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MEXICAN CONSULATE OFFICES ASK FOR DONATIONS TO HELP TABASCO FLOOD VICTIMS People evacuate a flooded area in Villahermosa, Mexico, on Thursday. A week of heavy rains unleashed massive flooding in southeastern Mexico. (Photo: AP/Marco Ugarte) By MarÃa Gonzá***-Escareño LAREDO, November 2 – The Mexican Consulate offices in Laredo and McAllen have set up donation centers for the victims of the devastating flood in Tabasco, Mexico. In Laredo, the donation center is located at El Manana's office in Laredo, Texas, on 6010 McPherson Ave. It will be open today until 6 p.m. and on Monday starting at 9 a.m. The Mexican Red Cross has opened a bank account for cash donations. This is the bank account information. Bank: BBVA/Bancomer Account Number :0401010115 Account Name: Cruz Roja Mexicana I.A.P. For more information on the Laredo donation center, contact El Manana at (956) 712-1122. Upper Rio Grande Valley residents may drop off donations at La Frontera's parking lot located on Jackson and Nolana from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Monday. The Mexican Red Cross also opened a bank account for cash donations, in addition to the BBVA/Bancomer account. Bank: Banorte Account Number: 27, 072-790000000000270 Both donation centers in Laredo and McAllen request the following items: bottled water, sugar, canned beans, sardines, powdered milk, non-perishable canned goods, sanitary napkins, new blankets, soluble coffee, cooking oil, chocolate powder, baby food, tuna, salt, cookies, saltines, disposable diapers, toilet paper, medicines and analgesics. The Mexican Consulates ask for the public's support for Tabasco's residents, who are going through the state's worst tragedy caused by devastating floods," said Miriam G. Medel GarcÃa, spokeswoman for the Mexican Consulate's office in McAllen. "We invite all the news media to transmit live, to donate a little of their time for the collection of donations and of course to put out news reports. The supplies will be sent to Villahermosa via the Texas Valley Rotary Clubs and those in Reynosa." Medel GarcÃa said used clothing will not be accepted. Write MarÃa Gonzá***-Escareño
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CONSULATE'S OFFICE PROVIDES UPDATE ON MEXICAN FLOODING CATASTROPHE A boy crosses a flooded avenue in Villahermosa, eastern Mexico, Sunday. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon called the flooding one of Mexico's worst recent natural disasters. (Photo: AP/Marco Ugarte) By Steve Taylor McALLEN, November 5 - Miriam G. Medel GarcÃa, spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate's office in McAllen, has provided the Guardian with an update on the severe flooding that has besieged the states of Tabasco and Chiapas. The death toll has risen to eight, with as many as half a million people left with homes that are damaged or destroyed. The Mexican foreign affairs department has announced the opening of two additional bank accounts for monetary donations for Tabasco. Bank: Wells Fargo Bank Account name: Ayuda Tabasco Account Number: 599253401 For transfers: 121000248 Electronic: 111900659 Bank: BBVA Bancomer, USA Account name: Ayuda Tabasco Account Number: 2280300127 (for deposits in California) ABA: 1-2222-05-06 (for deposits outside California) The United States Embassy in Mexico confirmed a donation of $300,000 and the Mexican authorities are coordinating with the embassy on how to channel the resources. The Canadian Embassy also offered a monetary donation that will be determined shortly, Medel GarcÃa said. "The international community continues to send help to the devastated victims of Tabasco with medicine, goods and technical assistance. The Peruvian government has confirmed its assistance by sending an airplane with medicines and medical personnel," Medel GarcÃa said. "Two members of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and three Mexican consultants are in Tabasco to provide assistance in shelter administration and clean-up measures. Shortly, the British organization Search and Rescue Assistance in disasters will send an emergency response team, with experts and 10 inflatable motorboats." Cuba will send a brigade of 50 doctors that specialize in disastrous situations. Tabasco has also received acts of solidarity and generosity from Guatemala, Nicaragua, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, Switzerland, Doctors without Borders, Malta and the Los Angeles mayor's office. "The Mexican foreign relations department and the federal government will continue to welcome international assistance," Medel GarcÃa said. "In addition, the Mexican government requests that the governments and organizations who contribute foresee the transfer logistics of its personnel and equipment to the affected areas." Medel GarcÃa said the Mexican government would like to reiterate the appreciation of the Mexican people for the innumerable signs of solidarity that is being received from the international community. Write Steve Taylor © Copyright of the Vox Veritas Corporation dba Rio Grande Guardian, www.riograndeguardian.com; Melinda Barrera, President, 2007. All rights reserved.
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AIN'T THAT AMERICA
NY TIMES
Published: October 22, 2007
Think of America's greatest historical shames. Most have involved the singling out of groups of people for abuse. Name a distinguishing feature "” skin color, religion, nationality, language "” and it's likely that people here have suffered unjustly for it, either through the freelance hatred of citizens or as a matter of official government policy.
We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness. But it doesn't. It has federal inertia and a rising immigrant tide, and a national mood of frustration and anxiety that is slipping, as it has so many times before, into hatred and fear. Hostility for illegal immigrants falls disproportionately on an entire population of people, documented or not, who speak Spanish and are working-class or poor. By blinding the country to solutions, it has harmed us all.
The evidence can be seen in any state or town that has passed constitutionally dubious laws to deny undocumented immigrants the basics of living, like housing or the right to gather or to seek work. It's in hot lines for citizens to turn in neighbors. It's on talk radio and blogs. It's on the campaign trail, where candidates are pressed to disown moderate positions. And it can be heard nearly every night on CNN, in the nativist drumming of Lou Dobbs, for whom immigration is an obsessive cause.
In New York, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed allowing illegal immigrants to earn driver's licenses. It is a good, practical idea, designed to replace anonymous drivers with registered competent ones. In show after show, Mr. Dobbs has trained his biggest guns on Mr. Spitzer, branding him with puerile epithets like "spoiled, rich-kid brat" and depicting his policy as some sort of sanctuary program for the 9/11 hijackers. Someday there may be a calm debate, in Albany and nationally, about immigrant drivers. But with Mr. Dobbs at the megaphone, for now there is only histrionics and outrage.
Let's concede an indisputable point: people should not be in the country illegally. But forget about the border for a moment "” let's talk about the 12 million who are already here. What should be done about them?
A. Deport them all.
B. Find out who they are. Distinguish between criminals and people who just want to work. Get them on the books. Make them pay what they owe "” not just the income, Social Security, sales and property taxes they already pay, but all their taxes, and a fine. Get a smooth legal flow of immigrants going, and then concentrate on catching and deporting bad people.
C. Catch the few you can, and harass and frighten the rest. Treat the entire group as a de facto class of criminals, and disrupt or shout down anyone or any plan seen as abetting their evildoing.
Forget A. Congress tried a version of B, but it was flattened by outrage.
And so here we are at C. It's a policy that can't work; it's too small-bore, too petty, too narrow. And all the while it's not working, it can only lead to the festering of hate. Americans are a practical and generous people, with a tolerant streak a mile wide. But there is a combustible strain of nativism in this country, and it takes only a handful of match tossers to ignite it.
The new demagogues are united in their zeal to uproot the illegal population. They do not discriminate between criminals and the much larger group of ambitious strivers. They champion misguided policies, like a mythically airtight border fence and a reckless campaign of home invasions. And they summon the worst of America's past by treating a hidden group of vulnerable people as an enemy to be hated and vanquished, not as part of a problem to be managed.
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http://irishvoices.blogspot.com/VOICES OF THE UNDOCUMENTED IRISHMonday, November 05, 2007 Turn down the anti-immigrants rhetoric BY BISHOP WILLIAM F. MURPHY William F. Murphy is bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. This is excerpted from remarks made at the Nassau County and Latino Immigration Forum at Adelphi University on Oct. 22. If we cast an eye back through our nation's history of immigration, it is clear that at different times different ethnic groups faced opposition and even hostility. The Irish in their time, the Italians in theirs. Sadly, in our day the Latino community bears a similar burden. There are many millions of immigrants living and working here in the United States. We depend on their labor, and they make significant contributions to our local and national economies. They work in our hospitals, our schools, our farms, restaurants and even our own homes; they take care of our children and elderly parents. More than 12 million of these are undocumented, and a significant number of these are Latino. But we must remember that of the approximately 330,000 Latinos living on Long Island, 50,000 are undocumented. Slightly less than one in six! In other words, 280,000 are here legally. Mirroring the national reality, however, the presence of these people is a point of division and controversy throughout Long Island. Our communities are polarized, and people, especially the immigrants, are demonized. What we need above all is a civil, reasoned discourse that will help us arrive at a meaningful and realistic solution. We need to listen to the other, try to understand their fears, their needs, their perspective, and get to know them as human beings. We need to muster the courage to acknowledge: That abject poverty forces people to set out on a perilous journey to our country in search of a better life. That 40 men living in a one-family house is neither safe nor desirable and harms the neighborhood. That day laborers - documented and undocumented workers - fill a void in our labor market, and to date there is no reasonable alternative. That longtime residents struggle to pay taxes and continue to live in their communities, where they have a right to see the standards of decent living observed and respected by all. That families are torn apart as a result of the economic need to immigrate. The church approaches this important social issue from the moral perspectives of our biblical tradition and our rich body of Catholic social teaching. The quality of our relationship with God can be judged by our society's treatment of the poor and vulnerable. We must engage in important social issues with the dual moral principles of respecting the dignity and rights of the individual, while always pursuing the common good. In 1983 the Holy See deposited at the United Nations a Charter of the Rights of the Family. This is based on the inherent dignity of every human being, a dignity that must be respected no matter who the person is or what circumstances he or she may be subjected to. One of the values of Latino society is its high regard for the family. In fact, care of one's family in one's homeland is a major motivator for those immigrants who come here seeking work. As we seek to respond to today's challenges, we need to keep in mind fundamental rights, such as rights to work, decent wages, safe working conditions and the ability to live simply but with dignity. We must also recognize the right to marry, found a family, and the right of the family to live together in unity and freely to bring children into the world; the right to have access to the means to earn a living that can care for the family and for that family to contribute to the good of society. The last right in this charter states, "The families of migrants have the right to the same protection as that accorded other families." We as a church are eager to offer our pastoral assistance in this important challenge to us all, and we recognize there are some principles that must be observed by us all in this matter: Respect for law and the commitment that all must live according to just laws. The right of sovereign nations to secure their borders. The right of people to remain in their homeland or to emigrate to support themselves and their families. Respect for the inherent human dignity and rights of every person regardless of political, economic or civil status. The central role and rights of the family as the primary and fundamental unit that is the basis of every other society. As bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, I have serious concerns about the recent immigration raids that took place on Long Island. I do not, in any way, object to the right and duty of law enforcement authorities to do their job, nor do I oppose the appropriate arrest and prosecution of those engaged in criminal activities. However, any enforcement effort that does not respect the dignity and rights of every human, and denies due process under the law, ought to be vigorously rejected. One of the results of recent raids has been that families were torn apart. And even to date, pastors and family members have been unable to determine the location of their loved ones who were detained. The federal government has a primary responsibility for comprehensive immigration-law reform. We must have enforceable federal laws that regulate immigration effectively. We should not expect local communities to fill in the void. We should not punish people who have come here legally seeking honest work, nor should we deprive people who are here of their dignity as human beings. All of us must rise to the occasion of this enormous social challenge by putting aside the rhetoric and stereotypes and directing our passions and strong convictions instead to finding real and lasting solutions that will build a nation and a Long Island of which we can all be proud. Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.
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SECRETO A VOCES
THE BORDER REPORT
This is a column I wrote, appearing last week in my paper, The News of Mexico City. As soon as they get their Web site up, I'll start linking to them.
$$
Money talks, but sometimes it buys a nice silence as well. A pretty comfortable silence too when considering the latest initiatives undertaken by the United States and Mexico in this beleaguered country's ongoing fight with drug traffickers.
On the one hand, the Bush Administration wants to invest $1.4 billion in an enormous aid package for Mexico, flush with helicopters, airplanes, witness protection programs, military training – though no intervention by U.S. troops – you name it.
On the other hand, the U.S. is spreading out a zero-tolerance program along its southern borders, one that started in December 2005. The program, dubbed Operation Streamline, slaps illegal migrants with a misdemeanor jail sentence of at least two weeks when U.S. Border Patrol agents capture them on their first try sneaking into the country. The program started in Del Rio Sector in Texas, then spread out to western Arizona, and is now planned for use in the nation's busiest corridor for illegal border crossings, the Tucson sector.
Frankly, I always wondered why such enforcement wasn't already being used since the U.S. got into an immigration mess in the first place because there was such lackadaisical enforcement of the existing immigration laws. Pero bueno.
What's somewhat astounding to me is the lack of any substantial complaint by the Mexican government and I'll tell you why.
Back in 2003, the U.S. tried an absurdly over-priced program called interior repatriation where captured Mexican nationals were supposed to be flown back to Mexico City where some would go home and others would have to start all over again. But at the time, the Mexicans refused to allow the flights into Mexican airspace. So, the Border Patrol came up with a new tactic, a kind of migrant shell game, flying the migrants from one side of the country's border to the other. Those captured in Tucson sector were flown to El Paso, Texas, and scooted into Mexico. The pilot program only lasted a few months and was re-named lateral repatriation.
The Mexican government, predictably, raised hell over the program, then cowed to the interior flights – but only if the program was voluntary. So, at $14 million a year, the U.S. was shipping about ten percent of its captured Mexican nationals back into Mexico on a free flight home. Fast forward to March 2005 and you had then-President Vicente Fox railing against the U.S. plans to wall off more of the San Diego border, dropping this beautiful bon mót on a Washington D.C. audience:
"No country that is proud of itself should build walls."
A group of gun-toting restrictionists decides to hold a border-watch party on the Arizona border and the Mexican government grows livid with the news. Over toward the New Mexico border, somebody screws up and builds up the border wall ten feet into Mexico, another outcry.
Who can forget the pepperball incident a few years back when border agents were armed with pepperguns and there was nearly a diplomatic freeze over their use on troublemaking migrants?
Most recently, President Felipe Calderón really caused border security enthusiasts' hearts to quake when he pronounced, "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
But as far as criticism against the U.S., that's as far as it's gone.
Now, silence.
The Bush Administration has found the proper way to approach Calderón's office on illegal immigration controls and the solution seems to be the time-honored waving of a fist full of cash, training and heavy gear.
Migrants are being thrown into the federal version of the drunk tank, serving two weeks to six months in jail after being captured on their first try in and their Mexican president seems to be okay with that.
Up until now, U.S. border security plans have mostly steered away from the core problem, the migrants themselves. As a result, fences, cameras, vigilantes, and choice of weapons were criticized, and quite heavily, by the Mexican government. Now that the plan to arrest the illegal migrants is spreading out to the busiest corridors of Mexico's northern border, it'd be in keeping with Mexico's usual outrage against the U.S.'s plans to raise an outcry heard all the way to the United Nations.
But that $1.4 billion will go a long way to bringing back a semblance of control to the country's precarious law enforcement agencies. And that, it seems, is vastly more important to Calderón's administration.
As for the Bush Administration, in spite of its global failings, it seems to have finally struck a balance between heavy-handedness and diplomatic relations when it comes to Mexico. It just took a few hundred million dollars to make it happen.
– Michael Marizco
THE BORDER REPORT »
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 1:54 pm and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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 DHS EMPLOYEE PUT ON LEAVE AFTER WEARING 'OFFENSIVE' COSTUMEHOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF DIRECTS EMPLOYEE TO TAKE LEAVEFrom Jeanne Meserve and Mike M. Ahlers CNN WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The employee who wore what some said was a racially insensitive Halloween costume to a party hosted by a top immigration official is being directed by the Homeland Security Department Secretary to take administrative leave. Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the man's costume "offensive." The employee's leave will continue while a Department inquiry is conducted, according to Secretary Michael Chertoff. The employee wore a striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and darkened skin make-up to the party hosted by Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Myers was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for "originality." After some employees complained, Myers apologized for "a few of the costumes," calling them "inappropriate and offensive." She said she and other senior managers "deeply regret that this happened." A department photographer took a picture of Myers with the man, but the photograph or photographs, originally posted online, were deleted after it was determined the costume was offensive, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. Asked about the controversy at a press conference Tuesday, Chertoff said Myers was "right to apologize for having this proceeding take place" and said she is reaching out to members of Congress and others to make sure "they understood her unwavering commitment to equality and fairness." "Here is the bottom line: People do dumb things," Chertoff said. "I get very perturbed when there is anything that is done that suggests that with respect to the enforcement of the law, we are anything other than even-handed. I have zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in the area of law enforcement. We have to be tough but we have to be fair. ... The idea that you are going to come and impersonate someone of another ethnic group, I think, is completely unacceptable." Between 50 and 75 people attended the party, which was a fund-raiser for the Combined Federal Campaign, a federal government collection of charities. Nantel said one employee, whom she declined to identify, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and a skin "bronzer" intended "to make him look African-American." But, she said, it was not immediately apparent that he was wearing the make-up. "Most people in the room didn't realize he was wearing make-up at all," she said. "It was unintentioned. The employee did not mean to offend although there were some employees that were rightfully offended by it," Nantel said. "There were a couple of people who were offended," Nantel said. "When it was confirmed through a conversation with the employee that he was wearing make-up" the employee was counseled and Myers sent out a note to employees apologizing. "The photo was deleted because there was a determination that the costume was inappropriate," Nantel said. In a November 2 email to ICE employees, Myers said, "It is now clear that, however unintended, a few of the costumes were inappropriate and offensive. While we were all thrilled to be a part of the CFC fund-raising effort, I and the senior management at ICE deeply regret that this happened." She reminded all employees to be compliant with the department's diversity training requirement. Myers has served as head of ICE since January of 2006 but is still awaiting Senate confirmation. An ICE congressional liaison said ICE officials briefed congressional staffers about the costume party this week as a courtesy. But at least one congressional staffer said they approached ICE after receiving an anonymous fax about the incident. Myers called House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, about the incident and is expected to meet with him before the end of the week, a Thompson spokeswoman told CNN. Myers also contacted the National Association of African-Americans in the Department of Homeland Security. In a letter to NAADHS members, the group's vice president, Sjon Shavers, said the group "appreciates (Myers) reaching out to us so quickly in order to keep us apprised of the matter and we commend her on moving so swiftly toward appropriate corrective action." As head of ICE, Myers heads the law enforcement agency charged with enforcing immigration law in the nation's interior. It is the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, with more than 15,000 employees, including 6,000 investigators. Chertoff "supports the actions that Assistant Secretary Myers has taken," DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. "We do not tolerate inappropriate behavior at DHS. "The secretary has asked for an inquiry into the facts surrounding the incident. Once the facts have been determined, we will take all necessary and appropriate actions." E-mail to a friend All About U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement |
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 CHERTOFF PLEDGES TO FIGHT LAWSUITS TARGETING BORDER SECURITYBy SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer Nov. 6, 2007, 5:15PM © 2007 The Associated Press WASHINGTON "” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pledged Tuesday to fight all lawsuits against his efforts to secure the border, ranging from building fences to requiring new driver's licenses. Chertoff blamed lawsuits like one blocking his department from using Social Security information and another trying to prevent fence construction on the Arizona-Mexico border as part of the reason the federal government has had trouble getting control of the border for the past 30 years. *** "I will fight every lawsuit. I will deal with every procedural roadblock. I will use every tool the law allows to continue to press forward in the enforcement of laws," Chertoff said. Chertoff conducted a multimedia presentation to give a status report on his department's attempt to tighten immigration enforcement with existing laws and regulations to "try to fill the gap left open by Congress' failure to act to address the challenges comprehensively." He hinged some of the agency's future border security work, such as building a total 670-mile border fence, on getting more money from Congress. But negotiators who drafted a compromise defense spending bill stripped the measure of $3 billion in emergency border security money. *** The money is already in a Homeland Security Department spending bill but President Bush is threatening to veto that measure. The achievements Chertoff named for the fiscal year 2007 that ended Sept. 30 include: _ Built more than 76 miles of fence, for a total of 106 miles of pedestrian fence and 115 miles of vehicle fence on the Southwest border. _ Hired about 15,000 agents. _ Apprehensions fell 22 percent at the U.S.-Mexican border, indicating fewer illegal crossings. _ The number of businesses using a system that allows them to check whether workers are legal rose from 11,474 in 2006 fiscal year to 24,463 this year. *** Chertoff said the agency plans to send to the White House's Office of Management and Budget this week proposed changes to rules for the H2-A temporary agriculture worker program to relieve worker shortages. Chertoff declined to provide specifics on the proposal, but said he is trying to "streamline some of the requirements with respect to wages" and other requirements. He said he wants sensible changes but also wants to keep worker protections in place. Employers consider the H2-A program cumbersome and many hire undocumented workers rather than use the program. Growers and immigrant advocates had hoped Congress would pass immigrant agricultural worker legislation known as AgJobs as part of the farm bill. But earlier this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she would not offer it as an amendment to the bill because it did not have enough support. |
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PRESSURE ON IMMIGRANTS COULD ERUPT IN ANGER
mercurynews.com
By Andres Oppenheimer
Article Launched: 11/06/2007 01:33:44 AM PST
The rapid escalation of U.S. anti-immigration hysteria - fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls - is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Latino intifada with the potential to rock this nation in the not-so-distant future.
Remember the Palestinian intifada of the early 1990s, when thousands of frustrated young Palestinians took to the streets and threw stones at Israeli troops? Remember the French intifada of the summer of 2005, in which disenfranchised Muslim youths burned cars and stores in the suburbs of Paris?
If we are not careful, we may see something similar coming from the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them Latino, who are increasingly vilified in the media, forced further into the underground by spineless politicians and not given any chance to legalize their status by a pusillanimous U.S. Congress.
We are creating an underclass of people who won't leave this country and, realistically, can't be deported. They and their children are living with no prospect of earning a legal status, no matter how hard they work for it. Many of them will become increasingly frustrated, angry, and some of them eventually may turn violent.
I was thinking about all of this when I read about last week's U.S. Senate refusal to pass the DREAM Act, a bill that would offer a path to legalization to children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States at a very young age, and who get a college degree or serve in the military.
The bill would have regularized the status of youths like Juan and Alex Gomez, the two Colombian-born Miami brothers who were brought by their parents to this country as toddlers, graduated near the top of their high school classes, and now face deportation to a country they don't even remember.
There are an estimated 1.8 million children in the United States who are growing up like other American kids, often speak no language other than English, but don't have legal documents, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They are denied in-state college tuition fees or scholarships that are available to legal U.S. residents, and are eventually thrown into a labor market where they are barred from being employed.
Further, the Bush administration-backed escalation of raids against undocumented workers in factories, the increase of city ordinances prohibiting people from leasing apartments to undocumented immigrants, and the overt xenophobia spilling daily from Latino-phobic radio and cable-television shows will leave their mark on these and other children in immigrant communities.
A study released last week by the Urban Institute and the National Council of La Raza says there are about five million U.S. children with at least one undocumented parent.
"The recent intensification of immigration enforcement activities by the federal government has increasingly put these children at risk of family separation, economic hardship, and psychological trauma," the report says.
The study looked at the impact of recent U.S. immigration raids in Colorado, Nebraska and Massachusetts, where about 900 undocumented workers were arrested at their work sites, and their children - most often infants - were suddenly deprived of their fathers or mothers.
"The combination of fear, isolation, and economic hardship induced mental health problems such as depression, separation anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide thoughts," it said.
My opinion: We have to stop this xenophobic hysteria. And please, dear anti-immigration readers, don't tell me I'm being dishonest for failing to point out that you are not against legal immigration, but only against "illegals."
You are making a deceptive argument. Leaving aside the fact that nearly half of the undocumented immigrants came to this country legally, and overstayed their visas, their non-compliance with immigration rules should not stigmatize them with the label of "illegals."
You may have violated a rule, but that should not make you an "illegal" person. You may have gotten a ticket for speeding, but that doesn't make you an "illegal" human being, even if the potential harm of your reckless driving is much greater than anything done by most of the hard-working undocumented immigrants in this country.
Carrying out enforcement-only policies, labeling undocumented workers as "illegals" and depriving them of hope for upward mobility - rather than working toward greater economic cooperation with Latin America to reduce migration pressures - is not only wrong, but dangerous. The millions of undocumented among us will not leave. They will only get angrier.
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MEXICO'S FELIPE CALDERONCouncil On Hemispheric Affairs, DC November 06, 2007 That refusal to acknowledge the extent of Mexico's derelictions was due to this country's need of Mexican cooperation in NAFTA and the immigration question. ... http://www.coha.org/2007/11/06/mexicos-felipe-caldern/
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 WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago? Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing? Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago? Where have all the young girls gone? Gone for husbands everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing? Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago? Where have all the husbands gone? Gone for soldiers everyone Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago? Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing? Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago? Where have all the graveyards gone? Gone to flowers, everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago? Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1955) (c) 1961 (renewed) by Sanga Music Inc. |
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http://www.bordermovie.com/BORDER - A Chris Burgard Film California filmmaker Chris Burgard's award-winning, feature-length documentary, BORDER, takes a firsthand look at the dire and real human consequences of America's failure... View the trailer
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FAMILY CAREGIVER FACING DEPORTATION WINS REPRIEVE
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2007
VANCOUVER - A Vietnamese woman facing deportation was given a reprieve today nine hours before she was scheduled to board an airplane that would have returned her to Saigon.
Thi Tuyet Nguyen, 55, had been in Vancouver since 2002 looking after her elderly and frail parents, and had lost a final appeal against deportation Tuesday in Federal Court.
Immigration officials told her she would be taken to Vancouver International Airport for a 10 p.m. flight and removed from the country.
Following the court's decision - which rejected her claim to stay on compassionate and humanitarian grounds - Toronto immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman appealed to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to exercise ministerial discretion and allow her to stay.
Nguyen is the sole caregiver for her father, 92, and her mother, who is 90. Both suffer from dementia and are in poor health. A medical assessment said the couple's life expectancy would be shortened if she was deported, as the | |
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