COLUMBIA, BOGOTA

DEPORTED COUPLE STRUGGLES IN COLUMBIA

By JOSHUA GOODMAN – 3 hours ago
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — "Welcome to your homeland," the immigration official said as he fingerprinted Julio and Liliana Gomez. "Here you'll never be considered illegal."

That's how the couple said they were greeted two weeks ago after being deported from Florida to their native Colombia — a move that separated them from their sons, whose battle to avoid the same fate has become a test case for hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth in the United States.

The sons — 18-year-old Juan Gomez and 20-year-old Alex — were born in Colombia and taken as toddlers by their parents to the United States in 1990. The family later sought political asylum because of threats Julio Gomez said he received from leftist rebels who killed his brother, but the request was rejected and the family ordered to leave the United States in 2003.

Instead, they stayed illegally in Miami.

Their case likely would have gone unnoticed among the thousands of deportations processed every day if not for a text message that Juan — a recently graduated high school honors student with Ivy League ambitions — sent to friends as he was being taken away in handcuffs from the family's home in July.

Overnight they mounted a sophisticated campaign on his behalf, contacting lawmakers in Washington and using the popular networking Web site Facebook.

An outpouring of sympathy for Juan and Alex — even from illegal-immigration critics like CNN pundit Lou Dobbs — prompted several federal lawmakers to write legislation that lets the brothers stay in the country until 2009, pending action on the bill.

But no such lifejacket was thrown to their parents and 84-year-old grandmother, who are now living with Liliana's sister in Bogota and trying to reacquaint themselves with a country they fear less but barely recognize after nearly two decades in the United States.

Between trips to the mall, where strangers offer hugs of support, they anxiously await news from their children.

"They've never been separated from us their entire lives," Liliana said, wiping away tears. "They don't know how to cook, they can't work and have nobody to take care of them."

Juan, reached by telephone at home in Miami, said the family house "is too big for just two people. It feels so quiet and lonely not having my dad watching TV and my mom cooking dinner."

He said he and brother Alex had been offered jobs by supportive community members — in a law office and at a hotel, but can't begin until pending working papers arrive.

In a mid-August speech to supporters posted on a Web site dedicated to his case, Juan said "every drop of sweat I've spilled, every ounce of blood I've shed, every single friend I've made, every pledge of allegiance I've recited, and every pivotal point of development in my life has been in the United States. I was not fortunate enough to have been born here, but I was fortunate enough to enjoy my progression from a toddler to a man in this country."

The couple told The Associated Press they sold their small party rental business for $30,000 to be able to support their sons in Florida. Miami Dade College has offered to waive tuition for Juan, who finished near the top of his class but had trouble applying to Harvard because of his undocumented status.

But the money is running out fast.

Despite being deported, Julio Gomez said his family's dream, like that of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, remains the American dream.

"God bless America," he said, flashing his U.S. Social Security card. "It's a beautiful country and it gave my children the opportunity to have a better future."

That future is now in peril for increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants, as aggressive immigration enforcement led to a record 27,900 detentions in the 2007 fiscal year ending Sept. 30, about 10,000 more than the previous year, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Deportations also rose, from 177,000 two years ago to 261,000.

"It doesn't matter if you succeeded in school or grew up here as infants," said Josh Bernstein of the Washington-based National Immigrant Law Center. "The law is very harsh."

Legislation is pending that would grant permanent residence to students who finish high school and go on to college or the military. Known as the Dream Act, it could benefit some 360,000 graduates and another 715,000 still in school, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent Washington think tank.

But the bill has lain idle since it was first proposed in 2001 and was blocked again last month by a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate.

"The Gomez brothers are a symbol of young people who came to the United States because of their parents' decision," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, a sponsor of the Dream Act. "Their only decision was to work hard, study and make their communities proud."

Associated Press Writer Linda Evarts contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia.

THE CHANGING FACE OF RACISM

November 18, 2007 at 20:31:08
by Min. Paul Scott

http://www.opednews.com

Used to be a time when you could easily spot racists. They were the group of good ol' boys hanging (excuse the pun) by the tree with the white bed sheets on their heads or the portly, southern sheriff spittin' tobacco and patting his police dog, Rex. But today the face of racism is changing.

Seems like Julie Myers, head honcho of Immigration and Customs (ICE) got a lot of people p.o.'d when she ingeniously, helped give the "most original costume" award at a Halloween party to a "bronzed up" white dude in fake dreadlocks and a prisoner suit.


(Earth to Julie, there is nothing original about racial stereotypes.)

Although, some of her more PC supporters may want to grab her by the collar and yell "Jules, what were you thinking," I'm sure that when Myers first saw the shocked looks on the faces of some the party goers her first reaction was:

"What?"

That's because the foul winds of racism are a' changin'.

In 2007, it seems that racism has become chic. Even funny to some.

Many folks thought that the "nappy headed ho" thing was down right hilarious. Especially, since Don Imus is about to make his triumphant return to radio in a few weeks. Even the World Wide Wrestling Entertainment folks recently used the phrase as a punch line for one of their recent shows. Then again, this is the same company that gave us Crime Tyme, a black tag team that would steal televisions and pick pocket wallets before every match.

And not to mention Fox News's Bill O'Reilly's well publicized blunder when he said how shocked he was to find ouut that black people are just as civilized as white folks, which was easily smoothed over when he had a couple of civil rights leaders in the No Spin Zone for a chummy chat.

What is actually funny is the excuses that these racially numb-skulls come up with when they get caught with their hands in the fried chicken bucket.

According to news reports, after the incident, an ICE spokesperson said that although the goober wore blackface (uh, bronzer) the crowd didn't realize that he had on makeup.

"Gee Bob, there sure is something different about you. Have you lost weight?"

However, they did have the foresight to get rid of the pictures of Myers posing with the "convict." Heaven forbid that they would wind up on TMZ.com or worst on Ku Klux Klan Christmas cards.

I forgot to mention that the costume party was part of a charity event. I wonder what charity it was for, the...(Naw, too easy.)

Anyway.

What is scary is that these are the people that we want to be in charge of guarding our borders.

I wonder if Myers has the boys from the border patrol using sombreros for target practice ?

As ticked off as I am with Myers, I don't know with whom I'm more upset, the racially insensitive folks or that ever present group of African Americans who they always call on to accept their weak apologies on behalf of black folks everywhere.

In this case it was a group of black employees called the National Association of African Americans in the Department of Home Security. (Yeah, that mighty group of black power militants, the NAAADHS).

I can see them now cowering together in their overalls with straw hats in hand...

"No sur. Miss Julie ain't no racist. Her been good to us's."

Where do they find these people, the Apology Acceptance Temp. Service?

What is most disturbing is that these are just the incidents that get reported. Can you imagine the stuff that goes on that we don't know about ?

Somewhere, I think there is an old Christmas party video with Julie "Cool J" Myers and the homies from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in blackface and dressed up like gangsta rappers, lip syncing Vanilla Ice's old rap song:

"ICE ICE, baby!"

http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com


"TRUTH Minista" Paul Scott is a minister, writer, lecturer and activist. He has been a guest on talk shows across the country including Hannity and Colmes (Fox News), Fox News Live, Nachman (MSNBC), Hot 97 (NY), The Bev. Smith Show, Mancow Morning Show, Mike Medved Show, Russ Parr Morning Show, Mo in the Midday WVON (Chicago), Tom Pope Show (DC) Newstalk 1010 (Toronto)discussing the issues of Rap,Race,Religion and Revolution. He has been interviewed by many newspapers including the USA Today and the Christian Science Monitor. Scott has lectured at universities across the country including West Virginia University and Clemson.

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"THE KEY TO IMMORTALITY IS FIRST LIVING A LIFE WORTH REMEMBERING", ST. AUGUSTINE

Proud to Live in America Inc was formed to help immigrants and natural born citizens navigate the complexities of contemporary life and enjoy the benefits of life in the USA.

Our primary goal is to help immigrants successfully assimilate into United States society and culture.

Through education, we hope to improve the general publics perception of immigrants and minorities. My background is in labor, human resources and English education.


http://www.proudtoliveinamerica.com

Now our racists don't wear sheets, they come on CNN each night in the form of Lou Dobbs or the run for president guy Tom Tancredo.

After tucking in his adopted daughter, Neidy, 7, who is from Guatemala, Joseph Collar of Nutley, N.J., reads her a bedtime story, their nightly activity. When the girl becomes an adult, she could face deportation.

NO SOFT TOUCH TO IMMIGRATION LAWS

By BRIAN DONOHUE
Newhouse News Service
Monday, Nov. 19, 2007

NUTLEY, N.J — The letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security landed in Neidy Collar's mailbox the first week in September, bringing the same bad news many illegal immigrants receive after they apply for green cards.

"You entered the United States without inspection," the letter read. "Your petition must be denied."

But Neidy Collar, 7, isn't worried about her immigration status. She frets instead about her upcoming spelling test, whether her father will get her pizza for dinner, and whether she will find her Dora the Explorer doll.

Neidy is in the second grade.

Her biological mother, a troubled illegal immigrant who carried her from Guatemala to the United States in 2002, placed her in the care of an aunt, Cathy Collar, and her husband, Joseph. The Nutley, N.J., couple adopted her in 2004.

As U.S. citizens, they assumed they would be able to sponsor their daughter for a green card. But under ever-tightening U.S. immigration laws, that's become impossible.

"All the same rules that apply to adults who walk across the Mexican border apply to this child," said Meaghan Touhey Kay, an immigration lawyer who has consulted the family on the case.

"The law is extremely clear that once someone, no matter how young, enters the United States illegally, they cannot adjust their status."

Experts split

Experts are divided over whether such laws are having the intended effect of discouraging foreigners from illegally immigrating.

But they have created an unintended byproduct: a generation — estimated in the hundreds of thousands — of English-speaking, culturally American young people with few ties to their homelands but unable to work, drive, vote, and in many cases, attend college in the U.S. because of illegal status.

"I want to be a doctor," says Neidy, a precocious bookworm who resists her parents' attempts to get her to speak Spanish at home. But, barring a change in U.S. immigration law, her chances of a career in medicine are slim.

When she turns 17 she will be unable to get a driver's license. Financial aid, or in-state tuition privileges, for colleges will be out of reach. She will be unable to work legally. She could eventually be deported to Guatemala, although it is unlikely while she is a minor.

"I don't think, at this point, she really understands any of this," said Joseph Collar, seated at the dining-room table as Neidy watched television in the basement.

Her federal immigration status never came into play for the Collars during the adoption process, because it is handled by the state. "I think it's starting to affect her a little bit; she realizes something is wrong," Collar said.

Necessary price

Groups that support tougher immigration laws say cases like Neidy's are the price the United States must pay to prevent more illegal immigration. They are winning the debate.

Efforts to pass legislation that would create a path to legalization for young people brought here illegally by their parents have been defeated in Congress three times in the past two years.

"Some of them have compelling stories," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors lower immigration levels.

"But until we reassert control over the immigration system, it's not appropriate to even entertain amnesty for even sympathetic cases like this because it's essentially guaranteed that there won't be enforcement as long as you keep giving people amnesty," he said.

In his basement office lined with artwork from his native Cuba, Joseph Collar keeps a thick file of letters and legal papers documenting his effort to obtain citizenship for his daughter. He has written several dozen members of Congress.

"They all tell me the same thing — our hands are tied because of the present immigration laws," Collar said.

Until 2001, many illegal immigrants, adults as well as children, living in the United States who were eligible for legal status could apply from within the U.S. after paying a $1,000 fine. Efforts to renew that provision, known as 245(i), have failed repeatedly in Congress.

The Collars say their only hope lies with federal legislation dubbed the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to an estimated 360,000 minors who were brought here illegally by their parents.

Under the act, high-school graduates who arrived illegally in the United States at age 15 or younger would be eligible for residency if they finish two years of college or serve two years in the military.

The act was part of larger immigration-reform bills that failed in Congress in each of the past two years. It was reintroduced as a separate bill but failed a vote in October.

"It's not going to happen," said Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Krikorian says DREAM Act supporters have underestimated the number of people who would be legalized, citing his think tank's study that estimated 2.1 million people would be eligible.

Krikorian also faults supporters with being unwilling to compromise. Had they lowered the age requirement so it covers young children brought to the U.S. it might have had more chance of passing.

If the requirement covered kids under the age of 7, for example, Krikorian said he would consider supporting it. "What they're trying to do is use the little kids as a way of sneaking in a lot of teenagers."

For now, the Collars' only option is to travel to Guatemala and apply for Neidy's green card from there.

But if Neidy is rejected — a possibility considering her immigration record — or something else goes wrong, she could be prevented from returning to the country.

For Joseph Collar, his fight to gain citizenship for his daughter is closely meshed with his own past.

Born in Cuba, Collar left the island at 12 as part of a program known as Operation Peter Pan, which took children of anti-Castro families and others living in Cuban orphanages to the United States and placed them with foster families.

The program, run by the U.S. government and the Catholic Church, was designed to keep the children from being sent to communist work camps.

"Every time I look at her, I look at myself when I came to this country," Collar said. "That's where we match. God brought this child to our doorstep, practically."

Now U.S. immigration laws that once made an exception for him are making it impossible for his daughter to lead the life he has.

"The law is punishing us for doing a good deed," Collar said. "It is punishing us and it is punishing Neidy."

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Racists racists racists the racists are coming my Gowd people this stick is old tired worn out excuse to get **** that does not belong to you, bunch of freaking cry baby's .Look as soon as you get the paper work straight & legal pay taxes have a little pride in your trades to charge the right prices for the work you do legally ,you can come sit on my porch have a glass of tea & talk about how good America can be

Teacher Sandy Sung speaking Mandarin to students Nathan Cruz, left, Sebastian Rios, second from left, and Jade Yi, second from right in the first grade classroom in the second year of a fully immersed Mandarin language program at Starr King Elementary School in San Francisco.


First grade student Sebastian Rios practices tracing characters in his Mandarin Chinese class.

MANDARIN IMMERSION

CHINESE ISN'T THE NEW FRENCH -
IT'S THE NEW ENGLISH

AS CHINA BOOMS, SO DOES MANDARIN IN U.S. SCHOOLS

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Martha Rios traces her finger over a vocabulary word for the first-graders assembled around her. She's volunteering in her son's sunny classroom at Starr King Elementary School. At their desks, the children bend over their papers, carefully practicing this week's words.

Sebastian Rios writes one and is about to move on to the next when his mother stops him. "Mira," she says in Spanish, pointing out where he's made a mistake.

Sebastian erases, then rewrites the character. Xin, the Chinese word for heart, has four strokes, not three. The vocabulary word is kai xin, or "happy."

It's a scene playing out in more and more classrooms across the nation: Students — from kindergarten on — learning Mandarin Chinese, in some cases instead of Spanish, French or other languages that have long been more popular in U.S. schools. It's partly a reflection of how parents increasingly see China's emergence as an economic power as something for which they should prepare their children.

The number of elementary and secondary school students studying Chinese could be as much as 10 times higher than it was seven years ago, says Marty Abbott, spokeswoman for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

When the council surveyed K-12 enrollment in foreign language classes in 2000, there were about 5,000 students of Chinese, Abbott says. The council is collecting data for another survey, but Abbott says early figures suggest the number of students now studying Chinese has "got to be somewhere around 30,000 to 50,000."

Nationwide, there are Chinese programs in more than 550 elementary, junior high and senior high schools, a 100% increase in two years, according to The Asia Society, an educational group. In May, when the College Board offered Mandarin Advanced Placement exams for the first time, 3,261 high school students took the test.

At the college level, enrollment in Chinese-language classes has increased 51% since 2002, according to the Modern Language Association, a language and literature education organization.


Spanish remains far and away the most popular foreign language for U.S. students: It's the choice of 80% of those who study a foreign language in America's grade and high schools, Abbott says. French is a distant second, with Latin and German vying for third-most-popular foreign language.

"But I think what's going to surprise everyone in this next survey we do is how close Mandarin is going to come to Latin and German," she says. "Chinese isn't the new French — it's the new English," says Robert Davis, director of the Chinese-language program in Chicago's public school system, which has 8,000 students studying Mandarin.

"It's not romantic. It's not because you're going to have a great time in Paris," he says. "It's very pragmatic."

That's the motivation of Martha Rios and her husband, Antonio, for having Sebastian learn Chinese, and why they moved 80 miles last summer from Gilroy, Calif., to San Francisco. Sebastian and about 70 other students at Starr King take all but one class a day in Chinese, one of 25 to 30 such immersion programs nationwide. More widespread one-hour-a-day language classes in Chinese also are gaining popularity in schools nationwide.

"My husband read about this program in the newspaper, and we wanted it for our son," Martha says.


Originally from Mexico, Sebastian's parents believe that if their son grows up speaking English, Spanish and Chinese, the world will be his oyster.


"It's for the future," Martha says. "Our families thought it was a marvelous thing. We are using the correct tools for him to succeed."

The Rioses aren't the only family to go to great lengths to take part in Starr King's immersion program. Another family came 400 miles, from Orange County, so their three daughters could attend the school.

San Francisco's program is only 2 years old. Starr King, the first of two schools to offer Mandarin immersion, eventually will have 120 students in kindergarten through fifth grade studying Chinese, says principal Chris Rosenberg. More want in: "We had 20 parents show up for the school tour this week."

Students start out spending 90% of their day hearing only Chinese — reading it, writing it, learning math and science in it. One hour a day is spent working in English. By the time they finish the fifth grade, half of their classes are in English and half are in Mandarin, and they should be able to read, write and speak both languages fluently.


That's a skill the Department of Defense is eager for more Americans to have. It classifies Mandarin as a "critical foreign language" and in 2007-2008 will put about $10 million into Chinese-language programs. Such funding historically has been directed to colleges, but now it's moving into grade schools.


In Portland, Ore., Woodstock Elementary has 200 students in a Mandarin immersion program; the school won a $700,000 Defense grant this year.

When the Portland program began in 1998, the largest number of students were girls adopted from China, followed by children from Chinese-American families. But that has shifted in recent years, with a larger proportion of students coming from families with no connection to China.

"If you go to the fifth-grade class and then down to the first and kindergarten classes," Woodstock principal Mary Patterson says, "you can really see the difference."

Attracted to a 'world language'

The rising popularity of Mandarin Chinese has been "incredible," says Cynthia Ning, director of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. She attributes the interest to communist China's economic boom as it emerges from decades of isolation, as well as the U.S. economy's increasing trade with China. China is now the USA's No. 2 trading partner, behind Canada and ahead of Mexico.

The Mandarin trend began at schools on the East and West coasts but has spread quickly, Abbott says. "You might think it's mostly in the high socioeconomic areas, but it's everywhere," she says. "We get calls from urban schools, from New Hampshire, Maine, Iowa. It's really everywhere."

In Chicago, black and Latino children fill the Mandarin classes. The program started small in 1999, with just a few part-time teachers and one coordinator.

Now there are 35 Chicago public schools that offer Mandarin, 22 of them elementary schools. Another 30 schools are on a waiting list for such programs.

Chicago has a fairly large Chinese population, but the push for Mandarin has come from non-Chinese families who wanted their kids to learn a "world language," Davis says. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who calls China "Chicago's future," has been a big supporter of the program, Davis says.

In St. Paul, Yinghua ("English Chinese") Academy opened last year. Now the public charter school has 145 students through the fourth grade studying in Mandarin. Three other school districts in the state, Minnetonka, Hopkins and St. Cloud, also have launched Mandarin immersion programs this year.

Thad Ewald of Roseville, Minn., has business connections in China, so he's seen the need for Americans to speak Chinese. But when his wife, Erin, heard about the Yinghua Academy, she had another motivation: academic rigor.

"I like that my kids have to turn in their homework on time and really do the work," Erin Ewald says.

The couple were so impressed with how well their daughter Eibhlin did in kindergarten last year that they transferred their son Lachlan into the school's third grade this year.

A reflection of the times

Interest in languages comes and goes. Latin was the sine qua non- from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. French has always been the language of culture. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, German was the choice among those interested in science.

In the 1950s and '60s, Russian gained popularity in colleges as concerns rose about the Soviet Union. Beginning in the 1970s, Spanish began to edge out French as the most popular language, a reflection of Latinos' increasing immigration into the USA. Interest in Japanese jumped in the 1980s as Japan's economy ascended.

In 1981, the USA's oldest Mandarin immersion elementary school program was launched. The private Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco began with four students; it now has 420 from preschool through eighth grade.

Interest in it has soared recently, says headmaster Andrew Corcoran. Despite the school's $18,000 annual tuition, it has seen a 300% increase in applications during the past three years.

The growth of Mandarin programs is creating a new problem: a lack of qualified teachers. There are only 10 university programs nationwide that offer teaching credentials for Mandarin at the grade-school levels, and most of the programs are new, Ning says.

"I think the next three to five years are going to be really crucial for this area of study," Corcoran says. "Until three years ago, teaching Chinese in the United States was not a career. Before that, you did it at a school like ours, which is rare, or at a weekend or afternoon school."

To help other schools get started, his school set up the CAIS Institute to offer training in how to develop Chinese language and culture programs.

Setting up a Chinese-language program is expensive because it means buying all new instructional materials. But for that there's a lot of support, both inside the USA and from China.

In 2006, the Foreign Language Assistance Program of the U.S. Department of Education allocated $6.7 million to Chinese instruction and an additional $2.4 million in 2007. There also were grants from the departments of Defense and State, and from various state government and philanthropic groups.


China also is pushing Chinese as a world language. Its Office of Chinese Language Council International, universally called Hanban (literally "Chinese Office"), is in charge of promoting Chinese worldwide. Part of that effort is creating textbooks and materials for children and adults, as well as teacher training.

Hanban also helps set up Confucius Institutes, which work to promote Chinese language, literature and culture, much as Germany's Goethe-Instituts do for German. There are about 100 Confucius Institutes around the world and 23 in the USA. The newest opened Sept. 8 in Denver.

In St. Paul, the Ewalds marvel at their children's ability to soak up a seemingly impossible language. Eibhlin is so comfortable in Chinese that "she approached a perfect stranger at Disney World this summer and started a conversation in Mandarin," Erin says.

Her daughter's also reading Chinese, sometimes to her mother's chagrin.

"The other day, we were in a shop, and there was a woman with a tattoo," Erin says. "Eibhlin wanted to know why she had the word 'milk' tattooed on her arm."

IOWA, DES MOINES

PROPOSAL SEEKS BANNING IMMIGRATION RAIDS IN D.M.

A proposal to prohibit local law enforcement officials from conducting raids on illegal immigrants in Des Moines was presented to at least one City Council member recently.

Councilwoman Christine Hensley said Sunday that she spoke about six weeks ago with representatives of two immigration-rights groups that presented a plan that would block local city departments - including the police - from conducting raids on immigrants or inquiring about a person's immigration status.

Aspects of the proposal, brought up Sunday at an immigration forum, are similar to a national trend of "sanctuary cities."

"They're looking at ordinances that have been passed in other parts of the country that would address that ," Hensley said.


"It's really important to emphasize it's in the very, very beginning stages of discussion."

Hensley said the impetus for the ordinance is illegal immigrants who fear raids and do not come to work, incurring costs on their employers.

"What I suggested to them is there has to be a lot of discussion about it and whether or not there's really a problem," she said.

Details on the plan and its chances of becoming an ordinance are unknown.

Alex Orozco, executive director of the Iowa-based Network Against Human Trafficking who is one of the people who met with Hensley, said Sunday he is trying to set up a meeting with Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie before the end of the year.

Orozco would not name the other immigration-rights group involved in the proposal.

Orozco declined to elaborate on specifics of the proposal except to say that "the ordinance would make it harder to conduct raids" and "all the city departments would be involved."

Hensley said she didn't have more details about the plan.

Councilmen Tom Vlassis, Bob Mahaffey and Michael Kiernan each said they had not heard of the plan.

Cownie, Councilmen Brian Meyer and Chris Coleman could not be reached for comment.

Orozco said media coverage of the plan while it is still in the preliminary stages would hurt its chances of passage. "We don't want anybody with hard feelings about this issue to get mad when we haven't even finalized it," he said.

Orozco had made a reference to the proposal earlier Sunday at an immigration forum at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines.

Even without all the details, some aspects of the proposal appear to mimic a nationwide trend: so-called "sanctuary cities" that direct local police not to look for violations of immigration law.

The term "sanctuary city" has come under scrutiny, said Tim Counts, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding that there is no legal definition.

Counts said that as far as he knew, any city ordinance would not interfere with federal agents conducting raids.

Nearly 70 cities, counties, and states have enacted sanctuary policies, according to a preliminary count by the National Immigration Law Center, but the Congressional Research Service in 2006 put the number at 32 cities and counties, according to a Sept. 25 article in the Christian Science Monitor.

A major raid in Iowa came last Dec. 12 when immigration agents swept through Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Marshalltown and five other cities nationwide, arresting about 1,200 workers - one-tenth of Swift's work force - on immigration or identity-theft charges.

The raids prompted a September federal civil-rights lawsuit filed in Texas against both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement by some of the workers detained.

In August 2000, Des Moines police detained 49 illegal immigrants in a raid on a south-side bar that they said was the result of a six-week police investigation of drugs allegedly being sold at the establishment.

Reporter Nigel Duara can be reached at (515) 284-8065 or nduara@dmreg.com

MINNESOTA, EAGAN

IN EAGAN PLANT, WORKERS GLIMPSE FUTRUE OF BUSH IMMIGRATION POLICY

By Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
20 November 2007 EAGAN

One after another, former Best Brands employees took the podium at Holy Trinity Church in Minneapolis, speaking out about what happened on Sept. 10.

On that Monday morning, management at the Eagan-based manufacturer and nationwide distributor of commercial baking products pulled between 80 and 100 Latino workers off the job and into one-on-one meetings. There, workers learned they were being fired as a result of "irregularities" in their employment documents.

"They escorted us to the door to kick us out of the plant as though we were criminals," Ulises Duay said. "After all of these hard years of working, giving our hard labor, why are they turning their backs on us now?"

That question remains unanswered, as Best Brands has refused repeated requests for a sit-down with the fired workers – requests made by the Twin Cities-based Workers Interfaith Network (WIN), which hosted the Nov. 5 press conference, on the workers' behalf.

Best Brands supplanted the fired workers with temps – and realized substantial costs savings as a result. Workers fired Sept. 10 earned as much as $16.50 an hour plus benefits.

Labor leaders say the layoffs demonstrate how growing uncertainty and fear surrounding the issue of immigration – both inside and outside the Latino community – are enabling unscrupulous employers to pad their bottom lines.

"We're seeing this across the country (from) employers who want to hold their workers down," Doug Mork, director of organizing at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789, said. "If they can keep workers running scared of immigration law, while at the same time profiting from (immigrants') labor, they come out ahead."

No-match controversy

The timing of Best Brands' decision to lay off its Latino workforce came against the backdrop of the Bush administration's latest plan to crack down on undocumented workers: prosecuting employers for not firing workers whose Social Security numbers differ from government records.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to send warnings – so-called no-match letters – to employers with 10 or more workers whose W-2 tax forms do not match the government's records. The letters would give employers 90 days to resolve the discrepancy or risk criminal prosecution.

Unions and business groups united in opposition to the plan. They claimed the financial burden of independently verifying workers' documents would cripple employers. They also pointed to statistics that estimate more than 60 percent of no-match letters identify workers in the country legally, but whose documents are out of date as a result of marriage, divorce or human error.

In a San Francisco federal court Oct. 10, the AFL-CIO won an injunction blocking the no-match rule. The union argued that 90 days was not enough time for workers to gather the paperwork necessary to prove their legitimacy, and that employers, in order to avoid federal scrutiny, may resort to not hiring – or firing – workers who appear foreign.

That, Mork suspects, is exactly what happened at Best Brands Sept. 10.

The company "used the issues of immigration and of no-match letters as an excuse for firing people," Mork told the Best Brands workers. "No employer should respond to no-match letters by firing people. This violates every belief of the basic social contract, the social fabric of America.

"The immigration system is broken, but frankly, this has nothing to do with it. This is employer abuse of workers, plain and simple."

Waiting to meet

The fired workers, meanwhile, vowed to continue pressuring Best Brands until management agrees to meet with them. The workers want to discuss vacation pay they claim the company owes them, as well as working conditions in the facility, according to Duay, "for the benefit of the company and the benefit of those working there now."

Tears welled up in the eyes of Duay's mother, Leticia, as she talked about losing the job she held for 10 years. Now she is losing her home, and her debts are accumulating.

"When we came and began working for Best Brands, this was a small company," Leticia Duay said. "After many years, the hard work of all of the workers there made it grow.

"I always came into work. I never even called in when I was sick or when I was tired. When they asked me to work overtime, I did it without complaining because I loved my job."

The Duays and other former workers said they came forward to put the labor movement and the immigrant community on notice that what happened at Best Brands can happen at plenty of other workplaces, too.

"What would happen if other companies did the same thing that Best Brands did?" asked Alfredo Ruiz. "It wouldn't be 40 to 60 families anymore. It would be hundreds and hundreds of families."

Reprinted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. Used by permission. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org

quote:

Originally posted by Houston:
First of all, let's all get one fact straight. Amnesty is alive and well today, it's present and codified as "relief" for certain immigrants including those from Cuba and Haiti. When some conservatives mention they have always opposed "amnesty" they must be talking about some other law because the concept exists in the law they actually endorsed ten years ago. These programs are not a special consideration available to all Citizens, or measures intended to bring about some substantial benefit to the economy, they're clear cut amnesty provisions aimed to satisfy certain interest groups.

Amnesty exists in criminal law and has been strongly defended by the Supreme Court. What do you think the statute of limitations really is? Criminal law recognizes the draconian effect of expecting a defendant to "preserve evidence" related to wrongdoing for an unreasonably long period of time unless the case relates to "capital" offenses and grotesque offenses against minors. Civil statutes also feature similar protections. All these limitations are protected by the Constitution and the "ex-post-facto" clause. I'm not going to talk about "tolling" here but the concept is fairly simple, you're forgiven after a certain period of time, no questions asked, no conditions.

But the concept of Amnesty extends well beyond the statutory provisions of law. Prosecutorial discretion and parole could be seen as other popular forms of Amnesty commonly used all over the country. When police issues a warning in lieu of a citation, the action amounts to nothing less than amnesty.

Amnesty is a complete forgiveness of the offense, no questions asked, no conditions. Many people, on a daily basis, receive traffic tickets, so, are these folks subject to some amnesty? They are only required to pay their tickets, but most violations are defined as misdemeanors subject to imprisonment. The fact that the state has decided it's more efficient to dispose of such offenses by fine and not imprisonment doesn't mean there's no penalty imposed.

Compare proposed legislations with what actually exists in the books. Cuban adjustment is done as a matter of law, fees are commonly waived, there's no penalty, no special condition imposed upon those who request that special relief. The program is clearly a selective amnesty. The proposed "legalization" program would mandate the imposition of fines and conditions, it's not a "green card giveaway" but a program that would place individuals on "probation" adjudicating the case after the probation is completed without incident.

However, legalizations and guest worker programs are different. If no true reform is passed amnesty will become a periodic event, and that has been the case for the last 20 years. Reform means change in the law, rationalization, new mechanisms, revisions, new approaches. Reform doesn't mean amnesty. Amnesty or legalization is a measure that would allow the system to get a clean start, but it's not, and shouldn't be, a fundamental part of any reform bill.

The danger is clear when the focus shifts away from reform to side matters like legalizations. The priority should be and remain reform, true reform, providing for a fair, humane and effective way to handle immigration in a rational manner compatible with reality. Again, legalizations are only "clean up" plans after the problem has been fixed.

This is so well put....my point of view exactly

real original , cut n paste master

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