No Borders and Binaries

So after 6 years of absence, I finally decided to volunteer and attend the SF Pride Parade this past weekend. The massive crowds of people, congested public transportation, slew of litter and waste, corporate presence and the loud blaring music just had me fighting a headache by the time I got back home at night. [...]

Kyle asked via email whether there are any studies which show that undocumented immigrants commit less crimes than American citizens. The one study we should be familiar with is the one from IPC last year, which is here. This was the summary of their research:

At the same time that immigration—especially undocumented immigration—has reached or surpassed [...]

Check out the Acting Director of the USCIS (formerly known as INS) making excuses for the slow, inefficient and bureaucratic mess of the immigration system in this country.
And within a couple days, he is again bombarded with hundreds of questions about processing times and dates. Just how many people are waiting in line for naturalization, [...]

It’s officially 24 years since the death of great French social critic, Michel Foucault (yea yea, my favorite). Anyway, the following is a list of Foucault books and resources that I have been able to locate on the internet and referencing here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Foucault - Madness and civilization.pdf
Foucault Michel History Of [...]

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last week that anyone who is under “voluntary departure” can still petition to remain in the U.S. if their circumstances change i.e. marriage. You can read the details below.
Basically, under older USCIS provisions, once you are in the country illegally, you are doomed. There is no way to petition for [...]

Argh, the past two days have been nightmarish. I had a massive virus/trojan attack on my relatively new PC yesterday and have been working on getting rid of the unwanted programs. It is completely draining. First, Windows wouldn’t load normally so I had to try fixing it in safe mode. That took most of my [...]

During the Association of American Geographers conference in Boston this year, a graduate student researcher presented a comparative analysis of Canadian and American identity in light of immigration policy. When asked in surveys, most Americans generally responded that they had a much higher tolerance of immigrants from Canada mainly because Canadians seemed more assimilable and [...]

It seems that we have built quite an appetite for war at home and abroad. Our foreign policy mirrors our domestic one and vice-versa–Overseas, we are destroying families, communities, killing innocent children, deferring their dreams permanently through a ‘war against terrorism’ and at home we are killing the spirit and dreams of our undocumented immigrant [...]

Alright, so I am not particularly pleased with this Rubin Navarette Jr. article IN MY CITY NEWSPAPER about deporting Arthur Mkoyan because he feels AM is getting “special treatment” as opposed to a DREAMer who is of Mexican origin. And I was harsh about it on ADD.
I am the last person who would try to [...]

It really wouldn't come down to this last minute gamble, if Congress had demonstrated some leadership and enacted the DREAM Act.
Arthur Mkoyan and his family are no longer being deported thanks to Senator Feinstein who filed a private bill on their behalf. Yet, their immigration hurdles are far from over.
Rubin Navarette Jr. does not [...]