Posts Tagged ‘Immigrants’

Fasting for Immigrant Rights – Sign this pledge

// October 15th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Human Rights, Immigration

I am fasting officially starting tomorrow. Since I am ill already, lets see how long I hold up. The gym hours may be reduced but I am allowed to drink water. The Diwali sweets may have to wait. Going for 3 days for now.

For everyone who enjoys my writing ranging from fiction to non-fiction, please take a moment to sign this pledge and support immigrant rights, support me. We desperately need to stop the ICE raids, the deportations that tear apart families and destroy the futures of so many hard-working people who have committed no crimes. We need Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the DREAM Act to bring millions out of the shadows. And if it takes a ‘fast’ to get this movement going, so be it.

Assimilation makes you fat and other facts – Reject “Assimilation” Part 2

// July 3rd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Ethnic Studies, Immigration, Racism

In the study, researchers examined information on more than 13,000 New Yorkers from all five of the city’s boroughs, who voluntarily had their height and weight measured. The data, collected at community-based health centers and hospitals between January 2000 and December 2002, was used to calculate each person’s BMI.

For Hispanics, whether the neighborhood is largely English speaking or not is an important predictor of body size. The less English spoken in a neighborhood, the less weight gain occurs, according to researchers, whose findings appear in a recent issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

“Simply put: the longer an immigrant lives in the U.S., the heavier that immigrant becomes. Scholars theorize this weight gain as due, in part, to acculturation ­ the adoption of U.S. diet and physical activity habits,” said Park. “Although in the popular imagination, acculturation is thought to be a positive factor for immigrants, in many arenas of health, acculturation has been shown to have a negative effect.”

The new study supports earlier research that found that weight gain is most consistent and significant among Hispanic immigrants to the U.S., who face a particularly high risk of obesity and attendant health problems even when socioeconomic status is taken into consideration.

The link to the study can be found here. I wish journalists would clearly cite the actual source of study because oftentimes it takes a while to search and find it and only the most interested users bother to go to the source of information.

I can actually attest to this sparingly, since the study only seems to hold true among Hispanic immigrants and I am not. I gained about 40 pounds since I started residing in the United States without any changes to my height or level of physical activity. I have shed about 15 of those down to 115 in the past year after getting more health conscious, but the point is that Americans do consume foods with higher calories. And the more we “assimilate,” the more we tend to consume “American foods” on the go instead of ethnic, home-cooked meals which are generally and broadly-speaking, healthier. I don’t think the morale of the story is that we should hide out in our own ethnic enclaves–but that mirroring American consumerism and diet is the wrong way to go.

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Supporters of cultural assimilation beware–Encouraging and pushing for assimilation i.e. “English-only” can be contradictory. According to the research of Tomás Jiménez, an assistant professor of sociology at UC San Diego:

That efforts by opponents of illegal immigration to stamp out the ethnic identity of immigrants and their descendents, and to emphasize assimilation, backfire… Nonimmigrant Mexican-Americans who were already largely assimilated feel a closer connection to their Mexican identity when they see it as under attack.

“People who feel the country is fractured by ethnicity may be doing more than anyone to harden ethnic identity,” he said.

The study holds up when compared to conflict theory. When a minority culture faces attack from the dominant culture, it resists or pushes back.

While we are on the topic of assimilation and “illegal immigration,” is it not strange that the biggest proponents of assimilation are also the ones that prevent avenues for immigrant assimilation–Studies show that being undocumented is a barrier to assimilating.

As Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor explained in The Washington Post: “If you’re in the country illegally, a lot of the avenues of assimilation are cut off to you. There are a lot of jobs you can’t get, and you can’t become a citizen.”

Therefore, if we want our immigrants to assimilate, should we not ensure that they have the necessary institutional support to do so? Otherwise, it is ridiculous to expect migrant workers to speak American-English.

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One last note. Americans DO NOT speak English but a bastardized version of it. Over the past decade, my English has actually deteriorated. I used to be a spelling bee champion and nowadays I let the Firefox browser correct my spelling. Same goes for my grammar. It is not correct to say “Who are you going to the movies with?” but rather “With whom are you going to the cinema?” Besides the error of ending in prepositions, I use way more passive language than I used to — we used to be graded down for “passive usage.” Most Americans have no idea as to what that means! Anyway, I am no fan or supporter of any “pure language” theories so the deterioration of English does not bother me. What does bother me is this:

http://www.bradblog.com/Images/Protestor_EnglishOfficalLanguage.jpg

Lets learn to speak English first, eh?

Immigration Buzzword – Reject “Assimilation”

// July 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Ethnic Studies, Immigration

+++++I hail from the Fiji Islands; My favorite food is Chinese; I root for Italy and Juventus when it comes to football; I am disappointed when India loses a major cricket tournament; I love Pakistani music with Jal as my most favorite band; L-word star Jennifer Beals is my idol while I think Indian soapstar Anita Hassanandani is the most beautiful woman in the world; my best friend lives in Australia; ‘God Bless Fiji’ is the only national anthem I can recite, barely; the Bay Area is my home and Chicago is my favorite city. My likes and dislikes know neither borders nor boundaries+++++

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During my incredibly short time as a pro-migrant blogger, I have seen many articles on calls for new immigrants to assimilate, deriding the more recent wave of transnational identities, and studies that show immigrant assimilation rates, just to name a few.

From a personal perspective, as someone who was born and brought up in the Fiji Islands, I was taught that we must not expect or encourage “assimilation.” In fact, the word has negative connotations in my country of origin, helped by a social studies curriculum that puts plularism over assimilationist integration from an early age. So it is baffling to me, when “assimilation” is seen in a positive light in the United States, almost uncomfortable in fact. Assimilation is synonymous to losing cultural identity, which I find completely unacceptable, especially when it is touted as a prerequisite for U.S. citizenship.

Sociologist Robert Parks maintained that assimilation was inevitable in a democratic and industrial society after undergoing the “race relations cycle” (contact, conquest…assimilation, fusion). Park has been criticized for not giving a timeline as to when assimilation is complete. We have absolutely no way of ascertaining when assimilation has occurred if we go by Park’s theories.

On the other hand, Milton Gordon has a seven-part subprocesses of assimilation theory, going from cultural acculturation to structural assimilation (integration) to marital assimilation. By no means is this theory solid–individuals and groups can jump around the subprocesses and not follow it in any certain order.
Sociologists think that contemporary immigrants would undergo segmented assimilation. See this for more.

Unlike what Parks or Gordon let on, the process of assimilation in itself, is not LINEAR, which is a very important point to take into account. When different cultures inter-mingle, they borrow characteristics from one another–If the United States was a case of an “assimilationist society,” we would all have the traditional English breakfast of bacon and eggs and scones for snacks. But we enjoy our various ethnic foods, different dressing styles, and the ability to curse in several different languages.

We must seek PLURALISM not assimilation.

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http://www.apnaonline.ca/images/Edpic/notes/fiji2b.GIF

On this $2 note from Fiji that I carry around in my wallet, we can see from left to right: a young Muslim boy, an older Chinese man, an indigenous Fijian, a Rotuman woman–probably representative of other Pacific Islands as well, and an Indian woman.

Feminization of Migrant Labor – Situating Migrant Women in a more Global Context

// July 2nd, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Gender, Human Rights, Immigration, Racism

There is no doubt that women bear the brunt of the toughest and lowest-paying jobs (not to mention UNPAID housework). From sewing garments in sweltering factories to changing dirty diapers to wiping counters to doing the dishes to serving as “sex slaves” — the overwhelming majority of workers in these occupations are women.

img79/9025/311xinlinegallerycm4.jpg

Take a look at the recent ICE raid at the Houston Action Rags USA plant–in effect a sweatshop rag factory where migrant workers–mostly women–would sort through used clothes that would later by exported to “Third World” countries. ICE officials said of the 166 workers they detained, 130 were females, including 10 who were pregnant.

The Houston Chronicle picked up on the gender disparity here:

Juana Maria Olvera, 35, was one of those detained at Action Rags USA and released because she is expecting a child.

”There are a lot of undocumented women working here, and a lot are single women who are working to support their families,” said Olvera. ”What is happening is a lot of the men come here and don’t go back to Mexico. They either bring their women, or find someone here.”

When ICE cracks down on migrant women workers, they devastate the mainstay of the family unit. But we need to situate the random detention of migrant women workers by the ICE in a more global context, as a global oppression of women. It is ironic that these migrant women were working in a “First World” rag-factory to produce clothes for “Third World” countries–countries that they have fled due to “First World” (neo-liberal) policies. For the most part, they would probably do the same jobs at home if the multi-national corporations came to them. Capital will go where it can seek the most profits–and what is more profitable than earning millions on the backs of women who have very little institutional support? Multi-national corporations like DKNY, Levi Strauss, Jessica McClintock to name just a few, have a mutable gendered labor workforce.

In coming to the United States, there is no hunt for the ‘American dream’ but sheer desperation for dollars. As Cynthia Enloe eloquently states in her seminal work Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, women who travel are not creatures of comfort or privileged. These migrant female underclass of workers do not get institutional support, work in increasingly deplorable conditions and are more susceptible to sexual harassment and abuse. Just take a look at this story about an Ecuadorean family suing a bakery over working conditions–

Antonio DiBenedetto [the employer] groped the female immigrants and pushed one woman into an office where he tried to take off her clothes and sexually assault her, but the woman escaped by calling for the help of a co-worker, the lawsuit alleges.

DiBenedetto also forced female employees to watch him undress and walked around naked in front of them, the lawsuit alleges. He was also accused of telling the female employees that he would loan them money or not charge them rent if they engaged in sex.

This is a rare example of an undocumented immigrant family coming out of the shadows to jot down abuses in the workplace. For the most part, women who are sexually abused, harassed or treated inhumanely, simply stay quiet and stay in the shadows. Sometimes they are compelled to do so in order to protect their families and keep nurturing their young, no matter what the costs. And with the ICE, IMF, World Bank, workforce and exportation laws, it is harder for female workers to unite and unionize.

What is the main point of this blog post? Any movement for the advancement of women’s rights or gender equality, MUST address the needs of women who are victims of neo-liberal globalization.

Undocumented Immigrants and Crime – Dispelling Myths

// June 26th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Immigration

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 historic highs, crime rates have declined, notably in cities with large numbers of undocumented immigrants, including border cities like El Paso and San Diego.
  • Incarceration rate for native-born men in the 18-39 age group was five times higher than for foreign-born men in the same age group.
  • Data from the census and other sources show that for every ethnic group, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are least educated and least acculturated.

There is also one from this year (2008) -
Immigrants and Crime: Setting the Record Straight <http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/index.php?content=fc080313a> (Immigration Policy Center – March 2008) – Dispels myths about immigrants and criminality.

Washington-based nonprofit Immigration Policy Center, found that on the national level, U.S.-born men ages 18-39 are five times more likely to be incarcerated than are their foreign-born peers. And, while the number of illegal immigrants in the country doubled between 1994 and 2005, violent crime declined by nearly 35% and property crimes by 26% over the same period.

One 2005 study conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Michigan found that immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens.

Another study, which examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau, found that among men aged 18 to 39, the incarceration rate for native-born citizens is five times higher than for the foreign-born individuals. This held true within ethnic and national-origin groups; native-born Latinos, for example, were more likely to be incarcerated than foreign-born Latinos.

A more recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California  is limited to California but also focused on all immigrants. The report summary follows:

Immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S. native to commit crime in California, according to this issue of California Counts. For example, among men ages 18-40 – the age group most likely to commit crime – the U.S.-born are 10 times more likely than the foreign-born to be in jail or prison. Even among noncitizen men from Mexico ages 18-40 – a group disproportionately likely to have entered the United States illegally – the authors find very low rates of institutionalization. Such findings suggest that longstanding fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified.

The PPIC even determined that on average, between 2000 and 2005, cities such as Los Angeles that took in a higher share of recent immigrants saw their crime rates fall further than cities with a lower influx of illegals.

While we can win the arguments using the data sets from the studies above, the bigger problem is media and public perception of “illegal immigrant.” Usage of “illegal” as a noun functions as prima facie evidence of “criminality” for most people. We have to counter the false perception that “illegal presence” in this country is a crime–it is NOT.

Secondly, even if there are high rates of institutionalization amongst undocumented immigrants, we can turn to sociological premises and studies. A great analogy can be drawn with the case of African American males — just because they make up the majority of our prison populations, does not mean that African Americans are bound to be “criminal.” Rather, it points to the racism in our criminal justice system, socio-economic conditions such as poverty and lack of opportunity.

Similar conditions apply to Hispanic populations in prisons. Here is another great sociological paper countering the mythology of Hispanic immigration and crime. It is almost a decade old but the premises of the study still hold.

The USA also has the highest rates of incarceration in this country and with the rise of the migrant-prison complex (increased crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, detentions, border security), the focus is indeed on jailing immigrants for profit.

The following is from http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org/ referring to the incarceration of undocumented immigrants:

1. The government doesn’t keep statistics on the breakdown of
documented and undocumented immigrants.

2. The 270,000 number is probably an estimate. If so, it’s probably an
estimate of the number of undocumented immigrant prisoners *during the
course of the year.* The 2.1 million figure is the prison population
on a give date, like 12/31/05. You can’t compare the two numbers.

See these links for more:

http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/04/undocumented-com…

http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2008/05/so-what-about-th…

If I find any other relevant studies, I will update this post.

More resources

Undocumented Students – Struggle Continues in Canada

// June 13th, 2008 // 12 Comments » // Immigration

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 like 'other Americans.' However, when the same survey was given to Canadians, less than thirty percent identified with Americans–differing mostly on political viewpoints. While clarifying immigration policy today, the Canadian Premier in Ontario gave an example of the stark contrast between the two neighboring states while the actions of the federal government in deporting undocumented students said otherwise.

While the United States is busy deporting undocumented immigrant students and the states in the deep South are retreating back into time by closing doors on students, our neighbors up North are also struggling with the issue. In Ontario, Canada, politicians have expressed a "don't ask don't tell" policy on undocumented immigrant students. Yet, an undocumented student, Sarah Leonty, with federal grants and great scholastic record, faces deportation just like our undocumented students in America.

At the same time, Premier Dalton McGuinty welcomed all students to Ontario schools, stating that

"A child shows up at the door looking for an education and our responsibility is to provide that education. If the federal government feels that child, that family, should not be in our province, then that is something they should do something about. But we are not going to start picking and choosing which kids are going to be allowed into the classroom."

The declaration confirms the belief in sanctuary cities as well as the fact that school officers should act like educators, not adjudicators. A report by the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto urged the government to adopt a province-wide "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to ensure that families feel safe sending their children to school. Does that not sound like a contradiction and the very struggle we are facing in the United States? Maybe we are more alike than different after all. It would be fair to say that we are living in an era of ICE, but global warming is on the horizon.

It is encouraging to see movements and declarations by politicians in other countries in support of undocumented students. A global perspective is necessary–after all we are all citizens of the world and merely separated by landmass and arbitrary boundaries.

In the United States, we have "No Child left Behind," an empty promise and a sad oxymoron like "Microsoft Works." Are we going to start lagging behind Western civilization in our treatment of undocumented students just like we already lag behind on same-sex couples, universal health care and welfare reform? For the sake of this country and for ourselves, I certainly hope not.

Under-reported Immigration News Brief – 1

// June 9th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Human Rights, Immigration

This is my very first attempt at doing an immigration news round-up of sorts. It’s inspired by the rocking Citizen Orange/American Humanity (woo!) but instead of linking pro-migrant blogs together, I will be digging for immigration news and opinions not reported widely, sometimes more global in perspective (who doesn’t tire of American politics?) and posting them at the end of a weekend. Let me know how I am doing or to just quit. Lol.

Oh, and the new look will stay for a while. Hope everyone likes it.

1. OPINION OF THE WEEK: International Herald Tribune Opinion article on “Facing America’s great immigration panic,” June 4, 2008. This is one of the best opinion pieces I have read in the past few weeks and represents a lot of views on the pro-migrant network.

Someday, the United States will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don’t mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.

A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed.

An escalating campaign of raids in homes and workplaces has spread indiscriminate terror among millions of people who pose no threat.

After the largest raid ever last month – at a meat-packing plant in Iowa – hundreds of people were swiftly force-fed through the legal system and sent to prison. Civil-rights lawyers complained, futilely, that workers had been treated more as a presumptive criminal gang than as potentially exploited workers who deserved a fair hearing. The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges.

Immigrants in detention languish without lawyers and decent medical care even when they are mortally ill. Lawmakers are struggling to impose standards and oversight on a system deficient in both. Counties and towns with spare jail cells are lining up for federal contracts as prosecutions fill the system to bursting.

This is not about forcing people to go home and come back the right way. Ellis Island is closed. Legal paths are clogged or do not exist.

Some backlogs are so long that they are measured in decades. A bill to fix the system died a year ago this month. The current strategy, embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, is to force millions into fear and poverty.

There are few national figures standing firm against restrictionism. Senator Edward Kennedy has bravely done so for four decades, but his Senate colleagues who are running for president seem by comparison to be in hiding. John McCain supported sensible reform, but whenever he mentions it, his party starts braying and he leaves the room. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her voice on this issue more than once. Barack Obama might someday test his vision of a new politics against restrictionist hatred, but he has not yet done so. The public’s moderation on immigration reform, confirmed in poll after poll, begs the candidates to confront the issue with courage and a plan. But they have been vague when they should be forceful and unflinching.

The restrictionist message refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life. Unless the nation contains its enforcement compulsion, illegal immigrants will remain forever ”Them” and never ”Us.”

Every time America has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of this century, which hurt countless lives and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values.

2. ICE RAIDS – More to INS raids than reported

[   ] GO45828513.pdf          20-May-2008 08:25   8.4M
[   ] GO45829513.pdf          20-May-2008 08:30  11.1M

These are the two files referred to in the following report. Right click and save target as.


Source: Modesto Bee, June 2

Violations of due process for more than 300 arrested illegal immigrants, who were hustled through detention camps, jails and jury-rigged courts before they could talk to reporters, pale before INS investigators’ allegations of repeated, long-term violations and abuse by company owners, who are reportedly major contributors to the Republican Party. The company was supplying false Social Security numbers and other documentation to workers, then paying them below minimum wage in a conspiracy of silence. Read the full extent of investigators’ findings in the search warrants posted at www.kpvlradio.com/pdf_files. If it had not been for the tireless pursuit of this story by Jeff Abbas, formerly with KUOP and KRVR radio locally and now managing KPVL in Postville, Iowa, this egregious violation of human rights would not have come to light.

3. DETENTION: On the immigrant detention front, ACLU was able to stop the overcrowding of a San Diego Correctional Facility for immigrant detainees.

The lawsuit, filed in January 2007, addressed the practice of long-term overcrowding at the San Diego facility. When the lawsuit was filed, more than 650 immigration detainees at the facility were living three-to-a-cell – resulting in one of them having to sleep on a plastic slab on the floor by the toilet. Additional detainees slept on bunk beds in the recreation area, driving the population of some housing units to more than 50 percent over design capacity.

After the ACLU appeared in the case, DHS transferred more than 100 immigration detainees out of the facility, resulting in an end to triple-celling.

Today’s agreement, if approved by the court, will help ensure that the population at SDCF will not again exceed capacity by requiring CCA to demonstrate three times between now and January of 2009 that it is keeping the facility’s population within design capacity.

A full copy of the proposed settlement is available online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/35530lgl20080604.html

A copy of the complaint, Kiniti v. Wagner is available online at: www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/28128lgl20070124.html

Congressional Testimonies on Detainee Medical Care, June 4

Of particular interest was the Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy Director National Immigrant Justice Center. She lays out the problems with proper access to health care for immigrant detainees, their rights under U.S. and International Law and shows how the ICE Detention Standard on Health Care falls far short of these laws. You can read all the testimonies here.

4. POSITIVE IMMIGRATION NEWS: At a time when states in the deep abyss of the South are implementing xenophobic anti-immigration laws, and counties are clamoring to reverse the supposed ‘tide’ or ‘tsunami’ of undocumented migrants, we have a report out of Mercer County, New Jersey that has a welcoming attitude to all immigrants.

Nearly 30 percent of the foreign-born residents living in Mercer County are believed to be in the country illegally, according to a report due to be released Monday.
The undocumented workers cannot obtain New Jersey drivers’ licenses, are far less likely to have access to health care and are often afraid to seek help from police when they are victimized by criminals.
But, rather than sounding an alarm, the report finds the undocumented workers are part of an influx of immigrants who are enhancing the region’s economy and broadening its culture.
The 25-page document, titled “The Faces of Immigration in Mercer County,” points instead to a need for more comprehensive English language instruction and a welcoming attitude in communities…

5. KEEP ON DREAMing – What is up for undocumented students around the United States? As South Carolina shuts its door on undocumented students in higher education, groups are still fighting to prevent NC students from undergoing the same ordeal. Here is an excerpt of a published opinion from Durham Literacy Center in North Carolina, with some useful information and statistics:

First, this is a practical matter for our state; we need as many skilled workers as we can get. The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research recently released a report warning that state community colleges will need to graduate thousands more students by 2016 to stave off a predicted worker shortage. The report, noting that immigrants are playing an increasingly important role in our state’s economy, speculates that immigrants may be the solution to this shortage.

Latinos are already making major contributions to North Carolina’s economy; the Kenan-Flagler Business School reported in January 2006 that Latinos were contributing more than $9 billion annually to the state’s economy through taxes, purchases and labor (the contribution is expected to rise to $18 billion by 2009).

At the moment, only a handful of degree-seeking students at the community colleges are undocumented (112 out of 300,000), and they are helping fund their classmates’ educations by paying out-of-state tuition rates (over $2,000 more than the actual cost of their education).

These students, many brought to the United States as young children, have attended primary and secondary schools in North Carolina for most of their lives and are likely to remain and work in the state. By allowing them to pursue higher education, the state can benefit from students who are bilingual and bicultural, and who will eventually fill crucial gaps in our workforce.

Beyond the tangible benefits for our state, open access to higher education is fundamentally a question of human rights. As The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, everyone has the right to education. Article 26 of the declaration decrees: “Technical and professional education shall be made generally available, and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.” We have wonderful public institutions of higher education in our state, and they will only be strengthened by a more diverse student body…

6. FARMWORKER SHORTAGE – Heads-up — EVERYONE who has lost their jobs due to undocumented farm workers in California, we have a severe shortage of seasonal farm-workers and are “on the brink of disaster.” Please consider applying for the position. You can earn $150 in a few days, says the President of Honduras.

Summit organizer Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League, told the Central American visitors that Easton was typical of the small Valley communities that depend on agriculture _ and farmworkers _ for their livelihood.
But Valley growers increasingly have trouble finding enough skilled farmworkers to tend and harvest strawberries, oranges and other labor-intensive crops, Cunha said. Permanent U.S. residents generally won’t do the work because it’s hard and seasonal, he said.
Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya said he’ll do what he can to make it easier for his citizens to get permission to work in Valley fields. But he and others at the Western Agriculture Labor Summit acknowledged that all the countries must work together.
“We know there is a great shortage of farm labor in California and the southern United States,” he said, speaking through a translator. “We really do hope this meeting can contribute to finding a solution to this problem.”
“We are on the brink of disaster,” said David Jackson, owner of Family Tree Farms in Reedley. “Ninety to 95 percent of our workers are undocumented.
The Valley needs 180,000 seasonal workers every year, Cunha said.
Zelaya said Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala each have the potential of supplying 30,000 to 50,000 temporary workers to the United States. What is needed, participants agreed, is a system under which the workers can come to the United States legally, with a minimum of red tape, to work during peak harvest seasons and then return home.”

Hasn’t the Congress rejected proposals for AgJobs over and over? Why are we blaming farms for employing undocumented workers when we won’t implement a program to provide them with workers?

7. MIGRANT-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX – Boeing has received the latest contract to build a virtual border fence…Did I not call this one a while ago?

The U.S. government has decided to award Boeing contracts for the construction of two sections of a high-tech fence to be built along the border with Mexico in Arizona, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.

The two fence sections would be an “operational configuration” of a much-criticized 28-mile (45-km) section of “virtual fence” built by Boeing and tested earlier, Chertoff told a news conference.

He said the fence would include fixed towers, with radar sensors, remote control cameras, ground sensors and software linking border agents to give them a “common operating picture” of the areas they are enforcing.

Chertoff dismissed earlier reports of deep trouble with the test section, which had been delayed by several months due to technical problems, including communications and software glitches and fuzzy video images.

Detained Immigrants Coerced to Sign Away Rights

// June 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Human Rights, Immigration, Videos

Newly available federal data shows a steady increase in the number of immigrants in administrative detention who have signed deportation orders waiving their right to see a judge. The National Immigrant Justice Center, through a Freedom of Information Act request, collected data showing that 94 percent of the 80,844 stipulated orders of removal signed between April 1997 and February 2008 were by immigrants who spoke primarily Spanish, and most had not been charged with a crime.

“Given our work with this population, the data backs up our longstanding concern that immigrants in detention face language barriers and do not fully comprehend the implications of signing stipulated order of removal forms,” said National Immigrant Justice Center Director Mary Meg McCarthy. “And while Immigration and Customs Enforcement suggests that increasing numbers of deportations make society safer, in reality most of the detained immigrants encouraged to sign away their rights and be deported had no criminal charges against them.”

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