that the University of Arizona report focused on, like the Wyatt detention facility, are operated by contractors for the feds, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department and the Corrections Corporation of America.   This has been the pattern in various cases of abuse of individuals detained by ICE throughout the country ever since the Bush administration began reacting to the 9/11 attacks.

This is the kind of human rights abuse that we are used to reading about occuring in third world countries, but instead, over zealous, some could say, sadistic, low and middle level government functionaries, with the tacit encouragement of the former corrupt administration have made our own country a Hellish pit of human misery.  In many cases, people who looked to the United States as a beacon of freedom, as a place where they might be able to make a safe and productive life for themselves and their families, have instead become victims of a callous government, that at least for the past eight years, had seemed unaccountable to the laws and moral values of  its people.

Let us not be complacent though.  Do not think that just because we have spoken and have seen a new administration that is committed to following the rule of law, and responding to the majority of the people, that the pockets of abuse, incompetence and mismangement throughout the federal bureaucracy will automatically self-correct.  It is incumbent upon all of us to still raise the alarms when these issues are uncovered, and make our voices heard, to keep the pressure on our representatives and leaders to always respond appropriately to these issues.

Sphere: Related Content

Too Late For One Human Being: Government Acknowledges Prisoner Abuse

Pictured is a cell block at the Donald D. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.  The Wyatt facility was part of the network of public and private prisons that the federal government has used as outsourced “warehouses” for human beings held in detention.

We are not talking about hard core criminals here, although it is likely these facilities do house convicted criminals of every stripe.  In terms of  “warehousing” (as opposed to criminal punishment) the inventory is non-violent, non-criminally charged men and women being held for various immigration regulation infractions.

The Wyatt facility is where Hiu Lui (Jason) Ng was held the last month of his life, subject to the abuse and neglect of the staff and management of the facility.  I told Jason Ng’s story on these pages in my posting titled “Liberty & Life Ultimately Denied By A Callous Government”.  Jason was a law abiding resident, growing up in the United States since his arrival at age 17 and 1992, trying to work within the system to obtain legal residency status, all the while contributing as a productive member of society.

Nina Bernstein reported in the New York Times story titled “U.S. Report On the Death Of a Detainee Is Scathing” on January 16 that federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials investigated and found staff and management of the Wyatt facility culpable for the mistreatment and death of Jason Ng.  ICE has terminated its contract with Wyatt.  Bernstein’s reporting last week was a follow-up to her reporting in August of 2008 and included:

The federal investigation began last summer, soon after The New York Times reported on the death of Mr. Ng, 34. His extensive cancer and fractured spine had gone undiagnosed, despite his pleas for help, until shortly before he died in custody on Aug. 6.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said the investigation showed that supervisors at the Wyatt detention center had in effect prevented Mr. Ng from meeting with his lawyer by refusing him the use of a wheelchair when he was too ill and in too much pain to walk.

The 33-page investigation report also found that the guards and medical staff, acting on orders of the warden, violated the jail’s policy on the use of force when Mr. Ng was dragged to a van for a trip to Hartford, where his lawyers say he was pressured to withdraw all his appeals and accept deportation.

The jail’s overhead surveillance video cameras captured everything…

Investigators interviewed 158 people in the course of their inquiry, but the surveillance videotapes clearly told them most of what they needed to know. At one point, they wrote, the captain cursed Mr. Ng, calling him an idiot, and ordered him to “stop whining.”

Mr. Ng kept saying that he could not walk, begged for a wheelchair, and “continued to scream,” the report said, as he was pulled under his armpits from his bed, and to another part of the jail to be shackled…

Not surprisingly, officials at Wyatt claimed no  responsibility for Jason Ng’s death:

Dante Bellini, a spokesman for Wyatt, called the results of the investigation “disappointing.” Last month, citing its investigation, the immigration agency removed all of its detainees from Wyatt.

“We will continue to look at ways to reverse this,” Mr. Bellini said. “We will continue to look at all our options and filling our beds. But we will steadfastly maintain that we had nothing to do with the detainee’s death.”

Last week, Wyatt announced that it was punishing seven employees in connection with the case, with penalties ranging from termination to reprimand. “We took stern and appropriate action,” Mr. Bellini said.

The only appropriate action, in my view, would be criminal prosecution of the appropriate staff and management of Wyatt involved in this.  But it should not stop there.  We need the federal authorities under the direction of the new adminstration to take a long hard look at all of our detention policies, Wyatt was not the only contractor used by the government to hold convicted prisoners and un-convicted immigration delinquents in custody, there are many such for profit operations across the country that need a bright light shined upon them.  Prisoner abuse at the hands of non-accountable private contractors is not acceptable in this country.

The entire scope of our country’s immigration laws and policies needs to be put under a bright light, and reasonable, humane consideration and decisions need to be made.  Advocates were rallying on behalf of Jason Ng’s plight while he was still alive, but if fell upon the deaf ears of our government officials.  If for nothing else, Jason Ng’s life and death should now serve as a wake-up call to Americans and spur on our current govenment as the beginning of a turning  away from the lawless police state that the previous administration and complicit Congress in Washington led us to.

Sphere: Related Content

Chertoff’s Retirement Party in the News!

Well, my interest in this subject pretty much proves that I don’t have much of a life! However, I did track down some news coverage of the party, it was all pretty local. I still think this whole concept is hilarious! Here’s the post and link:

Here is a nice little local TV news clip that will give you a sense of our Brownsville party. We’re waiting on the official photos and video and will post soon. Take a look:

http://www.valleyce ntral.com/ news/video. aspx?id=245142

President Bush showed up to give our 9 foot tall Chertie a send off, and there was the requisite shoe-throwing. Then the (actual) mayor of Brownsville Pat Ahumada presented Chertoff with his novelty oversized deportation order. The guests enjoyed Chertoff cake and playing the “What will Chertoff Do Next?” spin game for a chance to win a bottle No Border Wall Adios, Chertoff AMF Ale.

I think all of our press was regional, but we did get several calls from national outlets who are interested in doing stories in the RGV, so I think news of the event stirred interest. In addition the Brownsville Herald article about the parties was featured in the Congressional Quarterly’s email newsblast, so hopefully that generated some awareness in Congress ahead of the Napolitano hearings.

So who says justice and peace people don’t have a sense of humor? It really takes one to keep on slogging through the ongoing onslaught of muck this life dishes out. See ya later, Chertie. Or not!

Crossposted at Border Explorer.

Sphere: Related Content

What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?

Sincere people ask about so-called “illegal immigrants”:

Answer: There is no legal way provided for the typical undocumented worker to undertake our jobs in construction, yard work, agriculture, housekeeping, etc. legally.

Eight years ago when my stepson married a European woman, I learned that laws had changed since my 8th grade civics classes! She was by no means an automatic U.S. citizen. Impoverished and illiterate laborers have about as much chance of winning the lottery as they would gaining the “green card” needed to legally do our work.

If you’re not current on immigration law, the chart from Reason Magazine provided a cheat sheet on how to become a citizen. Due to it’s small size, even if you click to embiggen this graphic, it is still small. You’ll want to check out the original on the Reason website, which enlarges nicely. Even better, download it onto your own hard drive for a good look.

Then you can hand a copy to the next person who asks you: “Why don’t they enter the U.S. LEGALLY?!?

reprint from Reason Magazine

Crossposted at Border Explorer.

Sphere: Related Content

Meanwhile, what’s happening back in Postville IA?

Regular readers here joined the national outrage over the immigration raid conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in tiny Postville, IA May 2008. Nearly 400 undocumented immigrant workers at Agriprocessors, a kosher meat packing plant, were arrested on criminal–not immigration–charges in what was until that point the largest ICE raid in U.S. history. What has happened since we last visited Postville (a month ago or so)?

* Its claim to fame as site of the largest-ever raid melted like an ice cone at the state fair. In late August U.S. immigration cops nabbed 595 workers in Laurel, MS. Iowa apparently was a training camp for even bigger projects on ICE’s to-do list.

* PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, filed a federal complaint against Agriprocessors saying it violated the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (as caught on plant videotape.)

* In early September the Iowa attorney general on Tuesday brought an array of criminal charges for child labor violations against the owners and top managers of a meatpacking plant–over 9,000 charges! Human rights activists across the nation exalted.

Further, two Agriprocessors Inc. human resources employees named in state charges were arrested and charged additionally with document fraud and identity theft. In reaction, the Orthodox Union threatened to withdraw its kosher certification of the company within two weeks unless new management was hired.

* On the national scene, US Roman Catholic bishops in a formal statement condemned immigration raids on US workplaces, alleging they break up families and disrupt communities, without addressing the country’s flawed immigration system.

* By 9/11 Agriprocessors recruited Pacific islanders from Palau to work at the meatpacking plant, in an effort to replace over half of the workforce lost in the raid. Meanwhile, the Postville police force hired additional help to fight the increase in crime since the raid. The Chief of Police speculated it may take years for the situation to normalize.

* Post-raid Postville looks like “an open-air prison” in which “good, decent” women and children without means of support but with “leg monitoring bracelets” rely on the community for survival. Local Catholic priest asks: “What kind of a government makes prisoners of 43 mothers who all have children and then says, ‘You can’t work, you can’t leave and can’t stay?’ That boggles the imagination.” The family breadwinners, meanwhile, are in “nine different prisons around the state,” leaving the Postville community to support their families.

* By mid-September, a newly installed CEO promised that Agriprocessors would make fundamental changes.

* Questions arose on substandard housing in Postville since the raid. City officials are considering the unusual move of regulating rental properties in a small town. [Click the link for photos...if you're braced. Small town values, anyone?]

* This week the two human resources workers at Agriprocessors pleaded not guilty to federal charges they face on document fraud, identity theft and harboring undocumented aliens. Thus, a trial comes one step closer.

The soap opera which is Postville, IA continues to weave its tale of broken dreams, unscrupulous exploitation, and lives spinning out of control. Merely a month brings switchbacks and heartaches with a plot careening and lurching into a broken future.

Have mercy, indeed. Have mercy on them. Have mercy on us. We will continue to monitor the the situation in Postville. How can we not?

Huge h/t to Letters and Papers from Postville for documenting events as they unfold.

Crossposted at Border Explorer’s Place.

Sphere: Related Content

McCain and the immigration wingnuts.

McCain and Palin will say whatever it takes to get elected. From Real News Network:

John McCain was an early supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, but in this presidential campaign McCain has changed his position to come down harder on the issue. Many political analysts say he did so to appease anti-immigration activists in key swing states-Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada. But at an anti-immigration rally in Washington talk-radio hosts and activists said they wanted more promises of border enforcement from McCain before they embrace his candidacy.

All the reichwingers are still making immigrants the bane of our existance and its bullshit. These human beings work hard for what little they make, yet the reichwingers will have you believe they are the root of all of our problems. Ignorant fucks. No one works harder than a immigrant in the fields of the San Joaquin valley…NO ONE! They die on the job and nothing is said or done. It is horrible and evidently legal. Hate-filled rhetoric does nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration. Treating people has humans first should be the goal.

Sphere: Related Content

OK, Let’s Talk about Law and Order

Neocons who scream against “illegal aliens” are all for Law and Order. One counter-protestor’s sign in Postville IA on July 27 read “What would Jesus Do? Obey the Law.” Leaving aside her failure to grasp the Christian Scripture, we can accept her emphasis on obedience as characteristic of the right wing.

Good. Let’s all obey the law. Let’s enforce all the laws. Let’s begin at the top of the Postville, IA food chain.

Point 1: Federal Government

Congress heard testimony July 24 that the government process used to arrest and convict undocumented workers in Iowa in May was illegal and violated the immigrants’ due process rights. Our democratic principles hang in the balance; “a line was crossed at Postville” according to government interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas.

Point 2: State Government

Residents of Iowa should enjoy the protection of the state’s Civil Rights Commission and the Department of the Attorney General. Children should not be sent out of state without parental consent and approval. Some alarming initial (although as yet undocumented) reports from Postville indicate this may have occurred after the raid.

Point 3: Agriprocessors

Corporations need to follow the laws of the land. When corporate employees provide illegal identification to workers, there must be corporate accountability for their actions and corporate repercussions for the failure to adequately monitor. Why has no upper management been charged at Agriprocessors?

Further, the New York Times reported on July 27 that when federal agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13. First we need to first regulate “illegal jobs” if we’re serious about regulating illegal immigration.

While conservatives beller about “protecting our borders,” the Constitution, the labor laws, the environment, our moral system, and our family values are teetering. Let’s think about protecting the core and the foundation of our nation before we get overly concerned about the margins.

Sphere: Related Content

Federal Judge throws out AZ immigration law challenge..

This is a good thing..its important for several reasons. First, Arizona is attempting to do what many of us have been bitching about for years now..Make the Companies and Businesses responsible when it comes to hiring undocumented workers. It puts on the onus on them, where it belongs. We need to treat them like the damn DEA treats most drug dealers; take everything they own and auction it off, leaving them penniless and in jail. Under the law, any business that is found to have knowingly hired an illegal worker is subject to sanctions ranging from probation to a 10-day suspension of its business licenses. A second violation would bring permanent revocation of the license.

Second, the lawsuit shows us that businesses and corporations don’t want to change the status quo. The corporatocracy talks a good game about illegals being a blight on the american job market, but the reality is, they like hiring them and keeping the wages low and pocketing more of their bottom line, not to mention treating the undocumented workers like chattel.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that illegal immigrants account for one in 10 workers in the Arizona economy. The following is Jurists writeup on this case a good place to go for all things legal:

Read more

Sphere: Related Content