After comprehensive immigration reform failed in June 2007, many states and other local authorities have taken immigration issues into their own hands. This story by the Dallas Morning News predicts that under new Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, immigration reform will return to the federal level.
From the article—
Her record as a proponent of enforcement signals that Mr. Obama will balance border-security concerns with the demands of employers wanting more foreign labor, they said.
"The governor understands that immigration is a federal responsibility, and she has made that pretty clear by asking for federal help," said James W. Ziglar, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Ms. Napolitano's appointment presents an opportunity for Texas officials who frequently questioned Mr. Bush's direction on immigration policy.
"She brings an understanding of the dynamic between strong border security, and at the same time not impeding trade and tourism and retail, which are so important to our border economies," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who spoke to Ms. Napolitano on Monday.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, agreed with Ms. Napolitano, a Democrat, on two high-profile initiatives. Both governors opposed the decision to fence the entire 1,950-mile southern border and, later, to withdraw National Guard troops who helped police the border.
Of the border fence, Ms. Napolitano famously said: "You show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."
"As a fellow border governor, she knows the security implications of a porous international border," said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry. "Governor Perry would certainly look forward to working with her in her new capacity."
Ms. Napolitano has supported the concept of a "virtual fence," or using surveillance and technology to monitor smugglers.
Her nomination was applauded by business groups who think she'll support efforts to expand guest-worker programs.
As governor, Ms. Napolitano pushed for so-called comprehensive immigration reform. She has supported a temporary worker program and called for a national employer-verification system.
Today's editorial selection comes to us from In These Times (via AlterNet). The piece by Andrew Seltzer compares the situation in Maricopa County, Arizona as the watershed immigration moment that Selma was to the civil rights movement decades ago.
The article is pretty long, but definitely worth a read. Here's the opening section–
The battle began in front of a furniture store.
Like hundreds of other street corners, the intersection at 36th Street and Thomas Road in Phoenix was where immigrant workers arrived before dawn, hoping that someone would pick them up for a day's work in construction. But last October, the parking lot of Pruitt's furniture became more than a pick-up spot. First, the store's owner hired off-duty sheriff's deputies to act as security guards, claiming that the laborers were causing a disturbance.
Later that month, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America," decided to act on a handful of complaints he had received. He made Pruitt's parking lot the centerpiece of a neighborhood sweep. Arpaio's deputies began arresting undocumented immigrants in the neighborhood and turning them over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation proceedings.
In response, civil and immigrants' rights activists began gathering every Saturday outside the store, protesting what they believe were racially and ethnically motivated crackdowns. Soon, nativist groups from across the southwestern United States -- with names like the Patriots Border Alliance and Mothers Against Illegal Aliens -- arrived to counter-demonstrate. Waving American flags, the anti-immigrant crowd stood across the street, holding signs that declared support for the mass arrests, the closing of the Mexican border and the immediate deportation of all "illegal aliens."
The circus-like scene made for good TV, and Arpaio, a media hound by most accounts, seemed egged on by the protests. In a Dec. 5 sheriff's office press release, Arpaio said, "I will not give up. All the activists must stop their protest before I stop enforcing the law in that area."
Finally, in January, after more than 67 undocumented immigrants had been arrested, the owner of Pruitt's agreed to stop hiring off-duty officers.
Arpaio, however, wasn't done.
martes, diciembre 02, 2008
Cartoon of the day
By Dario Castillejos, El Imparcial de México
Here comes an incredibly interesting story about older guest workers from Mexico who are finally getting paid for work they did decades ago—
"Decades after working as a bracero, as thousands of Mexican guest farm workers were called in a program from 1942 to 1964, the Mexican government had recently agreed to a one-time payment, $3,500, of long overdue withheld wages."
More—
Scholars believe that more than 2.5 million people were braceros, which is Spanish for “strong arms,” at a time when “guest worker program” did not set off as fierce a debate as today.
Most worked three to six months a year in agriculture, the bulk of them in California, with a smaller number in railroads. The program began because of farm labor shortages brought on by the war, and it continued afterward at the urging of growers until 1964.
The Mexican government took 10 percent of the wages paid to braceros, supposedly holding it until their eventual return to Mexico.
In 2001, a group of braceros from the World War II era filed a federal lawsuit against Mexico to recoup their money. Four years later, facing pressure from former braceros in Mexico and their advocates, the government announced a reparation program, but required braceros in the United States to travel to Mexico to register, a difficult journey for the elderly and infirm.
The settlement, which a federal judge will consider granting final approval in February, prodded Mexico to apply its program to braceros in both countries, eliminating the travel requirement.
 This news-feature was sent to us by Roger, one of our blog's readers. The story, published in the NY Times, tells the story of an immigrant whose residency dreams turned into a detention and deportation nightmare.
From the article—
In 2004, Heathcliffe Bradley was planning to return to his native New Zealand after eight years in the United States when he met Cheryl Losee, a New Jersey native, and his plans flew out the window. He stayed, they married, and then he turned his attention to a lingering problem: Mr. Bradley was an illegal immigrant.
But what seemed to them a straightforward process to make Mr. Bradley a legal resident soon turned into a bureaucratic and legal nightmare. Last month Mr. Bradley, a construction worker who says he has no criminal record in either the United States or New Zealand, was hauled from his home in handcuffs and put in an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., and told he was going to be deported.
He is challenging his deportation in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
“I’m fighting for my wife and for myself,” he said on Tuesday, sounding weary. “This is my life, and this is where I want to live.”
miércoles, noviembre 26, 2008
Cartoon of the day
By Mike Keefe, Denver Post
Senator Ted Kennedy talks about how to deal with immigration in the United States. For some reason the video is not embeddable, so please click-through to watch it.
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