By Marcelo Ballvé, New America Media
Despite the Obama administration's promise to act on immigration reform this year, a backlash against immigrants continues to rage countrywide. One result is a growing patchwork of hardline state and local policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
Even immigrant advocates focused now on mobilizing for reform acknowledge their battle will ultimately need to go beyond a Washington D.C.-legislated fix. The backlash against immigrants has sprung up in neighborhoods and far-flung localities, and also needs to be combated at the grassroots.
"This isn't going to be over when comprehensive immigration reform is passed," said Tony Stephens, communications associate with the New York-based nonprofit The Opportunity Agenda, during an online meeting last week with immigration reform advocates.
In Mississippi, over 20 hardline immigration-related bills were introduced in this year's legislative session, according to the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA). Utah's hardline immigration law goes into effect July 1. In New Jersey, a directive that orders police to question individuals arrested for a serious crime about their immigration status has been abused, and routine traffic stops become immigration busts, according to a report released this month by the Seton Hall University School of Law.
In Alamance County North Carolina, Sheriff Terry Johnson's participation in a federal program that deputizes local law enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants has fanned a divisive debate on immigration and Mexican culture, casting a pall on all Hispanic immigrants, whether they entered the country illegally or not.
An Elon University study found that Sheriff Johnson was grossly underreporting the number of Latinos his department was pulling over, though he denied racial profiling. And earlier this month, University of North Carolina law professor Deborah M. Weissman testified on Capitol Hill about the same sheriff's "brazenly racist claims about Mexicans."
According to Weissman, Johnson had been quoted saying, "[T]heir values are a lot different -- their morals -- than what we have here. In Mexico, there's nothing wrong with having sex with a 12-, 13-year-old girl ... They do a lot of drinking down in Mexico." Sheriff Johnson participates in a federal program named 287(g) for a section of the 1996 immigration law creating it. Made most notorious by Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it's meant to partner police and sheriffs with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and bolster the country's ability to target transnational crimes and deport undocumented immigrants with rap sheets. Instead, critics say, it has become a favorite tool for rounding up Latinos and intimidating immigrant communities.
The federal program is also at issue in one of the get-tough immigration measures that's still pending in the Mississippi legislature (23 bills considered "anti-immigrant or anti-worker" by immigrant rights advocates did not win approval). Gary Chism, a Republican state representative, tacked on a provision to an appropriations bill that would require Mississippi's Department of Public Safety to participate in 287(g) ICE training.
Chism also added an amendment requiring Mississippi's Department of Corrections to participate in a separate ICE program that connects prisons with federal agents to track inmates who are immigration violators and funnel them to deportation proceedings.
Chism said he's optimistic that at least the corrections measure will make into law, but the 287(g) proposal may stall since it's costly. He said the federal government isn't doing enough to control illegal immigration.
"We need to protect Mississippi and Mississippian jobs" from illegal immigrants, he told New America Media.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has launched a review of 287(g) and the program may be in for some changes, but department spokesman Matt Chandler acknowledges it remains popular with state and local law enforcement agencies.
"Participants realized drops in crime and removal of repeat offenders," he said in a phone interview.
He would not say what an overhauled 287(g) program might look like, but gave no indication it would be scrapped altogether, as some immigrant rights groups have demanded.
MIRA Executive Director Bill Chandler sees Chism's 287(g) and prisons proposals as part of a concerted effort by xenophobic politicians to hound Latinos, not just illegal immigrants, out of the state.
A broad, hardline immigration law passed last year includes a plank making it a felony for an undocumented worker to accept work in Mississippi, authorizing penalties of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. U.S. residents may also sue businesses if they are fired and replaced by an unauthorized worker.
Though officially called the "Mississippi Employment Protection Act" Chandler calls the law the "ethnic cleansing act" and has lobbied furiously for its repeal - so far without success.
In Utah, a similarly broad law will go into effect July 1. Though stopping short of criminalizing the labor of undocumented immigrants, the law requires, among other things, that state and local agencies verify the immigration status of anyone applying for certain services, including healthcare. The law stipulates penalties for undocumented immigrants accessing services they're no longer authorized to receive.
Though the law excludes emergency care, vaccinations and care for communicable diseases, there's still confusion over exactly what services might be off-limits. Community clinics worry fearful immigrants, whatever their immigration status, might forgo health care altogether, potentially creating public health risks.
The law also allows all Utah law enforcement agencies to deputize their agents to enforce immigration law. Already, however, some say they'll opt out of that plank of the law. Park City's Police Chief Wade Carpenter, for example, said he wouldn't participate because it's an idea driven by the politics of immigration rather than an effort to find real solutions.
"I don't think it accomplishes what we need to accomplish," Carpenter was quoted as saying. "It's the tail wagging the dog."
Copyright © New America Media
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Despite the Obama administration's promise to act on immigration reform this year, a backlash against immigrants continues to rage countrywide. One result is a growing patchwork of hardline state and local policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
Even immigrant advocates focused now on mobilizing for reform acknowledge their battle will ultimately need to go beyond a Washington D.C.-legislated fix. The backlash against immigrants has sprung up in neighborhoods and far-flung localities, and also needs to be combated at the grassroots.
"This isn't going to be over when comprehensive immigration reform is passed," said Tony Stephens, communications associate with the New York-based nonprofit The Opportunity Agenda, during an online meeting last week with immigration reform advocates.
In Mississippi, over 20 hardline immigration-related bills were introduced in this year's legislative session, according to the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA). Utah's hardline immigration law goes into effect July 1. In New Jersey, a directive that orders police to question individuals arrested for a serious crime about their immigration status has been abused, and routine traffic stops become immigration busts, according to a report released this month by the Seton Hall University School of Law.
In Alamance County North Carolina, Sheriff Terry Johnson's participation in a federal program that deputizes local law enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants has fanned a divisive debate on immigration and Mexican culture, casting a pall on all Hispanic immigrants, whether they entered the country illegally or not.
An Elon University study found that Sheriff Johnson was grossly underreporting the number of Latinos his department was pulling over, though he denied racial profiling. And earlier this month, University of North Carolina law professor Deborah M. Weissman testified on Capitol Hill about the same sheriff's "brazenly racist claims about Mexicans."
According to Weissman, Johnson had been quoted saying, "[T]heir values are a lot different -- their morals -- than what we have here. In Mexico, there's nothing wrong with having sex with a 12-, 13-year-old girl ... They do a lot of drinking down in Mexico." Sheriff Johnson participates in a federal program named 287(g) for a section of the 1996 immigration law creating it. Made most notorious by Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it's meant to partner police and sheriffs with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and bolster the country's ability to target transnational crimes and deport undocumented immigrants with rap sheets. Instead, critics say, it has become a favorite tool for rounding up Latinos and intimidating immigrant communities.
The federal program is also at issue in one of the get-tough immigration measures that's still pending in the Mississippi legislature (23 bills considered "anti-immigrant or anti-worker" by immigrant rights advocates did not win approval). Gary Chism, a Republican state representative, tacked on a provision to an appropriations bill that would require Mississippi's Department of Public Safety to participate in 287(g) ICE training.
Chism also added an amendment requiring Mississippi's Department of Corrections to participate in a separate ICE program that connects prisons with federal agents to track inmates who are immigration violators and funnel them to deportation proceedings.
Chism said he's optimistic that at least the corrections measure will make into law, but the 287(g) proposal may stall since it's costly. He said the federal government isn't doing enough to control illegal immigration.
"We need to protect Mississippi and Mississippian jobs" from illegal immigrants, he told New America Media.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has launched a review of 287(g) and the program may be in for some changes, but department spokesman Matt Chandler acknowledges it remains popular with state and local law enforcement agencies.
"Participants realized drops in crime and removal of repeat offenders," he said in a phone interview.
He would not say what an overhauled 287(g) program might look like, but gave no indication it would be scrapped altogether, as some immigrant rights groups have demanded.
MIRA Executive Director Bill Chandler sees Chism's 287(g) and prisons proposals as part of a concerted effort by xenophobic politicians to hound Latinos, not just illegal immigrants, out of the state.
A broad, hardline immigration law passed last year includes a plank making it a felony for an undocumented worker to accept work in Mississippi, authorizing penalties of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. U.S. residents may also sue businesses if they are fired and replaced by an unauthorized worker.
Though officially called the "Mississippi Employment Protection Act" Chandler calls the law the "ethnic cleansing act" and has lobbied furiously for its repeal - so far without success.
In Utah, a similarly broad law will go into effect July 1. Though stopping short of criminalizing the labor of undocumented immigrants, the law requires, among other things, that state and local agencies verify the immigration status of anyone applying for certain services, including healthcare. The law stipulates penalties for undocumented immigrants accessing services they're no longer authorized to receive.
Though the law excludes emergency care, vaccinations and care for communicable diseases, there's still confusion over exactly what services might be off-limits. Community clinics worry fearful immigrants, whatever their immigration status, might forgo health care altogether, potentially creating public health risks.
The law also allows all Utah law enforcement agencies to deputize their agents to enforce immigration law. Already, however, some say they'll opt out of that plank of the law. Park City's Police Chief Wade Carpenter, for example, said he wouldn't participate because it's an idea driven by the politics of immigration rather than an effort to find real solutions.
"I don't think it accomplishes what we need to accomplish," Carpenter was quoted as saying. "It's the tail wagging the dog."
Copyright © New America Media
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April 21, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply
You will never get a true accounting from our government, politicians or the national press, on what illegal aliens are costing US taxpayers? It spirals into hundreds of billions of dollars. Nor will we ever know the costs to taxpayers associated with the Stimulus spending packages. Same with illegal immigration, owing to fact that one must hunt down financial appropriation through the back door, by going to the Internet. Let's face it--as far as our legislators are concerned--it's not our business? Americans have been lethargic on a need--to--know basis? If we didn't have the web, we THE PEOPLE would never know the expenditures of our respected politicians, hidden away on Capitol hill? In the old days the only way to express, frustration, followed by anguish and then finally anger was by mail or a screened phone call. It's only today that with computer technology can we not only complain to our Senators and Representatives, but network with thousands of other individuals, who realize they have been manipulated by the personages on the Hill?
The Immigration Reform and Control Act , also Simpson-Mazzoli Act (IRCA) signed by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986) is an Act of Congresswhich reformed United States immigration law. The Act made it illegal to knowingly employ or recruit illegal immigrants (immigrants who have not been processed and not possess lawful work authorization), It required the business world to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants, who had settled here continuously and who entered the United States before January 1, 1982. The law also granted a path towards legal status to certain immigrants and agricultural seasonal workers who had been continuously and illegally present in the United States since January 1, 1982. It proposed the I-9 form to ensure that all employees presented documentary proof of their legal eligibility to accept employment in the United States, which could be easily forged. If at all it was used by unscrupulous companies, who have two sets of tax books anyway?It was estimated that over 2.7- 3 million individuals were given a path to legal status from the 1983 IRCA law. https://www.oig.lsc.gov/legis/irca86.htm If our politicians are truly working for the American people--THEN WHY NOT ADD AMENDMENTS TO THE (IRCA)?
In this last decade secret committees and behind closed doors on issues, are soon revealed by either parties clerks, contacts or staff members. Within an instant the staff member has already emailed a friend, who has transmitted alarm to a significant adverse organization to that policy. Immigration reform as a paramount issue, is fomenting quietly on the back burner and will soon raise it's ugly head again. It makes absolutely know sense to initiate another immigration reform package, when each day the media expresses concern of the rising jobless population. Mexico is the largest culprit to relieve the overheating pressure of their abundance of people looking for work. The problem is, we cannot and should not bring into our country more slave labor, when even our own professional people have downgraded to a bar tender--just to put food on the table. hundreds of thousands of American kids cannot find a job, because foreign nationals have displaced them in Mc Donalds, or other fast food establishments. I hear the continuing discourse of lost souls, conveying that who would mow the lawn, wash dishes in restaurant, make beds in hotels. Well guess who were exposed to these tasks back in the 50 and 60's? Actual Americans completed these jobs, even down to picking potatoes and other vegetables and fruit in the bygone days. My grandfather told me how he picked strawberries, grapes and even potatoes after the second World War and was able to feed his family.
President Obama is going to introduce a new Immigration reform bill to the Congress this very year--is probable? But Americans today are ready and although a new law might pass--their will be many compromises. If a new reform bill is enacted, millions of more uneducated, indigent will will expect the same--if they can just make it across the border? The only way to stop this second invasion, is to make unlawful entry a criminal act and a felony. With a severe prison sentence attached, that will make people think twice. As a good example read Mexican immigration law, if you slip into there nation. It isn't pretty and it can be extremely dangerous.
Build the fence as originally planned by Rep. Duncan Hunter.(R-CA). See how the barrier stretches through San Diego--it's not a single fence as constructed as separating the US from Mexico. It was envisioned as a double layer barrier, with razor wire along its length and a gravel two lane vehicle no-mans land in between. The completely funded barrier along the Southern border stopped a large percentage of drugs and illegal people crossing. Yet the extension that was secretly unfunded by President Bush is a single fence with areas of complete openness with only motion detectors, vehicle barriers and high towers with many non-functioning cameras. Even the actual length as of this year, is subject to miscalculation? You will have to investigate for yourself on AMERICANPATROL the truth? They used their own plane to survey the building of the fence You can thank Sen. Harry Reid and his contingent of Democrats for sacrificing funding, so they the border fence has been less of a deterrent.
Our new President has promised this path to citizenship for millions. But what about the criminals who have penetrated the hinterland with illicit drugs. What of all those spending years in incarceration. The murders, rapists, kidnappers, home invasion robberies, are they going to get citizenship in the future? How in the world can any government agency organize the removal of hard-core gang members, who have infiltrated every community in our nation. Even now they have huge backlogs of honest potential immigrants waiting in their home countries for an entry visa. Perhaps one of the most disgusting indignity is the rise in drunk driving by foreign nationals. It seems to re vibrate across the country, in every small neighborhood to the towns and cities. Very seldom will the liberal, self-opinionated press release this information to the public. many of these drivers have several or even more DUI's and have been released over and over again. There always seems to be a measure of leniency in front of a traffic judge, but not for Americans. This finally comes to a halt, when the drunken driver of the vehicle who cannot read traffic signs plows down and runs, or kills a family on the highway. In the bigger cities the roads the roads have become a dangerous obstacle course for regular people, and end up fighting their insurance company because the other driver has no insurance or even a valid drivers license. I dropped off in Los Angeles for a short vacation and hired a car, while visiting relatives. I had once lived in the big city and Oh, boy--was I in for a surprise? Traffic was an incessant nightmare. The roads clogged to the point where up to free or four drivers try to turn left on a green light. In my early years it was one or two cars and now it's instant horn blaring and road rage. We should all remember that big business that insists on this cheap labor, without any hospitalization or benefits, don't have to deal with the average American drivers mess?
Those who apply under the new bill have several obstacles, to being recognized by the American people as new immigrants. They must pay some or all back taxes? That will be real interesting, when even our own politicians have cheated the IRS for not paying what's due to Uncle Sam? Then paying a fine as a penalty for entering this country without being processed? Cannot imagine how much they will be expected to pay. Some immigration attorneys charge around $2500 for filing and processing your application for residency? Will they only have to pay--may be $2.000 dollars, when honest immigrants paid that--and more? Seems very unfair to me--extremely unfair, to those who have waited in line for years? Then they must learn English and understand some US history and government.
The US Homeland Security are going to have their hands full. It will be very interesting to learn how the FBI goes about checking police backgrounds of the millions of family members who have settled here. That in itself, will take an act of Congress to appropriate the money for investigations and record searching from one foreign nation to the other. Remembering many countries do not have police records available--so then what does the agency do. hundreds of criminals make get amnesty and our police departments will never know.
Last but not least. Every newcomer have to submit to a medical examination. Or so that was the case. We only have to read the tepid press in mostly hardly disclosed print of breakout of Tuberculosis, or some other contagious diseases. Most of these are in public schools in large populations of illegal immigrants, such as California. But many illnesses spread very quickly amongst the inhabitants of small rural towns, where the news is stifled--so as not to cause a panic.
Nobody can blame just one administration---Not the Obama administration, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush Senior all the way to Ronald Reagan. None have enforced the 1986 (IRCA) Immigration law. We had a chance to enforce the Simpson/Mazzoli laws but was--as usual--upstaged by the special interest confederacy. The new H.R. laws was miserable enforced and subjected to massive fraud by a majority who could counterfeit utility bills or other documents, proving they had been here for many years. The 1986 Immigration and Control act has decomposed before our eyes and now we have 13 million or up to 40 million illegal aliens (according to the the Heritage Foundation)--whoever you are inclined to believe. this is not just border jumpers, but countless numbers who flew here and overstayed their visas. Stupid as it sound the US Customs and Immigration form you fill-in, before arriving in this country, never had the capacity to be aware who has left--when their tourist or other visa expires. Nobody ever checked and it was a fallacy to think anybody could be tracked down--once here with a INS document.
Immigration laws have always been engineered by our legislators, which made sure that anybody who crossed the border was not subjected to criminal law. The war gods of the business world had used their influence and healthy bank accounts to sink any federal statutes that would hinder their greed. So now we have people running around with either copies of a legal family members social security number, or counterfeit drivers licenses, green cards or some other form of identification. If caught they used to be only detained if they committed a felony or the (INS) Immigration and Naturalization Service would let them walk the streets again. If in the first place the law had been more rigid, such in Mexico or hundreds of other countries around the world--this nonsense would never have happened.
For all the leniency applied to the people who unlawfully came here, is the demand for even more. All we get in many cases is demonstrations expecting citizen rights with foreign flag waving and a unceasing amount of criminal activity nationwide. Many do come here to work and some pay taxes, but not enough to cover the extraordinary costs applied to free medical care, education, housing and a whole host of undisclosed government handouts. Through a large loophole in IRS tax regulation Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). An obscene amount of money is returned to low income workers, states financial analyst and economist Edwin Rubinstein in his book. Originally a report, The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration: A Study in Fraud, Abuse, and Liberal Activism. For instance, the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) is available to illegal immigrants even if they do not have a valid Social Security number. The EITC is the most accessible of the major entitlement programs and used by more people than food stamps or Medicare. In 2007, more than 23 million households received more than $47 billion in the EITC payments. Much of the so-called "tax relief" goes to people who never paid a cent in taxes. Pariah employers should be paying for all these services, but instead are extracted from taxpayers exhausted wallets and purses. It's equally absurd and disgraceful when Americans needing social help and denied under current laws.
Before of any immigration reform the US population was promised that the gates of our country would be sealed shut. That the illegal movement of people in large numbers would be terminated. But nothing of the sort has been done and yet we are supposed to welcome countless millions out of the shadows? Critics say that it will be a bountiful opportunity to build our economy? Well! I don't think so--nor millions of other people, who comment in thousands of newspapers around the country. If they do pay taxes at all, most will receive the majority back as they have large families. That if you are on the poverty line, you will not pay any taxes anyway. It's really simple mathematics that many of those here, will have access to our many government handouts
Yet the worst is yet to come. Once settled as a bone-fide legal resident, they can then sponsor their family circle. Sen. Obama voted in favor of the Clinton Amendment (SA 1183) to S. 1348. The Clinton Amendment would significantly increase legal immigration by adding an unlimited number of spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents to the uncapped immediate relative category that currently is for the spouses, minor children and parents of U.S. citizens only. As a Senator has a terrible history of staunching illegal immigration. He has always to vote for guest worker amnesties, chain migration, comprehensive immigration reform, including voted against capping special work visas, voted against an amendment to stop guest workers being issued green cards and in 2008 voted for a policy to safeguard Sanctuary cities. What it really means is that President Obama is anti-American sovereignty and pro-illegal immigrant. Go to NUMBERSUSA for the grading facts of Obama's immigration record.
With either party in power THE LINE IN THE SAND HAS BEEN DRAWN, but even in a worst way with the Democrats. I see it as a ugly battle, because ordinary citizens will be blasted with nasty racial slurs. Many will not show up or cringe down away from the libertarian epithets, including all responsible lawmakers who try to make a stand. Tom Tancredo was divorced from speaking out at the University of North Carolina and many others have been ethically assassinated by a mob of who do not believe in the right to "Free Speech".
Two issues must be carefully calculated in this war. First and foremost this is an issue about the massive costs involved, in not only for every man, women and in some cases children being processed. But the years ahead will be a very expensive one for the taxpayers, for the millions who will be able legally to forage around for free benefits. First of all Social Security will take a hit, because these people will be unemployed in a grand scale. Not just the Mothers of babies questionably born in the United States in a 14th Amendment misinterpreted law meant for slaves after the War of the States, that gave them immediate ad-factor citizenship. That a baby intentionally brought into our sovereign nation, so that the Mother can become a welfare recipient and collect government benefits. Thus assuring because of this misinterpretation of our laws, an illegal immigrant mother can apply for food stamps, Medicare , low income housing and welfare payments. That the husband and other children without legal status can reside in the home. Yet our old folks, veterans and sick can remain homeless, and should morally get first preference.
"The average illegal immigrant family receives an average of $30,000 in governmental benefits! Yet they pay only about $9,000 in taxes per year. That creates a $21,000 shortfall that the American taxpayer has to make up. That's like buying each of the illegal immigrant families a brand new Mustang convertible -- each and every year!" so states Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation
Now the Obama administration is opening a can of worms by pushing for another AMNESTY. If the 1986 Immigration and Control Act had been rigidly enforced, instead of being intentionally ignored or just downright dropped, we would not be in this organized chaos caused by the K street lobbyists? Now the the Democratic hierarchy is running rampant, looking to appease minorities---we can expect the worst? With disgraceful legislators like Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi that snuffed E-Verify, ostracized the real ID act, the regular police detainment 247(g) program. Anything that contradicts their open border agenda, it's dead mostly in the Senate chambers. There is to much information to unfold in commenting, so go to these sites: VDARE, FAIRUS, JUDICIALWATCH, NUMBERSUSA, AMERICANPATROL, CAPSWEB & ALIPAC. The stakes are sky high because Amnesty means, thousands more will swamp the border looking for yet a 3rd---AMNESTY.
April 21, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply
From a humanitarian perspective, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.
Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections.
August 5, 2009 10:23 PM | Reply
Migrant workers who come into this country are almost always uneducated (at least in the Western-style capitalistic system America uses), so as a result they do not use the system in the way it was designed to be used. This is what happened when many migrant workers took sub-prime mortgages on newly bought homes and then defaulted on their payments (because they were uneducated about the reprocussions of defaulting on payments). This was a major force behind the housing bubble and the economic crash. Obama's Dream Act addresses this issue by making public education for those immigrants without green card visas a necessity. Educating our migrant immigrants will bring the economy of this country back to fruition.
October 7, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply