Immigration: It's Our Community

Halt Deportations to Haiti Now.

2011-02-11T15:56:00.002-05:00

A month ago, I posted about ICE resuming deportations to Haiti. On January 20, 27 Haitians were sent home, and all were incarcerated, as is the common practice with deported immigrants who were incarcerated abroad. Prison conditions are "notoriously unsanitary," and wracked with cholera. Nevertheless, ICE deported 27 people, and within a week, one man, Wildrick Guerrier, died of cholera-like symptoms.

Precisely what FCNL and other activist organizations feared has happened, and it is unacceptable. The bottom line is that Haiti, still a disaster zone, is not ready to absorb hundreds more into the country. It is struggling to take care of the people that are already there. FCNL and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) wrote a letter to Secretary Napolitano, imploring her to halt the deportations. It has already resulted in one death. How many more until Homeland Security and ICE decide it's enough?

We'll keep you updated on the situation. Thanks for reading.

Two ICE Raids in January

2011-02-04T10:52:00.003-05:00

Last month, on opposite ends of the country, two immigration raids conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency resulted in more than 100 people detained. The first, in Ellensburg, Washington, resulted in the detention of 30 individuals, and in the second, which took place Grand Rapids, Michigan, 77 were detained.

Over the past two years, raids have been largely replaced with employer audits, a method of enforcement that punishes employers for hiring undocumented immigrants, systematically removing incentives to hire undocumented immigrants in the first place. Workplace and home raids disrupt families, and devastate communities. We are very concerned for the families of those detained in the recent raids, and the human rights of all immigrants if the raids continue.

The Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC), a group or faith-based organization to which FCNL belongs, acts as a voice for just and humane immigration reform for the faith community. Our interfaith platform calls for “Border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, while allowing the authorities to carry out the critical task of identifying and preventing entry of terrorists and dangerous criminals, as well as pursuing the legitimate task of implementing American immigration policy.” Raids that leave children stranded at the bus stop, waiting for their parents, are not consistent with humanitarian values.

In a letter delivered this week, the IIC implores President Obama to stop the raids. At one point, the letter appeals, “Mr. President, in your State of the Union Speech last Tuesday night, you rightly called on our nation to “stop expelling talented, responsible young people who can staff our research labs, start new businesses, and further enrich this nation." ... There is something terribly wrong with vowing to work for immigration reform while at the same time rending parents from children and spouses from each other. Effective and humane reform can only be achieved through providing a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants currently in the country, providing legal and safe avenues for workers and their families to migrate to this country, and eliminating the backlog for families who are separated so that they can be reunited.”

Unfortunately, Republicans in the House have stated that they are interested in conducting more raids. FCNL is strongly opposed to this change in enforcement policy. The likelihood of it changing is not probable because Republicans don't hold the majority in the Senate, but we will have to remain vigilant and block any enforcement legislation introduced that infringes on immigrants' human rights.

What's Up with Immigration in the 112th Congress?

2011-01-11T10:58:00.005-05:00

The rhetoric throughout many congressional campaigns was hot. Some of the newly elected members of the House committed to an agenda that would reduce the number of immigrants – both legal and illegal – and send packing all those who are here illegally. Will those campaign promises define the agenda of the 112^th Congress?

Probably not.

Democrats and Republicans – and indeed most people around the country – seem to agree on one central fact: our immigration system is broken. Families are broken up by the multi-year waiting lines for legal immigration – employers of both skilled and unskilled workers have difficulty finding that one particular scientist to fit in a research team, or teams of seasonal workers to harvest crops and serve tourists.

Meanwhile, many employers of workers who entered or stayed in the country illegally are able to take advantage of their workers’ status by offering low pay, demanding long hours, and maintaining unsafe working conditions. The ability of these employers to undercut wage, hour, and safety laws drags down the pay and benefits of other workers on the same rung of the employment ladder, including those born in the U.S. The system is broken – it needs to be fixed.

The disagreement comes in describing the fix. Should the objective be to seal off the country, scan the documents of every person within U.S. borders, and deport all those who don’t make the cut? Should the objective be to re-examine U.S. relations with our neighbors to the South, to determine the extent to which NAFTA and other trade agreements and practices have contributed to the pressures for immigration northward? Should the objective be to address the practical problems in the immigration system itself, to repair what can be repaired?

The new Congress will probably land somewhere in that third objective – fix what needs to be fixed. Which begs the question: what needs to be fixed? FCNL has urged that the legal immigration itself be repaired, to reduce the long lines for visas, to re-unite families and to reduce the pressure for immigration outside the legal system. At the same time, FCNL has encouraged enforcement of wage, hour and safety laws in all places of employment, regardless of the legal status of the workers there. If employers are

(1) able to find workers (fix the legal system) and

(2) unable to

pay their workers less than minimum wage, or
forego paying them at all, or
require more than forty hours of work without overtime pay, or
require work in unsafe conditions

then the employers’ incentive to reach beyond available U.S. workers to find “imported labor” evaporates. Enforcement of existing “worker protection” laws levels the playing field.

Rep. Lamar Smith, the new chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has said that his priorities for immigration will center on job creation and job protection. He will focus on workplace enforcement, consider an expansion of the E-Verify program, and step up enforcement of requirements on employers to hire only workers with appropriate documentation. (The E-Verify program is a digital system that would permit employers to check Social Security records immediately to determine whether a job applicant has a valid Social Security number. FCNL and others have opposed broad implementation of the program because of the high incidence of errors in Social Security records, and the fact that most of those errors occur with non-European names.)

Most immigration bills – and indeed, several other bills – in the past several years have included increased and intensified border enforcement. Now that the military and detention industries have entered that arena, it is reasonable to expect that there will be continued upward pressure for more detention space (offered by contractor Corrections Corporation of America) and more military-style hardware and technology at the border (offered by the major weapons manufacturers.) Spending for border security will likely be exempted from concerns about deficit spending, as the Department of Homeland Security is usually lumped in with the Pentagon in the rhetoric about cutting all discretionary spending – except for “security spending.”

One important signal about the coming agenda is the appointment of Rep. Elton Gallegley of California as the chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration. Firebrand Steve King of Iowa was in line for the post and was widely rumored to be the next subcommittee chair; but Chairman Smith chose a more moderate member, one who has not been a prime champion of some of the more extreme rhetorical demands, such as ending birthright citizenship.

Can we expect anything that will actually fix the system? President Obama, meeting with the leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said he would address immigration reform in the State of the Union address. He still wants to seek reforms in the immigration system. The nation needs answers to current problems such as the millions of people living in the U.S. now without appropriate documentation. Rational solutions to that problem and others may be proposed – but they will very likely be coupled (as they have been in the past) with increased border enforcement and employer-based enforcement.

Will the Dream Act resurface? Possibly, in a modified form. Some of the modifications introduced late in the debate last year already severely limited any financial assistance that non-citizen students might receive under the act – those limitations, at least, would return. A more worrisome development would be the elimination of the education option entirely. Military recruiters still strongly support the bill, and would not be unhappy to see the education path eliminated.

ICE Resumes Deportations to Haiti

2011-01-04T11:05:00.005-05:00

Due to the catastrophic hurricane in Haiti in January of last year, Congress voted to halt deportation of Haitian immigrants, a success that worked very hard to make happen. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it was lifting this halt and that starting next month, Haitians with criminal records will begin to be moved back to Haiti. Approximately 350 Haitians with criminal records have been detained, though the exact number to be deported is unknown. Haitians without criminal records are still safe under their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), though this is set to expire in July.

FCNL is gravely concerned about ICE's decision to send immigrants back to Haiti. The country, devastated by an earthquake a year ago, remains a disaster zone. Violent protests erupted last month in response to election results and a cholera epidemic has infected tens of thousands and killed more than 1,500. More than one million are still homeless. Haitians who are deported to the island due to a criminal record are sometimes incarcerated, and the prison system is wracked with cholera. We fear that sending them back is a death sentence.

ICE stated that it is concerned about having people with serious criminal records at large in our communities. FCNL does not disagree with the importance of keeping our communities safe, but according to our statement of principles, we believe that our immigration policy should support those displaced by conflict, oppression, environmental change, natural disaster, and economic destitution. Moreover, "criminal records" means any conviction, including minor ones, like shoplifting. We worked very hard a year ago to ensure that the U.S. would not be responsible for sending Haitian immigrants into a disaster zone (see here, and here), and it is clear to us now that although a year has passed, the crisis has not abated and sending Haitians home now would be as unconscionable as it was when the earthquake hit.

For more information:
New York Times Topics: Haiti
Open Letter to the President from the AFSC
Opinion Piece from the Huffington Post

An Independent Commission on Immigration and Labor: What is it?

2010-12-13T09:47:00.008-05:00

I attended a day-long conference last week at the Economic Policy Institute called Labor shortages and immigration reform: promises and pitfalls of an independent commission. A number of economists, immigration experts and labor representatives got together to discuss the idea of a commission that would figure out how immigrant workers would fit into the U.S. economy. Two representatives from Britain's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) were also there, to talk about their experience with a similar commission in the United Kingdom.

The panelists agreed the U.S. should set up an independent professional commission to research labor shortages and make recommendations to the government about how many workers the U.S. should invite in, based on current data. Its main purpose would be to make sure that occupations are filled primarily by native-born workers, and foreign workers are invited in to take jobs when there is a labor shortage and native-born workers are not taking jobs in a given occupation. In times like these, when so many people who are already legally in the U.S. and without work, a commission like this would probably recommend few, if any work-based visas.

Doris Meissner, the Former Commissioner of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, pointed out that the legal immigration system at the moment so inflexible that it can’t keep up with social changes and economic changes in the U.S. A better way to write policy, she argues, is to create a process that sets annual “quotas” that can be changed as circumstances change. The policy for recruiting immigrant workers should be flexible, not locked in. The independent commission should focus on just this one question: what kind of labor shortages are U.S. employers facing and how many immigrant workers should be invited in to meet that need.

The British commission on immigration and labor consists of economists and experts on immigration and [labor?] policy. The government asks it to research specific questions such as researching labor shortages in a specific occupation that could be filled by foreign workers. In addition to broad national research, the commission engages in meetings and visits with employers to provide "bottom up" evidence as well. The MAC then publishes reports and recommends changes in immigration policy to the government, whichmay or may not be passed.

A main theme over the course of the day was the question, "what is essential to making a commission like this work?" Panelists agreed that the commission must be independent, and non-partisan; [labor and?] immigration [are?] intensely political issues, and the facts are not easily separated from the political arguments that usually occupy the center of the debate. Martin Ruhs, a member of the MAC, said that the commission's non-partisan research has contributed to the quality of the debate on immigration. Secondly, members that are experts in policy, labor, immigration, and economics will ensure that the commission is professional. The research process and data need to be transparent in order for the commission to be accepted and seen as credible by lawmakers and the public.

Immigration commissions are a long part of our U.S. history. Panelist Susan Martin, from the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, explained that over centuries, commissions have informed immigration law in the U.S. The earliest was the 1775 Industrial Commission, to the Dillingham Commission whose recommendations led to the restrictionist laws in the Immigration Act of 1924 that established strict quotas based on nationality (Check out this blog post for more information on that era). A labor commission like the one being discussed here would focus exclusively on the need for foreign labor for jobs that aren't being filled by American workers and not on the nationality of the workers.

An independent commission fits into the comprehensive immigration reform puzzle by being part of the solution to control future immigration. Research-based empirical evidence can yield realistic and fair quotas to match up with the labor needs of the country, which can change more quickly than legislators can keep up with. The challenges are numerous, such as

developing reliable and valid data gathering and evaluation tools (i.e. does the research accurately reflect the needs it identifies? Are the recommendations adequately supported?),
the sheer number of issues that urgently need to be addressed, and
the risk of politicization of those results on the floor of the House and Senate after publication.

The most recent CIR bill introduced by Senators Menendez (NJ) and Leahy (VT) includes a Standing Commission on Immigration, Labor Rights, and the National Interest designed to establish employment-based immigration policy, implement a policy-focused research agenda, and make recommendations to Congress and the President on quotas for employment-based visa categories. The purpose of the commission also includes "promot[ing] America's economic growth and competitiveness while minimizing job displacement, wage depression, unauthorized employment" (To see bill text, click here). By enforcing labor laws for employers and all workers, the commission would prevent further undercutting of U.S. employment. To see FCNL's summary of the Menendez CIR bill, click here, and read the post just below this on It's Our Community!

The keyword of the day was "sensible." Accurate research that shows where we need foreign workers can lead to sensible quotas that allow workers to come and work legally in occupations that need them. Laura Reiff from the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition made the point that there are millions of visas too few for low-skill workers (ie. workers for low-skilled jobs in agriculture, construction and the service industry), which is why we have such a high number of undocumented workers. Is an independent commission the right answer? Let us know what you think.

Thoughts on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010

2010-11-23T11:28:00.003-05:00

In September, Senators Bill Menendez (NJ) and Patrick Leahy (VT) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) Act of 2010 (S. 3932). As the word “comprehensive” implies, the bill proposes changing many aspects of the immigration system; it’s a complicated bill. It is important to carefully scrutinize each provision of a bill so large in order to be sure it has the rights and safety of immigrants at heart. The "enforcement-only" approach, which often comprises major parts of CIR bills, is often touted as true reform, though it does not does not stem the flow of undocumented immigrants, does not provide a solution for the millions of undocumented people already here, and has induced human and civil rights abuses. Although FCNL firmly believes that comprehensive reform is needed immediately, there are often provisions that don’t comply with our statement of principles for just and humane immigration reform, and these must be not be overlooked.

Many parts of the more-than-800 page bill are positive reforms that enable immigrants to live and work with dignity. Some of these include:

- The inclusion of important stand-alone bills such as the AgJOBS bill, the DREAM Act, and the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA).

- Creating a Lawful Prospective Immigrant status for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.

- Improving detention conditions and implementing secure alternatives to detention.

- Expanding labor protections under many work visa programs.

- Improving access to interpreters in state courts.

- Ending the waiting period for refugees and asylees to obtain green cards.

- Improving training and accountability for Department of Homeland Security border and immigration officers

- Coordinating local law enforcement agencies, border security and crime fighting with Canada and Mexico.

Some stipulations of the bill, however, have us deeply concerned. There are a lot of “enforcement-first” provisions that impose steep penalties instead of addressing root causes. Most significantly, the bill calls for many new border enforcement requirements that must be met before any undocumented immigrant is eligible for legal status. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

A total force of 6,410 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents investigating criminal law violations,
21,000 Border Patrol agents,
7 unmanned aircraft systems,
Remote video surveillance systems at 300 sites,
200 scope trucks,
56 mobile surveillance systems

Some “trigger” requirements are positive, such as implementing civil detention standards, dramatically increasing enrollment in alternatives to detention, and utilizing worksite auditors to develop cases against employers suspected of serious violations. The militarization of the border, however, is not an effective way to address the flow of undocumented immigrants.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified to a Senate Appropriations Committee in May of this year:

“Every marker and every milepost that has been laid down by the Congress in terms of number of agents, deployment of technology, construction of fencing and the like, has already either been completed or is within a hair’s breadth of being completed … One of the questions I think we need to talk about is whether securing the border is ever going to be reached, or whether that goalpost is going to keep moving.”

When is enough enough? Check out FCNL’s resources on enforcement to find out more about this flawed approached to immigration reform. Other provisions of the bill that are particularly worrisome are:

Heightened penalties for document fraud and illegal entry

Increased penalties result in a larger number of people in prisons. The prison system is already too large, and this is an expensive policy that does not actually solve the problem, and will not serve as an adequate disincentive.

Mandating the use of an employment verification system and biometric identifiers.

The proposed employment verification system depends on the Social Security database, which has an extremely high error rate, especially for individuals with foreign-sounding last names. For example, Asian names and surnames are sometimes mistakenly interchanged, and Latin American names, which are often two first names and two last names, can be improperly categorized. As a result, an employer could run the name of a potential employee through the database and result in “no match,” though this does not necessarily mean the individual is not in the system.

When analyzing a bill, it is important to consider what’s left out of it. At FCNL, we are disappointed not to see any stipulations that mandate the enforcement of wage, hour, health and safety laws in the workplace for all employees. This is essential to the fair treatment not just of immigrant workers, but of U.S.-born workers as well. Broad enforcement of these laws would make it more difficult for a U.S. employer to undercut U.S. born workers by bringing in “cheap” undocumented workers to work without protections of U.S. labor laws. Evening the playing field would allow the Labor Commission (provided for in the bill) to make a realistic and accurate assessment of the number of additional workers needed in the U.S. for various industries.

In all, this CIR bill is a mixed bag. It proposes essential reforms that are urgently needed, such as alternatives to detention and reformation of the legal system, but the enforcement provisions have us very worried. A more detailed summary on the bill can be found on our website. What are your thoughts?

The Economics of Immigration

2010-10-27T16:15:00.004-04:00

Does immigration burden or benefit the U.S. economy? This year, several reports have been released demonstrating the economic value of immigration to the United States. It's often hard to step away from the emotional and moral aspects of the debate, but factual, objective research forms the strongest foundation for fair and effective immigration reform. Check out a few reports below:

- The Hamilton Project, a research project with the Brookings Institution, released a paper called Ten Economic Facts About Immigration. The paper's main conclusions are that immigrants come from diverse backgrounds, cover a wide spectrum of skill sets, and generally pay more taxes than they receive in benefits. These might seem obvious, but anti-immigrant arguments often dispute these claims. Read more here.
- A study conducted by the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress states that comprehensive immigration reform with a path to legal status would increase U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by at least .84 percent. Over ten years, GDP would increase by $1.5 trillion, cumulatively. Mass deportation would reduce GDP by 1.46 percent and would lead to widespread job loss for higher skill natives.
- A paper published through the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco argues that instead of competing for the same jobs, employers hire immigrant workers for low-skill jobs, which expands job opportunities for native-born workers and result in a more productive economy.

Immigrants who come to the U.S. want to be productive members of society, and the research above indicates that regardless of legal status, they are integral parts of our economy. We already believe that immigrants have human and civil rights and deserve to be treated with respect, but it appears in order to change minds about comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S., that alone will not suffice. Hopefully, this research can help inform our conversations about immigration and support our work towards immigration reform.

Time to Say Goodbye!

2010-07-28T14:14:00.002-04:00

Today is my last day as a program assistant at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, so I must say goodbye to you for now. It's been a wonderful year, and I have been so heartened to learn of all the passion and enthusiasm across the country for comprehensive immigration reform. All I can say is, keep it up!

Ruth Flower and Hannah Cole-Chu, one of FCNL's incoming program assistants, will be managing the blog from this point on. Hannah does not arrive until September, so it may be a little quiet around here in August. As for me, in September I will be moving to Zimbabwe to work with a clinic that provides medical and legal services for survivors of torture. My role will be to set up a support and referral system for clients seeking income-generating activities. I hope to be there for a year or so.

I hope that you'll stick with us through the transition and thank you for all that you do to support comprehensive immigration reform!

Injunction Granted, Just in Time!

2010-07-28T13:55:00.003-04:00

Great news!!

A federal judge has blocked key provisions of S.B. 1070, the controversial immigration law in Arizona that was scheduled to go into effect tomorrow. The judge has blocked the requirement that police have to check the immigration status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" of being in the country without authorization.

A judge grants a preliminary injunction if he or she finds that the case is likely to suffer "irreparable harm" if the judge does not prevent the law (or part of the law) from going into effect. If police in Arizona were to start enforcing S.B. 1070 tomorrow, it would profoundly alter the context in which the lawsuits are considered.

You can read the full decision here.

Still, even though the critical components of S.B. 1070 will not go into effect tomorrow, some of the horrific effects of this discriminatory immigration law are already visible:

Immigrants - both those with and without papers - have been packing up and fleeing the state in search of safer territory.
Arizona's economy has plummeted due to a national boycott in which tourism has dropped, conferences have been rescheduled elsewhere, and cities across the country have refused to support business with Arizona.
U.S. citizens fear being wrongfully deported if they experience racial profiling.
Well-intentioned police officers in Arizona struggle to determine how to walk a fine line.

For more information, see the Detention Watch Network's website about the consequences of S.B. 1070, or see Immigration Policy Institute's new report, "A State of Confusion."

Advocates have been gathering in Arizona to participate in prayer vigils and to consider acts of civil disobedience if the law were to fully come into effect tomorrow. Meanwhile, the private prison industry stands to make a profit from increased arrests, detentions, and deportations - even if the people they detain were picked up due to racial profiling. No matter what, all eyes have been on Arizona.

At FCNL, we welcome the injunction against S.B. 1070. We hope that states considering similar proposals will rethink their positions, given the situation in Arizona at this point. Above all, we urge President Obama and members of Congress to act swiftly to comprehensively reform the broken immigration system, to reassert federal control and restore the U.S. tradition of welcoming immigrants.

Join the Call: Include All Families in Immigration Reform

2010-07-26T14:09:00.006-04:00

You're invited to join Representative Mike Honda (CA), Bishop Minerva Carcano, and families impacted by our broken immigration system on a special grassroots call designed for advocates and concerned community members like you!

Learn about the moral imperative to move comprehensive immigration reform forward this year, and hear stories about why LGBT families need your support to make sure their immigration rights are protected.

Comprehensive immigration reform isn't truly comprehensive unless all families, gay and straight, are included. We hope you can join us for this important nationwide call!

To register and receive materials for the call, please go to www.LGBTforCIR.org. You'll also have the unique opportunity to submit questions to Rep. Honda before the call.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-07-26T11:15:00.004-04:00

It's been a hot, hot week in DC and immigration has been heating up around the country, with Arizona's new immigration law (S.B. 1070) so close to taking effect. Keep up with the news on immigration from Monday, July 19 to Monday, July 26.

On July 24, advocates created their own ICE checkpoint at Netroots Nation, demanding the "papers" of all white conference participants before they would be allowed to enter the cafeteria. This creative direct action drew attention to the problems of racial profiling in immigration enforcement. One of the people who got stopped said, "Even though it was a total satire, it was right on. And you can begin to get a sense of what that would be like to constantly have the fear that you will be asked to produce papers." The checkpoint was inspired by this direct action, posted on YouTube earlier in the year.

Human Rights Watch has published a new report, "Deportation by Default," which addresses the particular vulnerabilities of immigrants with mental disabilities who are held in jail-like detention centers for months or even years. These immigrants do not have the right to a lawyer and they are often unable to represent themselves. Justice is denied. As Sarah Mehta, the report's lead author, says, "Someone who doesn't know their own name or what country they're from is going through some of the most complicated legal proceedings in the United States with no right to assistance, even when everyone in the courtroom knows they need it."

One in five New York public school districts is requiring immigration papers in order for a child to enroll in school, even though the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children, regardless of legal status, must be given equal access to public education. This discriminatory requirement discourages families from bringing their children to school, for fear of being deported.

The Feet in Two Worlds blog has posted an excellent story, "Listening to Both Sides in Arizona's Immigration Debate," which interviews two individuals on different sides of the immigration debate. It's an important reminder of this basic lesson: Listening to one another helps establish trust, which counters the fear that too often drives the conversation on immigration issues.

The TransAfrica Forum has released a new report assessing the conditions in Haiti, now six months after the devastating earthquake. The displacement camps continue to face "atrocious" conditions, with issues such as flooding, gender-based violence, disease, and access to food, water, and housing remaining severe. FCNL worked to secure Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the United States, which was granted just after the earthquake.

Arguments in AZ Lawsuits Heard Today

2010-07-22T16:20:00.003-04:00

Today, a federal court in Arizona has been hearing arguments in two challenges to S.B. 1070, Arizona's new immigration law which would require police officers to check the legal status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant.

The first lawsuit was brought by the ACLU, MALDEF, the National Immigration Law Center, the NAACP, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The second was brought by the Department of Justice.

These two challenges are being argued back to back, and the court will decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction to keep S.B. 1070 from going into effect on July 29.

FCNL strongly opposes the Arizona law, which opens the door to racial profiling and distracts police officers from their primary tasks of ensuring community safety. Federal immigration law should only be enforced by federal authorities, not by state or local authorities without proper oversight, training, or authorization. Stay tuned for the results of today's arguments in court...

National Guard to be Deployed August 1

2010-07-19T14:05:00.003-04:00

The Department of Homeland Security has just published this press release. FCNL is deeply disappointed with the decision to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops on the US-Mexico border. We urge the administration, rather than further militarizing the border, to work toward long-term solutions to reform our broken immigration system and to address the root causes of migration.

The press release is copied in full:

Obama Administration Announces Aug. 1 National Guard Deployment to Support Federal Law Enforcement Along the Southwest Border

Release Date: July 19, 2010

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Washington, D.C. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) today announced that National Guard deployments to the Southwest border will begin on Aug. 1 as part of the administration’s unprecedented efforts to combat the transnational criminal organizations that smuggle weapons, cash and people across our Southwest border.

“Over the past year and a half, this administration has pursued a new border security strategy with an unprecedented sense of urgency, making historic investments in personnel, technology and infrastructure,” said Secretary Napolitano. “These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border.”

In May, the President authorized the deployment of up to an additional 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border to provide support for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, and counternarcotics enforcement—providing support for one year as part of the administration’s unprecedented efforts to crack down on transnational smuggling and cartel violence, as CBP continues to recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the Southwest border.

The National Guard Southwest Border deployments augment CBP and ICE resources and assets already at the border, and include:

224 in California
524 in Arizona
72 in New Mexico
250 in Texas
130 serving as command and control and other support.

In deploying these personnel, the National Guard Bureau is operating under a request for assistance from DHS. Border security is a law enforcement mission, and these troops will augment the Administration's efforts to crack down on the drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations that operate along our Southwest border.

In agreement with DHS, beginning August 1, selected National Guard Members from Southwest border states will begin the necessary training and integration planning to knit them into our nation's border security operating structure,” said Gen. Craig McKinley, Chief of the National Guard Bureau. “The National Guard is deploying in response to DHS’ request for assistance,” he added, “and will serve in law enforcement support roles consistent with the Administration's view that border security is a law enforcement challenge.”

The President has also requested $600 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities, which are critical to our ongoing efforts.

Last week, Secretary Napolitano announced more than $47 million in fiscal year 2010 Operation Stonegarden grants for the Southwest border states to support law enforcement personnel, overtime, and other related costs to enhance the capabilities of state, local and tribal law enforcement to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Nearly 80 percent of the fiscal year 2010 funding will go to Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas—up from 59 percent in 2008.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov or www.ng.mil.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-07-19T10:58:00.005-04:00

Grab a cup of coffee and join us in reviewing the immigration news from Monday, July 12 to Monday, July 19:

What's happening in Arizona these days? Immigration Impact offers a closer look at the 7 lawsuits against SB 1070. Unless the court issues an injunction, the new law will go into effect on July 29, a mere ten days from now. Meanwhile, eight states (Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia) have submitted an amicus brief in support of SB 1070, despite the Justice Department's assertion that the new law is unconstitutional. In addition, Arizona's tourism industry feels the effects of the boycott and managers express uncertainty about whether the downturn in business will continue into 2011.

Grassroots Leadership has published a draft paper, "Operation Streamline: Drowning Justice and Draining Dollars along the Rio Grande." This report lays out concerns with the Operation Streamline policy, which requires all undocumented immigrants apprehended near the border to be detained and processed in the criminal justice system. Operation Streamline overloads federal criminal courts, strains taxpayers' resources, and fails to provide a practical and humane solution for undocumented immigrants seeking entry to the United States.

More on the border: A Washington Post op-ed finds that it costs about $10 billion per year to maintain operations on the US-Mexico border, but increased enforcement actually has some pretty serious unintended consequences - trapping undocumented workers in the United States. TRAC reports that immigration prosecutions are at the highest level they've been since the height of prosecutions under the Bush administration, with more than 10,000 prosecutions in April 2010 alone.

A new immigration detention center is being built in Virginia. Once completed, it will be the largest of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic, holding between 500 and 1000 immigrant detainees. The state anticipates a rapid influx in detainees as it fully implements the Secure Communities program, which scans jail databases for anyone who may be undocumented. This facility, like many across the country, is privately run. It is clear that Secure Communities, a problematic immigration enforcement initiative, will do one job very well: boosting the profit margins of many private prison contractors.

You can read more about the intersection of immigration and the private prison industry here and here.

The New York Times reports on the Obama administration's shift in worksite enforcement, from high-profile raids to so-called "silent raids" in which companies are audited for hiring undocumented workers. The raids of earlier years would detain workers en masse, tear apart families, and deny justice to those who were deported. Audits are certainly more orderly, and they focus on punishing employers rather than employees. Still, without overhauling the immigration system, the economy still requires foreign workers and even well-intentioned employers may struggle to meet those demands while remaining within the bounds of the law.

Truly Inclusive Immigration Reform Must End Discrimination against LGBT Families

2010-07-15T13:25:00.006-04:00

Today, key members of Congress stood in unity to call on their colleagues to support passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) as part of any future immigration reform effort. Tens of thousands of LGBT binational families are counting on this critically important legislation in order to achieve the most basic equality: The freedom to be with their families, and the people they love.

FCNL joined fellow coalition members from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), immigrants’ rights, civil rights and faith communities in issuing a statement for the news conference. The statement reads, in part, "Today, leaders made clear that all future immigration legislation must be truly inclusive, and we are proud to stand with them in that call. We are committed to working, together, for this long overdue and much-needed victory and to honoring our country’s commitment to families and its rich history as a nation of immigrants."

Reps. Nadler (NY), Honda (CA), Gutierrez (IL), Polis (CO) and Quigley (IL) participated in this important news conference. For more information, read Immigration Equality's press release.

As my colleague Bill Mefford, director of Civil and Human Rights for the General Board of Church and Society with The United Methodist Church, said recently:

“Just as Jesus did not set any preconditions on identifying himself with, and loving, the sojourner, so too does he call all who claim to follow him to love and welcome the sojourner without moral preconditions... To demand the right to prophetically challenge the nation to incorporate hospitality into our immigration policy, but then to work to exclude some people based on their sexual orientation, is to lose the moral basis for making that prophetic challenge. We want immigration reform that is just and humane, and that is truly comprehensive and truly moral.”

Immigration reform will only truly be comprehensive when all families, including LGBT families, are included. We welcome the commitment by these members of Congress to work to ensure that binational LGBT families will no longer be locked out of the U.S. immigration system.

Rep. Honda discusses his bill, the Reuniting Families Act.

Rep. Honda states, "The President has called on Congress to address immigration reform, and I stand ready to heed that call and support an effort that is inclusive of LGBT families."

Rep. Polis insists, "We must provide all domestic partners and married couples the same rights and obligations in any immigration legislation."

Rep. Quigley reminds us, "Our march in the direction of progress and justice for families across this country cedes its moral high ground unless we say to say to LGBT families that this is their movement, too."

We listen as Rep. Gutierrez says, "We should modernize our laws to facilitate legal immigration so that we keep families together and individuals do not have to twist themselves in knots to conform to our outdated laws." I had no idea Rep. Honda was right behind me!

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-07-12T09:33:00.004-04:00

Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons

Congress has remained pretty quiet lately on the subject of immigration, but the impacts of the broken immigrations system continue to disrupt our communities. I'll share a bit of news with you from Monday, July 5 to Monday, July 12.

On July 6, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Arizona over S.B. 1070, the new immigration law that would require police officers to check the legal status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. You can read more about it on our "breaking news" blog post from that date. In addition, Attorney General Eric Holder has requested an injunction to prevent S.B. 1070 from going into effect at the end of the month.

In an effort to push back against hate rhetoric in our communities, FCNL has developed a Letters-to-the-Editor Toolkit for you. Letters to the editor take no more time to write than emails to Congress, and by writing for a public forum, you can potentially influence both your state and federal legislators and many of the voters who elect them.

I've been listening to podcasts from a workshop on detention in the United Kingdom, "Meaning & Practice of Immigration Detention - Perspectives from Legal, Social & Political Theory." The lectures examine the legal and political frameworks as well as the social impact of immigration detention and asylum.

Unemployed? We've got a solution for you. Stephen Colbert and the United Farm Workers have teamed up to promote a new tongue-in-cheek campaign, "Take Our Jobs." This campaign hopes to "recruit U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill jobs that frequently go to undocumented farm workers and to urge enactment of immigration reform."

I'll leave you with a wonderful thought piece from Taquiena Boston, the Director of Multicultural Growth and Witness with the Unitarian Universalist Association, who writes:

In multicultural ministry borders or “la frontera” are described as places where encounter, conflict, and transformation can occur when people of faith use our collective power to amplify the voices and concerns of the oppressed. To my mind when Unitarian Universalists voted at the Minneapolis General Assembly to act in solidarity with Puente and others to support immigrant justice, our movement waded into the turbulence of a human rights issue that puts us at odds with the majority of Americans. To paraphrase an African American spiritual, Unitarian Universalists made a commitment to “trouble the borders.”
Now that the U.S. Justice Department has challenged the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070 legislation, I hope that our movement will not think that we can relax our efforts around immigration...

Take Our Jobs

2010-07-09T15:34:00.005-04:00

Image courtesy of Ag Worker Health Project

Are you a native-born resident of the United States? Looking for a job? Sign up today to be a farmworker! But United Farm Workers offers a cautionary note:

Job may include using hand tools such as knives, hoes, shovels, etc. Duties may include tilling the soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning, picking, cutting, sorting & packing of harvested produce. May set up & operate irrigation equip. Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.

On Thursday, Stephen Colbert hosted Arturo Rodriguez, the president of United Farm Workers (UFW), on his political comedy show, "The Colbert Report." The interview promotes the UFW's national “Take Our Jobs” campaign, a tongue-in-cheek effort to "recruit U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill jobs that frequently go to undocumented farm workers and to urge enactment of immigration reform."

You can watch the interview here.

About 85% of the U.S. farm worker population is foreign-born, and the vast majority of these immigrants lack work authorization. AgJOBS, as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package, would provide these workers with protections and offer a pathway to legal status.

Breaking News: Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Arizona

2010-07-06T16:11:00.003-04:00

Photo from Alto Arizona

The Justice Department has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Arizona, regarding its new law requiring police officers to check the legal status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the lawsuit would be filed several weeks ago, and it comes on the tail of President Obama's major speech on immigration last week.

The official press release is available on the Justice Department website. Politico also provides coverage.

As expected, the Justice Department's brief states that S.B. 1070 is unconstitutional. “[T]he Constitution and federal law do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country.”

The brief also makes the point that S.B. 1070 interferes with federal immigration enforcement and distracts police officers from their regular duties.

Arizona's new law is scheduled to go into effect on July 29. Attorney General Eric Holder has requested an injunction but it has not yet been granted.

FCNL recognizes that inaction at the national level has created a vacuum into which states have stepped to create their own immigration laws. We oppose the new Arizona law, which opens the door to racial profiling and erodes trust between police officers and the communities they serve. We welcome the Department of Justice’s lawsuit, which asserts that federal immigration laws should be enforced by federal authorities. The Obama administration does not want to see a patchwork of state laws created, which would only yield a more chaotic and less humane immigration system.

The outcome of this lawsuit may influence the twenty-two other states which have proposed or introduced similar legislation. Ultimately, however, blocking state legislation will not be enough to fix the broken immigration system. We urge Congress to enact comprehensive, humane immigration reform before more states and cities decide to follow Arizona’s path toward a reactionary state in which we all have to “show our papers” to prove our legitimate status in the United States.

Not Surprising

2010-07-02T10:23:00.005-04:00

Photo courtesy of Latin American Studies

Yesterday, President Obama delivered his first major speech on immigration reform.

A year and a half ago, when he took office, President Obama was poised to act on an agenda of change - and to make good on a promise to reform the broken immigration system within the first year. That promise has not been kept.

In fact, the situation now is worse than it was then. Deportations are on the rise, immigration courts are overburdened, and families live in constant fear of being separated. In the absence of bold leadership from President Obama and swift action by Congress, states have taken matters into their own hands with dire consequences.

This speech was notable as much for its omissions as its content. We did not hear the president setting a timetable for drafting and passing a bill. We did not hear a commitment to protecting vulnerable populations during immigration enforcement actions. We did not hear any mention of the anticipated Department of Justice lawsuit against Arizona's new law.

What did we hear? A compassionate description of the value of immigrants' contributions to U.S. society and economy, an outline of the major components of immigration reform, and accusations that the minority party has impeded the creation of a viable bill. In short, nothing new.

President Obama did call the new Arizona law "ill conceived" and "divisive," and he acknowledged that we can't "solve the problem only with fences and border patrols." Still, at the moment the administration is doing just that. At FCNL, we are deeply disappointed with the president's decision to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border.

As the New York Times editorializes, "Mr. Obama appealed to middle of the debate, to Americans who crave lawfulness but reject the cruelty symbolized by Arizona’s new law." If lawfulness is the goal, then we need Congress to provide a federal solution - and soon.

Missed the speech? You can watch the video here or read the transcript here.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both offer coverage of the speech.

Obama's Speech on Immigration: Why Now?

2010-07-01T11:26:00.004-04:00

Today, President Obama will deliver a major speech on comprehensive immigration reform. But the lackluster effort by Congress to create a bipartisan bill, and the ever-rising rate of deportations, leads us to ask: Mr. President, why now?

The Daily Beast's Bryan Curtis offers an incisive assessment of the timing of the president's speech in this article. Bottom line: When the Obama administration took office, we expected bold leadership on humane immigration reform but that promise has not yet been fulfilled. The humanitarian crisis stemming from the broken immigration system has become increasingly severe.

Stay tuned for an analysis of the speech later today.

Comprehensive Immigration Bill in House Secures 100 Cosponsors

2010-06-24T13:00:00.004-04:00

Families attend the immigration march in DC in March 2010.

Today, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL) held a press conference to announce that his bill, CIR ASAP (Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity), has secured 100 cosponsors.

FCNL welcomed the introduction of CIR ASAP in December 2009, and we have worked to promote cosponsorship of the bill. Thank you to the thousands of constituents who wrote letters to their representatives urging them to join this comprehensive immigration reform bill. As Rep. Gutierrez said today, the achievement of gaining 100 cosponsors is a "milestone."

The immigration system is broken, and the consequences of inaction are becoming increasingly severe. More than 22 states are considering or have introduced legislation that mimics Arizona's new law, S.B. 1070, against which the Department of Justice will be filing a lawsuit. Families are torn apart on a daily basis and the number of detentions and deportations is skyrocketing.

I'll leave you with a quote from Rep. Gutierrez's press release this morning:

We know the legislative clock is ticking. We know people are getting deported at the highest rate in modern history. We know that the inter-related problems of illegal immigration, clogged and unattainable legal immigration, border security, deportation, detention, and a two-tiered labor market that hurts all workers will not solve themselves... We need a rational solution. We need a practical solution. We need a fair solution.

Senator Franken Introduces HELP Separated Children Act

2010-06-22T16:26:00.002-04:00

Today, Senators Al Franken (MN) and Herb Kohl (WI) introduced the Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) for Separated Children Act. FCNL is proud to support this legislation. Here is Senator Franken's press release:

Franken, Kohl Introduce HELP Separated Children Act
Legislation Would Ensure Children’s Safety During Immigration Raids

WASHINGTON, D.C. [06/22/10] – Today, U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) introduced the Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) for Separated Children Act to keep kids safe, informed, and accounted for during Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

According to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service, 108,434 parents of U.S. citizen children were deported in the past 10 years.

On December 12, 2006, ICE carried out enforcement actions on Swift & Company meatpacking plants in six states, including a plant in Worthington, Minnesota. The raids left numerous children – most of them citizens and legal residents – without their parents and with no way of finding them. One second-grader in Worthington came home that night to find his two-year old brother alone and his mother and father missing. For the next week, the second-grader stayed home to care for his brother while his grandmother traveled to Worthington to meet them.

“Four million U.S. citizen children in our country have at least one undocumented immigrant parent,” said Sen. Franken. “Forty-thousand of those children live in Minnesota. They should not have to live in fear that one day their parents will simply not come home. They deserve much better than being abandoned without explanation.”

“Under no circumstances should children have to fend for themselves. Child welfare is one of my highest priorities and it is essential that children are protected and cared for when their parents are detained,” Sen. Kohl said. “This legislation offers safeguards for children whose parents are placed in federal custody so they are not left on their own.”

On June 22, 2007, ICE agents staged a raid in the Jackson Heights Manufactured Home Park in Shakopee, Minnesota. Early that Friday morning, around 6:00 am, federal agents seized a husband and his wife for suspected immigration violations. They didn’t notice the couple’s daughter, who was sleeping. Later that morning, the seven year-old girl was found wandering the park, looking for her parents. It wasn’t until some neighbors saw her and called the authorities, that she learned what had happened to her mom and dad.

The HELP Separated Children Act strengthens humanitarian protections enacted by the Bush and Obama administrations and extends them to any enforcement action. Specifically, it:

· Keeps state and local authorities in the know. It’s state schools and child welfare agencies that address the aftermath of immigration enforcement actions. Building on existing standards, this bill makes sure that state authorities are notified before or soon after enforcement actions.

· Effectively identifies at-risk kids. Detainees are afraid to tell ICE that they have kids at home. This bill permits child welfare agencies and local NGOs to screen detainees to identify parents and locate at-risk children.

· Allows parents to arrange for care of their children. Detained parents must receive free, confidential calls to arrange for their kids’ care. They should not be transferred unless they know how to contact their kids – and what will happen to them. No matter where they are, parents must be allowed daily calls and regular visits with their children.

· Protects kids during interrogations. Kids should not be forced to witness their parents’ interrogations or translate for ICE agents.

· Allows parents to participate in family court proceedings – and alert authorities to abuse. This bill requires authorities to help detained parents participate in family court proceedings affecting their children. It also gives parents free calls to report child abuse.

· Protects the best interests of children. This bill requires ICE to consider the best interests of children in detention, release, and transfer decisions affecting their parents.

The HELP Separated Children Act is also co-sponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.). Related legislation was introduced in the House by Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.).

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-06-21T09:58:00.003-04:00

Hello again and welcome back to this week's immigration news. I hope you'll understand why I've been absent from the blog for a week or so when you see this photo. I've been traveling in New Mexico for FCNL - and you can read all about my trip right here. To get back in the swing of things, here is your immigration news from Monday, June 14 to Monday, June 21.

We finally have the extremely important news we've all been waiting for - although not, perhaps, announced in the way we would have anticipated. The Department of Justice will file a lawsuit against Arizona's anti-immigrant law. This news was announced by Secretary Clinton, not Attorney General Holder, but administration officials have confirmed the upcoming lawsuit and said that the details are in the works. Arizona SB 1070 is scheduled to go into effect on July 29, and similar bills have been introduced or considered in many states.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 14 that immigrants will not be automatically deported for minor drug offenses. This is a significant step toward ensuring due process protections for immigrants. Stringent anti-immigrant laws passed in 1996 expanded the definition of "aggravated felony" to include minor crimes such as drug possession and shoplifting, and required mandatory deportation for these crimes. Since then, immigrants have been unduly criminalized and deported without adequate judicial review. Now, Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder will protect immigrants from being automatically deported for minor drug offenses.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is overhauling its immigration detention system, and one of its contractors is getting out there early. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) will modify its nine detention facilities to "soften the conditions of detention" and allow immigrant detainees to wear their own clothes, have lengthy contact visits with their families, and enjoy freer movement within the facility. You can read more about it here, here, and here. But this doesn't mean it's all good - these changes come on the heels of a serious incident in which a CCA guard sexually assaulted several female detainees in Texas.

Border Patrol is taking its operations to new heights - literally. CBP has received authorization to launch unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) on the border in Texas. These drones will provide surveillance for border agents to intercept smugglers and migrants. Let's not lose sight of the fact that drones are also conducting attacks in Pakistan with serious civilian casualties. The use of drones on the U.S.-Mexico line is one more step in the direction of militarization of the border.

I'll leave you with a story. Many people say immigrants should just "get in line" to come to the United States legally, but for those who try to do so, it can be near impossible. Shari Feldman and Inderjit Singh, as the New York Times reports, have spent nearly 17 years in immigration limbo as they try to prove the veracity of their marriage to immigration authorities. USCIS's efforts to prevent marriage fraud can go too far - home inspections, invasive questioning, and tricky documentation requirements often keep legitimate couples from getting green cards.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-06-01T10:40:00.004-04:00

Photo from Alto Arizona.

It's been a big week for immigration, with significant highs and lows. The news on immigration from Monday, May 24 to Tuesday, June 1:

On Tuesday, May 25, President Obama announced the decision to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also requested an additional $500 million to enhance border enforcement activities. In 2006, the Bush administration sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border during Operation Jump Start and, while this current deployment is at a smaller scale, it is still the same enforcement-only approach that hasn't worked in the past.

FCNL strongly opposes the use of the National Guard on the border. Our colleagues on the border have released a powerful statement of opposition as well. Law enforcement, not military personnel, should focus on stopping drug smuggling, arms smuggling, and human trafficking. To deal most effectively with migrants crossing the border, President Obama and Congress should act swiftly to enact comprehensive immigration reform. We've seen that border-only strategies don't work, so why would President Obama keep trying that same tired routine?

We had a big success here on the Hill this week - on Thursday, the Senate voted against three amendments to the emergency war supplemental which would have drastically expanded border enforcement initiatives. Senators McCain (AZ), Kyl (AZ), and Cornyn (TX) had introduced amendments that would have added 6,000 National Guard troops, 6 more drones for surveillance, 3000 new detention beds, and thrown millions of dollars at unworkable deterrence programs. FCNL and our partners acted swiftly to contact members of Congress and our networks generated tens of thousands of grassroots calls. In the end, the Senate rejected all three amendments - but we are still working for decisive action on immigration reform.

On Saturday, May 29, over 100,000 people gathered in Arizona and around the country to oppose the new Arizona law and copy-cat bills in other states. You can see photos and videos here. The message of the people is clear: NO to racial profiling and YES to immigration reform.

Police chiefs from Los Angeles, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Houston, Maryland, and Arizona met with Attorney General Eric Holder on May 26 to voice their concerns about the new Arizona law and similar proposals from other states. The chiefs stated that these laws, which virtually require racial profiling, would erode trust between police and their communities and distract officers from their primary tasks. Holder is expected to make a decision soon about whether to challenge the Arizona law in court.

Other highlights from the news:

Detained immigrants are being counted for the census without their knowledge and then deported, while the cities and towns hosting detention facilities are rewarded by receiving more federal money than they would otherwise.

The number of immigration cases in federal courts reached a new all-time high of 242,776 at the end of March and this backlog continues to extend wait times - immigrants now wait, on average, 443 days for their case to be resolved.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-05-24T09:23:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, I attended the arrival ceremony at the White House for President Calderon of Mexico - you can see him pictured above with President Obama. For more on that and other updates, here it is, your immigration news from Monday, May 17 to Monday, May 24.

During a joint session of Congress, President Calderon spoke strongly against the new Arizona law which, as he said, "introduces a terrible idea: using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement." His remarks on this subject were greeted with a standing ovation. Also during his visit, the United States and Mexico announced the creation of a joint committee on border-related activities.

In the pop culture world, immigration also got a shout-out: The new Miss USA is Rima Fakih, an Arab-American immigrant. She was born in Lebanon and came to the United States as a young child, eventually settling in Michigan. She is believed to be the first Arab American and Muslim to win the contest.

San Francisco is trying to opt out of Secure Communities, a Homeland Security program run by ICE in which fingerprints taken at local jails are run through a national database to check arrestees' immigration status. The city's sheriff has said that Secure Communities conflicts with the city's policy of only reporting foreign-born persons who are booked for felonies. Secure Communities doesn't align with ICE's objective of going after the "most dangerous criminals" - instead it casts a wide net regardless of individual circumstances - and we need cities like San Francisco (and DC) to push ICE to clarify the program's purpose.

As I was perusing the immigration blogs this past week, I came across this concerning clip: South Carolina has introduced a bill copying the Arizona law. The Wall Street Journal has an article on how immigrants are often reluctant to report domestic abuse, if going to the police means risking deportation. This problem, of states taking federal law into their own hands, is clearly going to get worse before it gets better.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL) recently endorsed a plan to include LGBT partners in immigration reform. Currently, LGBT Americans are unable to petition for their foreign-born partners. The inclusion of the Uniting American Families Act in immigration reform would end this long-standing denial of civil rights and equality.

Michelle Obama's visit to an elementary school in Maryland catapulted the question of family unity onto the national stage, when a second-grader expressed fears that her mother would be deported. You can watch the video here. According to the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, families can't wait any longer for a just, humane immigration reform bill.

President of Mexico Opposes AZ Law, Calls on Congress to Find a Better Solution

2010-05-20T11:53:00.002-04:00

Today, addressing a joint session of Congress, President Calderon of Mexico stated his strong opposition to the new law in Arizona. Mexico has issued a travel warning to its citizens in the United States and has terminated a student exchange program with Arizona.

In his speech, Calderon recognized that each country has the right to enact and enforce its own laws, but he simultaneously stressed the urgent need to fix the "broken and inefficient" immigration system. He favors the creation of a "legal, orderly, and secure flow" of migrants, and pointed out that the border would not be secure without comprehensive immigration reform.

Calling for a "responsible" solution, Calderon said, "I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona." Using racial profiling as the basis of law performance is a "terrible idea." He emphasized that the new law "carries a great amount of risk when core values are being breached." He called on President Obama and the Congress to "find a better way together to face and fix this problem."

While Mexico has a lot on its plate - stamping out bureaucratic corruption and bribery, boosting the economy and creating new jobs, halting organized crime, and more - it is clear that President Calderon will not stand idly by as the United States pursues dangerous enforcement policies. From both a moral and practical standpoint, racial profiling and other forms of discrimination cannot be tolerated as legitimate enforcement strategies.

Major Lawsuit Filed Against Outrageous Arizona Law, National Day of Action on May 29

2010-05-18T15:03:00.006-04:00

Never seen the Grand Canyon? Here's your chance. Alto Arizona, with immigrant, faith, labor, law enforcement, and civil rights organizations across the country, are planning a national day of action on May 29th to showcase our powerful opposition to the new Arizona law.

If you are able to, please consider traveling to Arizona to join the brave organizers in marching to the State Capitol. To plan your trip and learn about more ways to get involved, click here. Or, coordinate a march in your own state.

The national day of action comes at a critical moment - major civil rights organizations have just filed a lawsuit against the new Arizona law. This lawsuit is intended to stop racial profiling in its tracks and ensure that what happens in Arizona STOPS in Arizona.

The authors of the lawsuit include: the ACLU, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-05-17T16:24:00.005-04:00

Welcome back for another week of immigration news, from Monday, May 10 to Monday, May 17. Happy reading!

Arizona's new immigration law, which requires racial profiling, goes into effect on July 28. However, some people just aren't that patient. We've heard scattered reports that Arizona police officers are already "enforcing" the new law. What's more, twelve states - including Minnesota, Michigan, and more - are introducing copy-cat legislation. These outrageous proposals should be a wake-up call for Congress - urge your representatives to take swift action to enact immigration reform this year.

Boycotting Arizona? Yup, me too. So is Austin, along with many other cities across the country. We're also waiting for MALDEF, ACLU, and NILC to introduce their lawsuit challenging the unconstitutional and discriminatory Arizona law. The Department of Justice may take action as well, but we are concerned to learn that Attorney General Eric Holder hasn't even read the Arizona law yet. We know he's busy, but it's less than twenty pages.

Mexico has issued a travel warning to its citizens about the Arizona law. In addition, the President of Mexico will be arriving in the United States on Wednesday. We anticipate that he and President Obama will have a lot to discuss when it comes to immigration.

Even the United Nations is taking note of the new Arizona law. A group of independent UN rights experts expressed serious concerns about whether this law violates the United States' obligations under international human rights treaties.

Believe it or not, Arizona keeps coming up with new, innovative ways to take away residents' rights, and now state lawmakers are focusing on education. AZ Governor Jan Brewer just signed into law a bill prohibiting any classes that "advocate for ethnic solidarity" or "promote resentment toward a race or class of people." This bill seeks to eradicate ethnic studies programs, such as those that teach Mexican-American history. I see this as a nativist impulse favoring revisionist history, which seeks to mask oppression and deny students the opportunity to study civil rights. We can do better.

However, the Department of Homeland Security seems to be deporting immigrants at an exceptionally rapid pace this year even without Arizona's assistance. ICE director John Morton has said that he plans to deport people at a "massive scale," and he has set the goal of 400,000 deportations in 2010. He seems to be outdoing himself. Time has reported this astonishing figure:

Thus far this year, some 185,887 people have been deported, a record pace that, if maintained, will nearly double the number of deportations in 2010 to 604,133.

One last note: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has an announcement - the new "green cards" for legal permanent residents will actually be green! Not only that, but they'll incorporate new security measures to avoid fraud.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-05-10T09:39:00.005-04:00

The heat from Arizona continues to radiate, so check out the news on immigration from Monday, May 3 to Monday, May 10:

At FCNL, we see the outrageous Arizona law as a wake-up call to Washington. On April 29, five senators introduced a framework for immigration reform, which was met with mixed reactions from advocates. The framework, intended to prompt bipartisan talks, has yet to yield such cooperation. We can't afford to have politicians use immigration reform as a political football to score points against one another. Write to your senators today to urge them to support humane, comprehensive immigration reform.

As Congress remains bound by hyper-partisan politics, states mimicking Arizona continue to take immigration law into their own hands. Minnesota just introduced legislation modeled exactly on the Arizona law. Eleven other states are considering similar legislation: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pensylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Recent polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans think the immigration system should be overhauled, but without decisive federal action to build a realistic legal immigration system, our civil rights will continue to be trampled.

However, in two cases, officials are standing up to say NO. In New York, Governor Paterson announced that the state would consider pardons for people subject to "embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible" immigration laws. In DC, the City Council unanimously supports a boycott of Arizona and opposes the District's participation in misguided immigration enforcement programs - for more, see my blog post on the resolutions.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, best known for his courageous efforts to promote reconciliation following South Africa's apartheid, has a message for you: Arizona is not the solution. I strongly encourage you to read his entire article, excerpted here:

Abominations such as apartheid do not start with an entire population suddenly becoming inhumane. They start here. They start with generalizing unwanted characteristics across an entire segment of a population. They start with trying to solve a problem by asserting superior force over a population. They start with stripping people of rights and dignity - such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty - that you yourself enjoy. Not because it is right, but because you can. And because somehow, you think this is going to solve a problem.

I'll leave you with an exciting tidbit - Arizona rappers have collaborated to protest the new law requiring racial profiling. Props to these brave artists for reminding us all that hip hop can still break through commercial ties and speak truth to power. Check out their music video here:

But Didn't They Break the Law?

2010-05-06T09:49:00.005-04:00

One of the most common questions I hear is, "But didn't they break the law? Why should we reward immigrants for coming to the United States illegally?"

FCNL's work on immigration is guided by the call for right relationships among all people. We recognize that it is neither feasible nor humane to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States. Instead of lining up the buses, we need to find a workable solution.

First of all, the U.S. immigration system is broken. Sometimes I get asked, "Why don't they just get in line?" For many people seeking to enter the United States so that they can work hard, support their families, and contribute to the U.S. economy - there is no line to get into.

Work visas
The national economy depends on both high- and lower-skilled foreign workers, even though that fact can sometimes be hard for us to acknowledge. As Senator Feinstein (CA) described in a press conference last week, even in a recession certain industries - like agriculture - still can't find enough native-born workers to get the job done. But visas for lower-skilled immigrant workers just aren't readily available. Moreover, the current system creates incentives for disingenuous employers to hire undocumented immigrants, keep them in poor work conditions, and pay them well below minimum wage. This drives down wages for all. The broken system hurts law-abiding employers, native-born workers, and immigrants alike. The "wink wink, come on in" system facilitates exploitation and is no longer sustainable.

Family visas
Families are the fundamental unit of society. But immigrants seeking to be reunited with their families have to wait between four and twenty-two years to be reunited with their close loved ones. It is immoral to keep a young girl apart from her father or mother for up to seven years. These wait times exist because of backlogs of pending applications and bureaucratic delays. Reforming the family visa system wouldn't allow for "chain migration" (you can't bring in your aunts, cousins, or other extended relatives anyway), but it would allow parents and children to reunite in a timely manner. Plus, family reunification does contribute to the U.S. economy. Immigrant workers will be more likely to stay in the country and integrate if they can bring their immediate relatives with them, and most family members come to the United States intending to work hard to provide their children with opportunities to succeed.

So, neither the work-based nor family-based visa systems are working properly right now. As a result, immigrants are faced with impossible choices.

The vast majority of undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work hard and rejoin their families, not to cause our communities harm. But those who would utilize the legal system are prevented from doing so, because the current system is inefficient and outdated. Then, immigrants - and not the broken laws - are perceived as the problem and punished.

When the United States was founded, one of the core principles woven into the fabric of the national identity was this: Where the law is unjust, it should be changed.

FCNL does not advocate for rewarding illegal immigration. Rather, we support a reasonable and inclusive path for undocumented immigrants to regularize their status and eventually earn citizenship. Such a program should be workable and not hindered by overly punitive criteria.

Components of a pathway to legal status
We need a solution that allows undocumented immigrants to meet a reasonable set of criteria so that they can be integrated into the legal system. Over the past several years, a number of constructive proposals have been put forward. An earned pathway to legal status would include requirements such as:

Paying any unpaid back taxes
Learning English
Providing biographic and biometric information
Completing a criminal background check
Paying a reasonable fee or fine
Performing community service

At FCNL, we maintain that this set of criteria should not be overly punitive. In the past, Congress proposed exorbitant fees and other measures that would have prevented large swaths of people from participating and thus defeated the primary purpose of the program.

In addition, this kind of pathway to legal status would be fair - undocumented immigrants would go to the "back of the line." As mentioned earlier, there is a backlog of family visa applications. Undocumented immigrants wouldn't get to "cut in line" ahead of individuals who have been waiting since the mid-1990s (or even earlier) to reunite with their loved ones. Instead, they would be registered, receive a transitional visa, and then wait seven or eight years for the family backlog to clear. Only then could eligible undocumented immigrants adjust to become legal permanent residents and eventually apply for citizenship.

Some special cases need additional consideration. One of FCNL's principles is that the pathway to legal status should be inclusive. This means that refugees, asylum-seekers, and multi-status families (in which some family members have papers while others do not) should be included. In addition, undocumented students (who came to this country as children, not of their own will) should be encouraged to stay and pursue their education in the United States via the DREAM Act.

At this point, I occasionally hear concerns expressed that this kind of pathway to legal status and eventual citizenship would create incentives for more people to attempt to immigrate to the United States without proper authorization. Rest assured: any immigration reform bill enacted by Congress would almost certainly only allow undocumented immigrants to earn legal status if they could prove that they have been in the country since the date of enactment of the bill. If an individual had arrived in the country after the date of enactment, they would not be eligible.

Ultimately, a reasonable earned pathway to legal status would deal squarely with the current reality without rewarding illegal immigration.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said of the new Arizona law, "A solution that fails to distinguish between a young child coming over the border in search of his mother and a drug smuggler is not a solution."

We need solutions that actually work. Migration has been a part of human existence since its inception. With careful consideration and open dialogue, our nation can create an immigration system that protects public safety and national security without sacrificing the principles upon which the United States was built - fairness, opportunity, and compassion.

Proud to Live in the District

2010-05-05T09:07:00.003-04:00

The D.C. Council took a momentous step on Tuesday to stand up for immigrants' rights.

Council member Phil Mendelson introduced a bill that would block Washington, D.C. from participating in the Secure Communities program. He was met with unanimous support from the rest of the D.C. Council.

Secure Communities is a local immigration enforcement program requires police officers to check the fingerprints of anyone they're booking into jail against a national database to confirm their legal status. Of course, this opens the way for racial profiling because Secure Communities checks people's status at the point of arrest, not the point of conviction. So, the program creates incentives for pretextual arrests (for minor violations like a broken tail light - the quintissential "driving while brown" violation).

As part of ICE's efforts to detain at least 400,000 people annually, the agency has been rolling out Secure Communities and plans to go nationwide in the next few years. The D.C. Council's move to block implementation in the District constitutes the first time that a city has stood up and refused to participate.

As Mendelson said, "The Metropolitan Police Department has its hands full dealing with violent crimes in the District, and the issue of immigration is not the MPD's responsibility."

Another first: The D.C. Council also announced its unanimous support for divesting from Arizona and banning city workers from traveling to the state on official business.

Quakers Welcome Next Steps on Immigration Reform, Call for Humane Enforcement

2010-05-04T10:36:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, April 29, Senators Reid (NV), Schumer (NY), Menendez (NJ), Durbin (IL) and Feinstein (CA) introduced a 26-page proposal for bipartisan legislation on immigration reform. Their hope is to start a conversation with key Republicans to craft a viable bill that could be brought to a vote this year.

FCNL has released a statement in response to the proposal. We look forward to working with Congress and the administration to enact bipartisan legislation that would restore integrity to the U.S. tradition of welcoming immigrants.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-05-03T16:20:00.004-04:00

The new Arizona law, and the corresponding need for decisive federal action on immigration reform legislation, continue to make headlines across the nation. So, grab a seat, buckle up, and get ready for key updates from Monday, April 26 to Monday, May 3.

The new Arizona law, which requires police officers to stop anyone who they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant, has been broadly criticized for permitting racial profiling. Its opponents include President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, members of Congress, the Arizona association of chiefs of police, the mayor of Phoenix, the sheriff of Pima County, many American Indians, many religious groups, immigrants rights organizations, civil liberties advocates, and more. Al Sharpton says that he is organizing "freedom walkers" to march on Arizona. Click here to learn how you can take action to oppose rampant racial profiling in Arizona.

Critics of the new Arizona law are calling for economic boycotts of the state. This means avoiding traveling to Arizona and choosing not to purchase products from companies based in Arizona. Several cities have already chosen to divest from Arizona while others - including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington DC - are considering doing so. You can do your part: See this website for easy ways to participate in the boycott.

Please note: Arizona will likely face a number of lawsuits to stop the implementation of the new law - but some recent changes to the new law may make it harder to litigate. Meanwhile, seven states are considering similar legislation.

While all eyes are on Arizona, let's not forget that immigration enforcement is out-of-control on the federal level too. Bill Quigley, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, has an excellent op-ed on the "Secure Communities" program which also leaves the door open for racial profiling. In addition, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has released a new report on immigration detention in New Jersey - and the New York Times is shocked at their findings.

Finally, last Thursday, Senators Reid, Schumer, Menendez, Durbin, and Feinstein introduced a draft framework for an immigration reform bill. Senator Menendez, in particular, spoke eloquently about the need for Congress to take action. You can watch the video clip of his speech at the press conference here. FCNL's statement on the framework is available here.

Senators Introduce Proposal for Immigration Reform, Call for Bipartisan Negotiations

2010-04-30T14:11:00.007-04:00

On Thursday evening, Senators Reid (NV), Schumer (NY), Menendez (NJ), Durbin (IL), and Feinstein (CA) introduced a draft framework for immigration reform. The five senators appealed to their Republican colleagues to join them in negotiations to craft a bipartisan bill that could be brought to the floor for a vote.

I'd like to share with you one clip of the eloquent words spoken by Senator Menendez:

"We understand the history of not only this country, but the history of the world. When one group of people become a suspect class, when one group of people are blamed for all the ills of the nation, history has taught us that that has a sad ending. We cannot let that happen here in the greatest country on the face of the earth. It is not who we are as a people. It is not who we are as a nation... That's what is at stake here. This is not a partisan question. This is about the national security of the United States. It is about the national economy of this country. And it is ultimately the preservation of the Constitution - because when I can become a second-class citizen, there is a road in which you can become a second-class citizen. And that is not something we can accept."

You can watch the introduction of the framework on C-SPAN here.

In response, President Obama released a statement highlighting the urgent need for reform:

"What has become increasingly clear is that we can no longer wait to fix our broken immigration system, which Democrats and Republicans alike agree doesn’t work. It’s unacceptable to have 11 million people in the United States who are living here illegally and outside of the system... The next critical step is to iron out the details of a bill. We welcome that discussion, and my Administration will play an active role in engaging partners on both sides of the aisle to work toward a bipartisan solution that is based on the fundamental concept of accountability that the American people expect and deserve."

Senator Leahy (VT), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered a comment on the proposal:

"I remain committed to meaningful comprehensive immigration reform... I hope the outline released today will encourage discussions across the aisle, and that they will lead to a bipartisan legislative proposal. All Americans are concerned with updating our immigration laws, fulfilling our labor needs, and addressing the escalating violence along our southern border. I hope we can come together to address these pressing matters."

Senator Graham (SC), who recently halted his efforts to work with Senator Schumer on draft legislation, released a statement with Senator Kyl (AZ) in opposition to the framework:

"Since 2007, threats have increased, some border technology has failed, and the American people have lost confidence in the federal government's ability to secure our borders. So it is our belief that Congress should focus on border security first and that will eventually allow Congress to seriously consider bipartisan immigration reform, instead of politically-motivated ‘conceptual papers.'"

FCNL's statement on the framework is forthcoming.

Appalled by Arizona? 5 Ways to Show It.

2010-04-27T09:15:00.003-04:00

Arizona's new law, S.B. 1070, is the harshest anti-immigration law in decades. Although the law doesn't go into effect for 90 days (and will be challenged in court), here are five steps that you can take now to protest this blatant violation of civil rights.

1. Tell your friends.

Start a conversation at the dinner table, out for coffee, or on the bus. Talk with your friends about how this bill starts the United States on a slippery slope toward widespread racial profiling. Hear their thoughts. Get emotional. Talk it out. Stay informed.

2. Tell the president.

Detention Watch Network is compiling action alerts to stop the implementation of the new Arizona law. Click here to participate.

3. Take your money and run.

Reps. Grijalva (AZ), Gutierrez (IL), and Polis (CO) have called for economic sanctions against Arizona. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has already canceled their national conference in Arizona and relocated it to another state. While this action is debatable - should the entire state be punished for the lawmakers' actions? - you can participate, if you choose, by boycotting Arizona products and tourism.

4. Take to the streets.

Immigration may very well be THE the civil rights issue of the 21st century. In 90 days, when this new law is scheduled to go into effect, join Rev. Al Sharpton's "freedom walkers" in Arizona to challenge racial profiling and stand in solidarity with the Hispanic community.

5. Stand up and be counted.

Follow this innovative suggestion from Linda Greenhouse:

So what to do in the meantime? Here’s a modest proposal. Everyone remembers the wartime Danish king who drove through Copenhagen wearing a Star of David in support of his Jewish subjects. It’s an apocryphal story, actually, but an inspiring one. Let the good people of Arizona — and anyone passing through — walk the streets of Tucson and Phoenix wearing buttons that say: I Could Be Illegal.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-04-26T10:07:00.004-04:00

Immigration has become a front-burner issue this week with the signing of an anti-immigrant bill in Arizona and turmoil in Congress over whether to take up immigration reform or climate legislation. Grab a cup of coffee, take a break, and join us to learn about the immigration news from Monday, April 19 to Monday, April 26.

On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law S.B. 1070, a bill that requires police officers to check the legal status of anyone who they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. This is the most anti-immigration legislation passed in decades. Critics have expressed grave concerns regarding racial profiling. To read our blog post on the bill, click here.

But don't take my word for it, watch Stephen Colbert's commentary on the Arizona law.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL), among others, also spoke out strongly against the Arizona law:

The lunacy of rounding up people because they look a certain way or are suspected of being in violation of immigration statutes can only lead to one thing: profiling. I am Puerto Rican, I was born in Chicago, and my family has been U.S. citizens for generations, but look at my face, listen to my voice: I could get picked up. Is this what we want in America?

His bill, H.R. 4321, would provide a workable legalization program for the undocumented, protect workers, and uphold immigrants' civil rights.

In response to heightened concerns about drug cartels on the U.S./Mexico border, Senators John McCain (AZ) and Jon Kyl (AZ) have introduced a ten-point plan to expand border security. The highlights of this plan include deploying 3,000 National Guard troops, adding more unmanned drones to the border for surveillance, and building additional double- and triple-layer fencing. At FCNL, we are very concerned about the militarization of the border - read our blog post for more.

A high-profile murder case in Long Island has been resolved - a white teenager accused of killing an Ecuadorean immigrant was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime. Marcelo Lucero had been attacked by seven teenagers seeking to beat up Hispanics. Immigrants in Long Island, spurred by the killing, came forward to share stories of harassment and violence.

This week, Congress will determine which will go first - a bill on energy and the environment, or immigration reform. President Obama has been calling senators to drum up support for immigration, while Majority Leader Reid said on Saturday that both issues are important to national security and the economy. We'll have more news for you as new developments emerge during the week.

Do You Know What an Illegal Immigrant Looks Like?

2010-04-23T17:00:00.008-04:00

"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Today, the U.S. Constitution has been trampled upon. Civil rights have been violated.

Today, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill, S.B. 1070, which requires police officers to check the papers of anyone who they "reasonably suspect" could be undocumented. This bill also allows individuals to sue law enforcement agencies in Arizona for not taking sufficient steps to enforce federal immigration laws.

No details of what constitutes "reasonable suspicion" are given in the bill. In today's press conference, Governor Brewer acknowledged that racial profiling is illegal but insisted that this bill "represents what's best for Arizona" as the state works to solve a "crisis" that the federal government "refuses to fix."

Under this law, well-intentioned police will find themselves in a bind, since they will be required to engage in racial profiling and threatened with lawsuits if they do not. (The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the bill.) Rogue police officers will have free rein to terrorize communities.

In response to a reporter's question, Governor Brewer said, "I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like."

Across Arizona, individuals are asking themselves: Do I look like an illegal immigrant to you? We should all be asking ourselves the same question. This bill doesn't just violate the basic civil rights of all the residents of Arizona -- it threatens our rights. Each of us.

When this bill goes into effect in 90 days (unless a lawsuit impedes its implementation), parents will be terrified to drop their children off at school in case an officer sees their skin tone and decides they could be "illegal." Victims of domestic violence will refuse to call the police for fear of being wrongly arrested and deported. Residents, acting out of fear or malicious intent, could turn each other in to the police. Anyone with an accent or who "appears" to be foreign-born could be forced to stay in their homes rather than risking a trip to the grocery store.

This isn't who we are. This isn't what we stand for. But the more we tolerate this sort of disregard for the rights of others, the sooner we will see our own rights crumbling as well.

President Obama called this bill "misguided" and instructed his staff to "monitor the situation," but he did not take any direct action to urge Governor Brewer to veto the bill. In this video, he says the bill "threatens to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between the police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe."

As Congress and the Obama administration still have not yet made good on their promise to reform the immigration system, states are taking matters into their own hands.

We find ourselves in a dangerous situation, because those who speak out against reactive and dangerous anti-immigration legislation may put themselves in harm's way. In Arizona, Rep. Raul Grijalva, who opposes S. B. 1070, had to close his Yuma and Tuscon offices because of death threats and threats of violence.

This is out of control.

We desperately need immigration reform. If Congress cannot deliver a humane bipartisan bill this year, Arizona may only be the start.

For the full text of S.B. 1070, click here.

Arizona: Becoming a Police State?

2010-04-21T11:54:00.005-04:00

The Arizona House and Senate have passed a bill, S.B. 1070, which would require police officers to check the papers of anyone who looks like they could be undocumented. Governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign this bill into law sometime this week, turning Arizona into the closest thing that this country's seen to a police state in many years.

Picture it: Parents terrified to drop their children off at school in case an officer sees their skin tone and decides they could be "illegal." Victims of domestic violence refusing to call the police for risk of being wrongly arrested and deported. Residents, acting out of fear or malicious intent, turning each other in to the police. Anyone with an accent or who "appears" to be foreign-born staying in their homes rather than risking a trip to the grocery store.

This isn't who we are. This isn't what we stand for.

But if we don't stand up now, this could become our reality.

Critics - including members of Congress, police, faith leaders, civil rights groups, immigrant advocacy groups, and more - have been fiercely vocal in urging Governor Brewer to veto the bill. ACLU and others are preparing a lawsuit. Petitions have been circulating and gathering more signatures every hour, vigils have continued around the clock, and countless messages have been sent opposing this horrific bill.

LA Cardinal Mahoney said in the Huffington Post:

"I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation," the cardinal said. "Are children supposed to call 911 because one parent does not have proper papers? Are family members and neighbors now supposed to spy on one another, create total distrust across neighborhoods and communities, and report people because of suspicions based upon appearance?"

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL) also weighed in:

"It is open season on the Latino community in Arizona... It is a horrifying glimpse at what our future holds across the country if we continue down the path the Obama administration is leading us on immigration... I'm afraid we have turned a very dangerous corner in the war on immigrants. And we have heard nothing from the President."

Nine young adults in Arizona have stepped up their advocacy to include acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, by chaining themselves to the Capitol in protest of S.B. 1070.

The situation in Arizona should be a wake-up call for the Obama administration and for the members of Congress who have promised to deliver immigration reform, but have been badly sidetracked by partisan political calculations. President Obama and Congress need to act swiftly to fix the broken immigration system, or else Arizona may only be the start. We don't want to go down that road.

Is the US at War with Mexico?

2010-04-20T13:25:00.008-04:00

It's a reasonable question.

20,000 Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents roam the border looking for economic migrants, smugglers, and traffickers. Those who are picked up - including children - are often held for hours or days without food, water, or blankets. The border fence disrupts livelihoods for border communities and destroys the environment. Individuals endure racial profiling, wrongful arrest, and other abuses. Immigration prosecutions are at an all-time high and federal courts are overwhelmed. But it's getting worse........

Source: Washington Independent

Most recently, the Department of Homeland Security has wasted more than $700 million dollars to create new surveillance technology (a "virtual fence"). What do they have to show for it? A faulty pilot project along 23 miles of the border near Tuscon. That's it.

An SBInet tower. Source: Boeing

Earlier today, I attended a hearing on border security. Senator Lieberman (CT) raised questions on increased cross-border violence due to "narco-terrorism" while Senator McCain (AZ) insisted that "we must move immediately to fully secure our border." Their witnesses - the head of CBP, a US attorney for Arizona, the sheriff of Cochise County, and the mayor of Nogales - offered their assessments of the situation and made recommendations on how to expand border security initiatives.

While I would not seek to diminish the severity of the cartels' violence (and over 22,000 Mexican residents have been killed in the past three years), I was deeply concerned to hear some of the suggestions being put forward, without critique, at the hearing.

All of the witnesses supported Senator McCain's proposal to deploy 3,000 National Guard troops on the border. One claimed that the presence of the military "creates a whole new level of deterrence." Other suggestions which were lofted include:

Building double and triple fences in urban areas, or across the entire border
Deploying technologies from SBInet (the virtual border fence) and elsewhere to track incursions on the border
Expanding the use of unmanned aerial vehicles
Securing funding for additional CBP agents
Looking to the Minutemen as a model for how to successfully secure the border

Many of these suggestions mirror the 10-point plan for border security that Senators McCain (AZ) and Kyl (AZ) released today.

What's missing: Any serious consideration of the negative impact that border militarization has on border communities. Recognition of the human rights abuses caused by reactive, unfocused security efforts. Indications that the border will not be "secure" until the broken immigration system is fixed so that people can come to the US in a legal, orderly manner.

It is nearly impossible to seal a 2,000-mile border, and most of us wouldn't want to live in a country that did. But until the U.S. government decides that enough is enough, that taxpayer dollars are better spent on workable solutions than impractical displays of force, then the out-of-control militarization of the border is likely to continue.

When will it be enough?

In the hearing today, the mayor of Nogales said, "It is a full-blown war." What will we sacrifice - our country's values, the lives of our people, the trust in our law enforcement agencies - in order to fulfill a dream of ever-expanding military engagement?

Members of the National Guard survey the border during Operation Jumpstart in 2007. Source: LIFE

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-04-19T09:28:00.002-04:00

Here it is, your news on immigration from Monday, April 12 to Monday, April 19.

This week, the Arizona legislature passed a bill that would allow police to check the legal status of anyone they encounter who they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. It also allows people to sue local police agencies if they feel that the agency is failing to enforce immigration laws. This bill is one of the most anti-immigrant proposals in recent history. Immigration advocacy groups, faith leaders, and civil rights organizations strongly oppose its passage but it is expected that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will sign it into law when it lands on her desk. Bottom line: This bill would terrorize immigrant communities.

As Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema said, "This legislation would do nothing to solve the problems Arizona faces as a border state, would enshrine racial profiling, would be prohibitively expensive, and will create a permanent culture of fear and panic in innocent communities. The Governor should veto the bill."

Also in Arizona, a massive ICE raid focusing on shuttle companies suspected of transporting migrants across the border has caused widespread panic. More than 800 agents and officers mobilized for the raid, which resulted in 47 arrests. John Morton, the director of ICE, said he intended for the raid to give "such a shock to individuals that they won’t recover as they have in the past." Well, he has certainly done so. Social service organizations reported that the disproportionate show of force - which included helicopters circling overhead - has caused hotlines to ring off the hook and led droves of people to seek refuge in local churches. FCNL strongly opposes raids and encourages the Obama adminstration to align enforcement with humanitarian values.

In brighter news, Senator Robert Menendez (NJ) introduced the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation (POWER) Act. This bill would protect immigrants' labor rights and would also protect immigrant workers from retaliation if they submit complaints about dangerous working conditions. FCNL supports strict enforcement of employment and labor laws, in order to ensure that all workers' rights are protected regardless of their legal status.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-04-12T13:28:00.005-04:00

As Congress returns from recess, immigration advocates across the country are demanding real, practical solutions to the broken immigration system. Here is the news on immigration from Monday, April 5 to Monday, April 12. Enjoy!

Here at FCNL, we are keeping a close eye on the draft immigration bill in the Senate, co-written by Senators Schumer (NY) and Graham (SC). No legislative text has been released yet, but if Majority Leader Reid's recent statement is any indicator, this comprehensive bill will see the light of day soon. At a rally in Nevada that drew over 6,000 supporters, Senator Reid said, "We're going to come back, we're going to have comprehensive immigration reform now... We need to do this this year. We cannot wait."

The Supreme Court just made a landmark ruling on immigration. Lawyers are now required to tell their immigrant clients whether a guilty plea could lead to possible deportation. This should seem fairly obvious, but - under overly harsh immigration laws - pleading guilty to even a minor crime can trigger mandatory detention and deportation. We congratulate the Supreme Court's decision to uphold real justice and protect immigrants' rights.

The nation's broadest coalition of immigration advocates, the Reform Immigration for America campaign, finally took a public position opposing the fundamentally flawed 287(g) program. This program, which was condemned in a recent Homeland Security investigative report, allows local police to arrest anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant. The New York Times calls the 287(g) program "too broken to fix" and America's Voice has created this excellent video on how immigration enforcement is tearing families apart:

383,524 and Counting

2010-04-05T16:48:00.003-04:00

Last year, 383,524 immigrants were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing immigration laws. That's over a third of a million people.

For the sake of comparison, the number of Quakers worldwide is about 360,000.

Immigration detention has drastically expanded in the past fifteen years. The number of immigrants held annually in jail-like detention facilities has tripled since 1996. Even under the Obama administration, these numbers keep on rising.

To justify this dramatic increase, ICE officials have repeatedly stated that the agency focuses on arresting, detaining, and deporting "dangerous criminal aliens" who pose a threat to public safety or national security.

Now, a recent ICE memo leaked to the press indicates that ICE is trying to arrest and detain as many people as possible - not just dangerous criminals - in order to meet quotas. According to the memo, ICE has set a goal of detaining at least 400,000 immigrants in 2010. To meet this goal, the memo continues, ICE plans to ramp up efforts to catch undocumented immigrants who had never committed a violent crime - because they can be deported more quickly than those with criminal backgrounds. (ICE later withdrew the memo but declined to offer a public explanation for why it had originally been issued.)

To catch more non-criminal immigrants, ICE relies on controversial local enforcement programs. These programs authorize police officers to enforce immigration laws. As a recent governmental report indicates, local enforcement programs lack oversight and have resulted in the widespread use of racial profiling.

As a result, more people get trapped in the broken immigration system every year. Immigration prosecutions have skyrocketed in recent years, overwhelming the courts. Immigration judges lack the resources to process immigration cases in a timely manner. Tens of thousands of immigrants languish in detention facilities as they wait for their cases to be heard, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Yet ICE continues to insist that its methods are justified.

This is backwards reasoning. Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on expensive and ineffective enforcement programs. You can't deport your way into a workable immigration system.

We've tried the enforcement-only approach, and it doesn't work. We urgently need immigration reform in order to create a legal immigration system that works for everyone.

Urge your members of Congress to support immigration reform. FCNL has created a new set of talking points for you to use when you contact your senators and representatives. Write a letter to your representative or schedule a lobby visit with your senator today!

To learn more about immigration reform, read FCNL's Statement of Principles on Immigration Reform. Stay up to date by signing up for our Immigration Network list serve, which distributes monthly updates about FCNL's work on immigration.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-04-05T09:54:00.003-04:00

Welcome back to your local source of up-to-date immigration news. Here is the news on immigration from Monday, March 29 to Monday, April 5. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Did you know that 383,000 people were detained in immigration jails in 2009? And that ICE plans to detain more than 400,000 people in 2010? The Washington Post leaked a memo from high-ranking officials within ICE, indicating that ICE is trying to arrest and detain as many people as possible - not just dangerous criminals - in order to meet quotas. This memo caused an uproar in the civil rights advocacy community. ICE has a serious and urgent question to answer: Who does the agency focus on - "dangerous criminals" or simply people who look "foreign"?

ICE's enforcement programs cast an extremely wide net, dragging in not only undocumented immigrants who have not committed any crimes but also green card holders and even US citizens. These programs, often implemented by police officers, lack critical oversight measures and often lead to discrimination. The DHS Inspector General just released a report revealing the fundamental flaws of the 287(g) program, which deputizes state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws. Federal immigration law should only be enforced by federal agents, so that the police can focus on protecting their communities. FCNL maintains that the 287(g) program should be immediately terminated.

Immigration detention facilities are terrifying places to be detained, and all the more so if you are coping with a disability or a history of trauma. A recent report from the New York Times reveals that immigrants with disabilities are routinely mistreated - denied medication, transferred to detention facilities far away from their families, and deported without proper arrangements for care. In other news, we recently learned that 30 Haitian survivors of the earthquake were shuffled onto planes, taken to the US, then detained in Florida even though deportations to Haiti have been suspended indefinitely. Advocates rushed to the cause and half of this group has been released; the fate of the others remains to be seen.

But enough about detention - what's happening on the border? Even though DHS Secretary Napolitano recently halted any further construction of a virtual fence on the border, some politicians still think that militarizing the border is the right answer. On March 29, Senator McCain (AZ) called for the National Guard to be sent to the border to protect US citizens. Such a deployment would set a dangerous precedent. The US is not at war with Mexico and militarizing the border is no substitute for the creation of a workable immigration policy that allows people to migrate in a legal, orderly manner. Senator McCain should push for immigration reform, not troops.

The search continues for a second Republican to introduce an immigration reform bill in the Senate, with Senators Schumer (NY) and Graham (SC). Meanwhile, FCNL has created new talking points and a revised statement of principles on immigration reform. You can share these with your members of Congress and urge them to support just, humane immigration reform.

Concerned? So Are We.

2010-03-31T14:38:00.003-04:00

Shouldn't immigration quotas be a thing of the past, abandoned to the judgment of historians?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doesn't think so.

This agency, which is part of Homeland Security, is responsible for enforcing immigration laws. But there's a catch. John Morton, the director of ICE, has stated repeatedly that ICE's goal is to track down and deport "dangerous criminals." Recently, it has become clear that Morton's statements are disconnected from the reality of immigration enforcement on the ground.

This internal ICE memo, leaked by the Washington Post, indicates that ICE is trying to arrest and detain as many people as possible - not just dangerous criminals - in order to meet quotas.

The explanation goes like this: Last year, ICE detained 387,000 people and this year the agency has received a budgetary increase. So, in order to justify the increase in funding, ICE has set a goal of detaining at least 400,000 people in 2010. (ICE later withdrew the memo but declined to offer a public explanation for why it had originally been issued.)

This is backwards reasoning. Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on expensive and ineffective enforcement programs. You can't deport your way into a reasonable immigration policy.

ICE has a serious and urgent question to answer. Who does the agency focus on - "dangerous criminals" or simply people who look "foreign"?

ICE should offer clarifications, immediately, on how the agency's goals align with its methods.

In addition, oversight of ICE's local enforcement programs should be established. Asking ICE to police itself would be unreasonable. Therefore, Congress should pass detention reform bills - S. 1549, S. 1550, and H.R. 1215 - which would ensure adequate protections for U.S. citizens, green card holders, and all who are unfairly punished by harsh and discriminatory ICE policies.

FCNL Joins More Than One Hundred Thousand Supporters to March for Immigration Reform

2010-03-25T11:28:00.005-04:00

Change takes courage and faith. On Sunday, March 21st, more than 100,000 supporters of humane immigration reform gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC, to send this urgent message to Congress. This rally, which attracted news coverage from New York to California, brought together people from all corners of the country to stand in solidarity for immigrants' rights.

From day laborers and union organizers, to children whose parents had been deported, to people of faith striving to welcome the stranger, to students whose lack of papers prevents them from attending college, all came together with one unified message: Immigration reform can't wait.

Recently we've seen President Obama meet with Senator Schumer (NY) and Senator Graham (SC) to discuss immigration reform. We've seen an op-ed outlining the bipartisan Senate bill, which has not yet been introduced. We've seen a Senator Reid commit to make time on the Senate floor for a debate on immigration reform. But we haven't yet seen the political will - the courage - to take the critical next step.

As Representative Gutierrez (IL) said at the rally, "Justice for immigrants cannot wait. It cannot be delayed because of the fears of politicians."

Now is the time for bold leadership. Now is the time for the introduction of a humane and just immigration reform bill in the Senate. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.

Couldn't make it to DC? Check out this video from Democracy Now. And take a look at these photos, taken by FCNL's Rebecca Sheff, of the many thousands of supporters who made the trek to DC for this historic day.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Schumer and Graham Write Op-Ed, Thousands of Immigration Advocates March on DC

2010-03-19T09:17:00.005-04:00

Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) wrote an op-ed together yesterday, which provides broad outlines of their bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. The bill proposes reforms including stringent border and workplace enforcement measures, the creation of a national biometric ID card for both U.S. citizens and immigrants, and a legalization program for undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

The White House responded to the op-ed with a statement from President Obama, saying, "I pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue so we can continue to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform." Senator Reid also issued a statement saying he is committed to bringing this bill to the floor when it is ready.

While draft language on the Senate bill has not yet been released, at FCNL we support the CIR ASAP bill, which was introduced in the House in December 2009. This bill protects family unity, provides a workable legalization program, and protects immigrants' civil and human rights. To urge your representative to support this bill, send a letter today.

Meanwhile, many thousands of immigration advocates have started the trek to Washington, DC, to rally on Sunday afternoon. Individuals whose loved ones have been deported, who have been denied fair wages, whose children cannot attend college because they lack papers, will all converge on the National Mall to say that the time for immigration reform is now.

Don't miss it! We hope you can join us and tens of thousands of supporters this weekend. Si se puede!

Change Takes Courage and Faith

2010-03-18T11:33:00.001-04:00

Don't miss out on the action! Over 100,000 supporters of immigration reform will gather this Sunday, March 21st, on the National Mall to witness the urgent need for immigration reform. Grab a friend, grab a sign, and join us!

Last week, President Obama met with Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), who are working together to draft a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. However, negotiations are ongoing and immigrant families cannot wait any longer. The time for immigration reform is now.

As people of faith, we can't sit by as the broken immigration system rips apart families and communities. Join us in Washington DC to urge Congress to pass just, humane immigration reform.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-03-15T09:41:00.004-04:00

We have a busy week ahead of us here in Washington! In this post, you'll find some updates from last week and - more importantly - previews of this week's events! Grab your coffee cup and let's get started.

Last Thursday, President Obama met with Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), who are working together to draft a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. This high-profile meeting was met with cautious enthusiasm by immigration advocates, who are pressing Schumer and Graham to release a blueprint of their bill before the much-anticipated immigration rally this Sunday.

Following the meeting, President Obama issued this statement: "Today I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system. I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems. I also heard from a diverse group of grassroots leaders from around the country about the growing coalition that is working to build momentum for this critical issue. I am optimistic that their efforts will contribute to a favorable climate for moving forward. I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort."

Senator Schumer remains "optimistic" about advancing immigration reform while Senator Graham sees difficulties in hyperpartisanship. Schumer and Graham are on the search for a second Republican cosponsor of the bill, and they continue to seek a compromise between business and labor leaders about the future of worker visas. We encourage these senators to put pen to paper and share their plan for immigration reform publicly in the near future.

We have learned that Schumer and Graham's proposal for immigration reform may include a biometric national identification card. All U.S. citizens and green card holders would be required to carry this card, as would immigrants with other statuses. This is a concerning development that would raise all sorts of privacy and profiling concerns. We hope that clarification on this proposal comes swiftly.

A final vote on the health care bill is expected by the end of this week, but what's in it for immigrants? Immigrants' access to health care remains a hotly contested issue in the House. In the current version of the bill, undocumented immigrants cannot obtain health insurance even if they are willing to buy an individual plan with their own money. Advocates are hard at work trying to improve access and lift the 5-year bar for Medicaid, in which legal immigrants have to wait five years before they are eligible for the Medicaid program. It is unreasonable to expect anyone, regardless of their legal status, to wait 5 years for health care.

Immigration enforcement hit close to home this week. On Thursday morning, several simultaneous raids in Maryland resulted in 29 people being taken into custody by federal immigration agents. ICE claims that the raids are intended “to ensure that employers are held accountable for maintaining a legal work force.” However, raids, even when conducted in a humane manner, unfairly punish employees while letting employers off the hook.

So, what's in store for us this week?

It's not too late to register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Christians from across the country will gather in D.C. this weekend to discuss immigration reform, refugees, and displaced peoples. Join us for workshops, discussions, and advocacy training, as well as a day of lobbying on Monday, March 22nd!

The Reform Immigration For America campaign, in coordination with the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, is organizing a huge immigration rally on March 21st! Over 100,000 people are expected to gather to witness the urgent need for immigration reform. We hope you can join us on the National Mall on Sunday afternoon!!

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-03-08T12:19:00.003-05:00

As the snow melts in DC and the cherry blossoms are on the verge of appearing, we're renewing our efforts to urge Congress to support immigration reform. To get the latest updates, just keep on reading! Here is your news on immigration from Monday, March 1 to Monday, March 8.

We've been working to drum up support for the CIR ASAP bill (H.R. 4321), a bill which proposes humane reforms for the immigration system. This bill would help keep families together, allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, and protect immigrants civil and human rights. We just got another cosponsor, putting the total at 94! Let's try to break 100. You can help push reforms forward by contacting your representative today!

You may have seen advertisements about the Census, and we're encouraging everyone to participate. In order to make sure that communities get fair representation and federal funds, it is important to get an accurate Census count. Please talk to your neighbors to check if they're filling out their forms!

Prepare to be scanned, weighed, and valued: Congress may soon expand the reach of the controversial E-Verify program, which would check the identities of new employees against a national database in order to confirm their immigration status. However, E-Verify raises concerns about accuracy, privacy, and fairness. Expanding workplace enforcement is no substitution for real immigration reform, which would allow workers to come to the US legally in line with the real needs of the US economy. Marc Rosenblum has more in this opinion piece.

The Obama administration is working on overhauling the immigration detention system and advocates are cautiously supportive of this initiative. However, the majority of detention facilities are run by private contractors, not the federal government. How will these contractors be held accountable? Watch this video to learn more.

Meanwhile, thousands of immigrants - the vast majority of whom are non-criminal - continue to be detained and deported without access to a fair trial. Minnesota Public Radio reports on one man's struggle to remain in the United States so he could support his children. Spoiler alert: This story, unlike many others, actually has a happy ending!

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-02-22T11:53:00.003-05:00

Hello again and welcome to this week's edition of In Our Community: Immigration News. Here are highlights from Monday, February 15th to Monday, February 22nd. Grab a cup of coffee and happy reading!

Electoral calculations are starting already and politicians on both sides of the aisle are taking note of growing Hispanic voting power. The Hispanic population in the United States is the fastest growing voting demographic. In the upcoming 2010 elections, politicians are going to need to take seriously the demands and concerns of immigrant communities. Two articles (available here and here) indicate that, in order to win votes, conservatives may need to shift from cracking down on the border to supporting comprehensive immigration reform. Recent polling shows that 82% of Hispanics feel strongly about immigration reform.

The Interfaith Immigration Coalition, of which FCNL is a member, launched an immigration reform campaign last week by delivering hundreds of thousands of postcards to members of Congress. This article in the Miami Herald discusses why immigration reform is important to people of faith. As one faith leader says, "This is important to us Christians, not just because we are immigrants or sons or daughters of immigrants... We have been called to treat the foreigners among us justly and to love our neighbor.''

Protestors regularly gather outside the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA, to protest the harsh treatment and unnecessary detention of immigrants at this jail-like facility. The NWDC has become one of the largest detention centers in the country. It holds about 1000 immigrant detainees at a time, the majority of which have never committed a crime and are being held for immigration violations only. FCNL supports alternatives to detention for these immigrants as they wait for their cases to be heard in immigration courts.

It is still not clear how the Department of Homeland Security defines "criminal alien," which is the term most commonly used for immigrants held in jail-like detention centers. Some say that an individual must be convicted of a crime to be considered a "criminal alien," while others say they just have to be accused of or suspected of a crime. If this is the measure by which enforcement programs are being justified, some clarity is urgently needed. In addition, reports show that the vast majority of immigrant detainees are noncriminal or have committed minor crimes, not the serious ones that you would be led to believe. For more information on how immigrants end up in detention, see two recent fact sheets - available here and here.

Think that areas with significant immigrant populations are more vulnerable to crime? Think again. This interesting article in The American Conservative sets the record straight, demonstrating that Hispanics have approximately the same crime rates as whites of the same age. Want to share this information with others? The Immigration Policy Center has a brief fact sheet breaking down the popular myth that immigrants are dangerous criminals.

To Tell or Not to Tell

2010-02-18T16:18:00.003-05:00

As I was scanning the immigration blogs today, I came across this insightful and reflective piece by an immigrant student. He writes on his blog, "I am a shadow," about his experiences living in the United States without legal status. In musing over whether to stay "closeted" about his undocumented status, he wrote this piece:

I tell people about myself and my status. I tell them I am what I am. Why? Why do I do it?

I do it for two primary reasons. First up, the reason is practicality. Being undocumented isn’t an easy thing. I feel bad about this from time to time and it is clearly visible that I am upset. And it is hard for me to lie and lie about it, make up stuff about it. So, I tell my friends the truth about what I am. It just easier for me to be honest about why I feel what I feel.

Second reason, and in a way, more important, is this. When I hear people speak about immigration, there is an air of the entire issue being abstract. You are speaking about “them”. “They” are far away. We are an idea, something that most people in this debate usually don’t know any of us. So, I tell people to shatter this perception. Because you aren’t speaking about some abstract idea, you are speaking about me. And I want to let my friends know, that whenever this topic comes up, it is me that they are talking about. It isn’t something that doesn’t affect, but it is something that affects someone close to you. This is the most important thing for me. I can’t really speak for myself in the way I want, so I like it when someone else can do so.

No one is going to care about you if you don’t tell people. I respect being fearful of telling people, and not telling anyone about your status, but no one is going to care if no one thinks of you when this issue comes up. Don’t be surprised if you don’t tell people about yourself, and then don’t be surprised if anyone insults you without knowing. That’s the way it goes.

Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth

2010-02-17T17:19:00.010-05:00

A new film is coming to town! "Papers" tells the story of undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status. It will be playing at the E Street Cinema in Washington, DC on March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

65,000 undocumented students graduate every year from high school without “papers” and the door to their future slams shut. It is against the law to work or drive. It is difficult, if not impossible in some states, to attend college. Currently, there is no path to citizenship for these young people.

Graham Street Productions produced this film in collaboration with the youth who want to tell their stories as well as community organizations around the country who are working to change immigration policy on behalf of these young people.

Screenings at the E Street Cinema start at 7:00 pm and are open to the public. Tickets are $10 each and you can buy them here.

Not in DC? Don't despair! You can host your own screening of "Papers"! Click here for details.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-02-16T13:34:00.002-05:00

Hello again and welcome back to your local source for immigration news! We're still digging out after more than 40 inches of snow fell in DC last week. To catch us up a bit, here are highlights from Monday, February 8 to Tuesday, February 16. Happy reading!

The faith community continues to push for comprehensive immigration reform, delivering tens of thousands of postcards to members of Congress and coordinating prayer vigils across the country. More than 100 faith events will be held in February, from South Carolina to Washington State. The Interfaith Immigration Coalition has made available an organizing guide so that you, too, can gather your community together to raise awareness about the need for reform.

Without comprehensive immigration reform, the broken immigration system creates headaches and difficulties for employers and employees alike. Two new articles - available here and here - document the challenges facing foreign farm workers, who would benefit directly from a comprehensive reform bill. Workers, compelled out of economic necessity to immigrate without the proper documents, face poor working conditions and low wages. Employers, under pressure to increase wages and fulfill Labor Department rules, struggle to keep their businesses viable. The one thing they all agree on? The time for reform is now.

Workers aren't the only ones suffering - families divided by immigration laws face serious hardships in raising their children. This heartbreaking article from the New York Times documents the life of Elizabeth Encalada. Her husband, an immigrant from Ecuador, was ordered back to his home country. He then killed himself upon learning that he would be unable to return to the United States to reunite with his family. The family visa system is clogged with applications, compelling families who play by the rules to turn to desperate measures.

The Immigration Policy Center has released a special report, "Many Happy Returns," on how remittances can help Haiti recover and strengthen the U.S. economy. Many of this country's immigrants send a large chunk of their earnings back to their families and communities in their country of origin. On the surface, it might seem like this money is just disappearing from the U.S. economy, but really, it boosts U.S. participation in the global economy.

A federal judge asks whether it's worth the cost of prosecuting non-criminal immigrants, and a new report by TRAC indicates that the majority of immigrants held in detention centers by ICE have never been convicted of any crime. Even though ICE claims to focus on non-citizens who pose a real threat to public safety, the numbers tell a different story. ICE's director, John Morton, says, "This isn't a question of whether or not we will detain people. We will detain people, and we will detain them on a grand scale." Morton's comment leads us to ask, "But why?"

But don't let me leave you with a rhetorical question - ask the government yourself! The Department of Homeland Security has created an "Open Government" website and they want your input. From now until March 19, you can submit ideas and questions to DHS about how to increase transparency about how the agency manages the immigration detention system.

Snowmageddon 2010

2010-02-09T16:30:00.002-05:00

A quick note to our readers: Due to Snowmageddon 2010 - the two major snowstorms that DC is receiving back-to-back this week - blogging for It's Our Community will be temporarily suspended until FCNL reopens. Regular blog posts should resume by the end of the week. Thanks for your understanding and, if you're in the DC area, stay warm!

"Driving While Brown" Should Not Be a Crime: Take A Stand Against Racial Profiling

2010-02-05T10:02:00.003-05:00

"Racism and racial discrimination have profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society."
~ U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

In 2003, the Department of Justice issued a fact sheet on racial profiling that identifies many of the concerns shared by communities around the country, whose members may find themselves subject to discrimination because of their appearance, national origin, or other identifying characteristics. Racial profiling harms not only communities but also federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, which may be distracted from their real work ensuring the safety and security of the communities under their jurisdiction.

This fact sheet, available here as a PDF, addresses guidelines on racial profiling set forth by the Department of Justice in 2003. While these guidelines are an important step in the process of eliminating racial profiling, they still have loopholes and omissions that allow for some of the very behavior that the guidance is intended to regulate.

The 2003 Department of Justice Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Law Enforcement Agencies:

Allows for profiling based on religion and national origin;

Includes loopholes that allow profiling at borders in the name of "national security;"

Doesn’t apply to all federal law enforcement activity;

Isn’t enforceable; and

Doesn’t consistently apply to state or local law enforcement agencies working in cooperation with federal agencies or receiving federal money.

To sign a petition urging the Department of Justice to strengthen their 2003 guidelines on racial profiling, please visit the Rights Working Group webpage, available here.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-02-01T14:43:00.002-05:00

With the State of the Union and the release of the federal budget, this week has been a busy time for folks in Washington, DC. With that, take a look at the news on immigration from Monday, January 25 to Monday, February 1. Happy reading!

The State of the Union was this past Wednesday and if you stuck around until the end, you heard President Obama put in a brief word on the need to keep working to fix the broken immigration system. Here, Immigration Impact bloggers offer their own interpretation of the speech. In response, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL), the author of the CIR ASAP bill to comprehensively reform the immigration system, wrote a powerful op-ed piece calling on Congress to take action.

Here at FCNL, we're urging you to do your part to advance President Obama's vision by organizing a prayer vigil in your community this February. By standing together in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors, we can show that we still believe that immigration reform can't wait. Take a look at the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's planning guide to coordinate your own prayer vigil today!

On Monday, January 25, DHS Assistant Secretary John Morton spoke at the Migration Policy Institute about his plans to overhaul the immigration detention system. Morton is working to create a civil detention system that would replace the jail-like model that currently detains over 30,000 immigrants a day. While we welcome the administration's commitment to reform, we urge Assistant Secretary Morton and his team to work diligently to determine who really needs to be held in detention facilities and who can be released.

As Victoria Lopez writes in the Arizona Daily Star, the immigration detention system lacks transparency and accountability. Many facilities, like this one in Georgia, are run by private prison corporations, which lack the training and oversight to manage a population of civil immigrant detainees. In Colorado, protestors and our friends with the American Friends Service Committee gather regularly outside the Aurora detention facility.

Detention reforms will become all the more important as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) expands their Secure Communities program throughout the country. This program, which checks fingerprints in local jails against an immigration database, is meant to capture high-level criminals who are in violation of immigration laws. Instead, Secure Communities ends up focusing primarily on nonviolent offenders, who get caught in the net and may then be detained and deported. Nationally, Secure Communities accounts for about 40% of the immigrants held in jail-like detention centers that are known for human rights abuses.

The United States and the international community continue to respond to the disaster in Haiti by providing emergency humanitarian relief. The extreme devastation has left people across the country wondering, What more can we do? An op-ed in the Washington Post opines that the U.S. government should accelerate visa processing for Haitians who have family members in the United States. Many of these visa applicants have been waiting four years or more to reunite with their loved ones.

Rep. Gutierrez Responds to State of the Union

2010-01-28T17:23:00.003-05:00

Today, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL), author of the CIR ASAP bill introduced in December in the House, wrote a powerful op-ed piece in the Huffington Post.

Rep. Gutierrez expressed concern that President Obama "did not go far enough for the four million American citizen children whose parents face deportation; the millions of Americans waiting to be reunited with loved ones overseas; hardworking Americans whose security is undermined in the workplace; women who are physically and sexually exploited on the floors of meatpacking plants; or the $1.5 trillion lacking from our Gross Domestic Product, all in the absence of real reform."

He argues, "Congress cannot wait for the President to lay out our timeline for comprehensive reform." His bill, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, would fix the broken immigration system by keeping families together, allowing immigrants to integrate more fully into society, and protecting immigrants from detention.

To show to Congress that you support comprehensive immigration reform, urge your representative to co-sponsor CIR ASAP.

I'll leave you with one other quote from Rep. Gutierrez's article. He writes:

"They care that we do the job we've been elected to do. But if we walk away from the tough fights --like immigration reform-- because it's hard or because it's politically risky, we're not just writing our own political eulogy; we're sentencing millions of families to a life of injustice."

In State of the Union, President Cites Need to Fix Broken Immigration System

2010-01-28T09:19:00.002-05:00

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama focused on the economy, job creation, financial regulatory reform, and health care reform. He called for an end to hyper-partisanship in Congress and, toward the end of his speech, identified domestic priorities including the need to "continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system." FCNL continues to work with Congress to advance immigration reform legislation.

The president also spoke more broadly of the need to value diversity. He stated, "Abroad, America's greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. The same is true at home. We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we're all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law, you should be protected by it, if you adhere to our common values, you should be treated no different than anyone else." We hope that President Obama carries forward this commitment by resisting the temptation to resort to racial profiling in the name of national security.

In one of the last lines of the speech, he said: "I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is." As we've worked on immigration reform over the past year, we've tried to counter impassioned, hateful rhetoric with civil dialogue and quiet witness. We saw that in our Breaking Bread and Barriers potlucks in the fall, and now we're asking you to join us again this February by organizing prayer vigils in your community.

These prayer vigils, in solidarity with our country's immigrants, send a clear message to Congress that we remain committed to immigration reform. In order to fix the broken system and restore dignity and rights for all, we need to stand together. Take a look at the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's prayer vigil organizing guide to start planning yours today.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-01-25T09:47:00.002-05:00

With the State of the Union coming up this Wednesday, people across the country are reflecting on President Obama's first year in office. While health care and the economy are understandably the first issues on everyone's mind, let's not lose sight of the ongoing injustices against our neighbors. Immigrant families' burdens may be less visible, but they are no less significant. With that in mind, here is the news on immigration from Monday, January 18 to Monday, January 25.

Having granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian immigrants on January 15, the Obama administration has now started the registration process. Haitians who are already in the United States can now apply to stay and work here for the next 18 months as Haiti recovers from the earthquake. The U.S. government is also offering humanitarian relief for Haitian orphans who are already in adoption proceedings, allowing them an accelerated path to come to the United States from Haiti.

However, most Haitians are unable to enter the United States. Advocates and certain members of Congress are now urging the Obama administration to allow two groups of Haitians to immigrate: individuals with family members legally in the United States, and children in need of emergency medical care. While it is unlikely that Congress or the Department of Homeland Security will act on these recommendations, the international community continues to provide emergency humanitarian relief to the people of Haiti.

On the state level, undocumented immigrants in Nebraska received an unwelcome surprise -- the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services announced that around 1,000 pregnant women who are undocumented will no longer receive prenatal services through the federal-state Medicaid program. These individuals will lose their benefits starting in March. At that point, Medicaid in Nebraska will only cover the cost of the delivery and the cost of treating emergency complications of pregnancy for undocumented women.

As for news on the U.S.-Mexico border, the New York Times has just published an article highlighting the damaging effects of the so-called "border war" on Indian reservations. The Tohono O'odham Nation spans the border and has become host to a number of unwelcome visitors, including Border Patrol agents and drug smugglers. Residents report even being afraid to walk in the desert during daylight for fear of running into members of the drug cartel or being caught in the middle of border security operations. The border militarization has caused residents to live in a perpetual state of fear -- as a result, residents recently agreed to create a "virtual fence" along the border, which they had previously been able to cross without disruption.

The immigration detention system continues to play host to a variety of abuses. On Tuesday, ICE agents clad in riot gear forcibly disrupted a detainee hunger strike at the Varick Street detention facility in Manhattan. About 100 immigrant detainees had gone on a hunger strike to protest detention policies and practices. ICE responded with force, using pepper spray on detainees, taking many to solitary confinement cells as punishment, and transferring about 17 to immigration detention centers in other states. This unwarranted use of force against unarmed detainees engaging in nonviolent protest should not be tolerated.

This episode comes on the tail of a recent article in the New York Times revealing that immigration officials have strenuously tried to cover up the broken immigration system -- most shockingly, by covering up the deaths of immigrants held in jail-like detention centers. Rigorous studies have shown that detention alone puts immigrants at higher risk of mental illness. What's more, as NPR reported, most detainees are non-violent yet cannot afford to make bail -- and most immigrant detainees can't even afford a lawyer. The poor standards, lack of oversight and transparency, and tolerance of mistreatment in immigration jails should no longer be treated as business-as-usual.

For those of you concerned about immigrant families being separated because of the broken immigration system, the Immigration Policy Center has put out a new report for you. This short report outlines the key principles for family immigration within the context of comprehensive immigration reform.

Finally, the Center for American Progress reports on a new poll showing that the public still continues to support comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, 87% of respondents supported a path to legal status and eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants, as long as they completed non-punitive requirements like paying taxes and learning English. This kind of legalization program would put an end to today's two-tier society which treats undocumented immigrants as second-class contributors to society.

A Rare Glimpse Into Life in Jail: Visiting an Immigration Detention Center

2010-01-22T12:04:00.004-05:00

On any given day, about 30,000 immigrants are held in jail-like detention centers across the United States. Most of them have never committed a crime yet they are treated like criminals, isolated from their families, and often unable to get lawyers to represent them. These are the real victims of the broken immigration system.

Detained immigrants are unable to tell their own stories because of the conditions of their confinement. In Minnesota, a group of concerned citizens is taking it upon themselves to work to ease their suffering.

These individuals have created the Interfaith Coalition on Immigration Ramsey County Jail Immigrant Detainee Visitation Project. They are in the process of launching a visitation program in which local residents would go to the jail and meet with immigrants there, to provide some human comfort and solidarity.

The core members of the coalition toured the jail on Wednesday. Their experience offers us a rare opportunity to peek into the world of immigration detention. I'd like to share with you some of their reflections:

Ramsey Jail Visitation Project Update

JAIL TOUR!

On Wednesday, January 20, four core group members had a tour of the Ramsey County Jail. We met the three primary administrators and the two programming personnel. All were gracious, welcoming, and clearly dedicated and committed to their work. Before scheduling the tour we were told it usually takes one hour; our tour took two hours and included a long pre-meeting. We were never rushed; there was ample time for questions and conversation. Our tour included a brief conversation with one of the facility's nurses who overheard one of our questions and gave a response.

THE JAIL POD

Our group was taken into the 'A' area where new criminal detainees are held and where we got a sense of what it meant to be in jail: it was lunch time, but while we were there, all were locked in their cells (which are typically two bunk cells with a thin mattress, a small table, and stainless steel toilet; the cells appeared to be about 6 X 10 feet ['guesstimate,' but it seemed smaller than the small 8 X 12 feet home study where I prepare this report!) where they were kept, their lunch stacked and waiting on the cart.

PERSONAL NOTE: I was uncomfortable in this situation and conscious of my privilege and, I guess, my power. They were in their cells so we could wander around. It was an accident of timing, perhaps, but in an already difficult situation, it was unfortunate that even this small experience was added to their troubles. For those waiting to eat, this must have seemed arbitrary, which might also be the feeling experienced by ICE detainees and their families: the subjects of 'arbitrary' power who are experiencing a complete loss of control of their lives and have become 'objects' in a deportation system that has taken charge of their future. This was also a reminder that when we get visiting privileges (I am optimistic) we must be careful to not intrude on meals and normal visiting and recreation times.

MEDICAL CONCERNS - Tour Observations

1. Our guides made repeated reference to the ICE mandated 14-day physical-medical assessment that all civil immigrant detainees get. They want us to know they both know about and are in compliance with this standard, which has not always been the case (as reported in an ICE Inspector General report, June, 2008, available on-line).

2. New medical request cards are being prepared that will state the ICE detainees do not have to make a co-pay. They are not in place yet: existing stocks without this notation are to be used first. All jail leadership personnel also made a point of telling us that they know ICE detainees do not have to make a medical co-pay.

3. Since the death of Maria Inamagua from a parasite originating in her country of origin and which is not common in the United States, there have been investigative reports stating the importance of ICE medical evaluations including screening for such exotic diseases (diseases or medical conditions originating in a person's country of origin) or that responses to health issues arising during detention include such screening, especially when the diagnosis proves difficult. The response to a question about this did not seem to reflect an awareness of this issue nor a specific knowledge of medical screenings.

HEAT - Personal testimony

I wore a short sleeve shirt. We were often moving and walking. My attention was usually directed to the speakers. Under these conditions, I was never cold. HOWEVER, as we were leaving, I observed someone in a holding cell just outside of the 'A' pod area. He was wearing the jail's mandatory orange short-sleeve coveralls. He was cold, his sleeves empty, both of his arms having been drawn upside his jump suit where he held them against his torso for warmth.

(Related note: no action or decision has been made per issuing long-john shirts to detainees. Pending that and the new requirement that all laundry be processed at the Ramsey County Workhouse, the option of purchasing a long-john shirt has been suspended; clothes cannot be brought into the jail.)

VENDING MACHINES - Personal observation

There are vending machines in the 'pods.' Prices are roughly $1.50 to $1.75 for snacks and soda (what I call 'motel' or 'airport' prices). I noticed that the same vending machines in areas serving only jail personnel were less expensive.

TOUR PARTICIPANT REPORT (I have not asked permission to share this person's name, hence it is not included; these are brief excerpts from a longer report)

It comes as no surprise that a jail is not a happy place. While I believe the staff “manage” (their word) the inmate population with the best intent, the conditions of a jail must be unnecessarily traumatic for an otherwise innocent immigrant.

Throughout my experience at the jail, despite being flanked by two or more official tour guides and 3 other tour participants, my awareness was heightened and I was on edge. I cannot imagine being placed in this facility when my only crime is trying to keep my family together or trying to find work that will sustain my children. I believe that the visitation program could be beneficial in easing the trauma of being placed in such a facility. However, for the long-term, I would like to see policies changed to eliminate jailing detainees without criminal offenses.

Aftershocks: A Haitian Message of Resilience

2010-01-21T09:37:00.004-05:00

I'd like to share with you a beautiful op-ed piece written by Evelyne Trouillot and published today in the New York Times. While her message does not directly address the plight of Haitian immigrants, their future - and ours - are bound together.

Aftershocks
By ÉVELYNE TROUILLOT

THE family has set up camp in my brother’s house. I live just next door, but it makes us feel better to be all in the same house. My brother, a novelist, is writing his articles; I am writing mine. From time to time a tremor will make us pause and run back outside, just in case, to be safe. I wonder how long we will have to be so cautious, and I long for normalcy.

We sleep; we listen to the radio; we exchange information. Mostly, we have been trying to stay alive and sane since that Tuesday afternoon a week ago when the earthquake changed our lives forever. It doesn’t help that the earth continues to convulse. Just this morning, we felt another tremor, the most violent since the earthquake itself. Let us hope it did not cause more deaths and damage.

I do not recognize the streets of Port-au-Prince. In front of what used to be a school, three corpses are covered demurely by a blue sheet. Feet and eyes carefully avoid the small cadavers.

A few miles down, the Sacré-Coeur church, where the upper-middle class used to be baptized, married and buried, is a big pile of rubbish.

Under the broken glass and bricks of the five-story Caribbean Supermarket — which carried the most varied imported products and where foreigners were most likely to meet one another — women, men and children lie trapped, given up for dead. On Monday, rescuers managed to free from the site a young woman who was still alive. That same day, a grief-stricken family identified the body of a 27-year-old mother of a 6-month-old girl, who was not so lucky.

In the evening, the digging for bodies ceases, as does the search for drinking water and food, for news about missing parents and friends. Tired; terrified of the dark and its dreams of tremors, of the morning and its bad news; secretly — or not — relieved to be alive, we try to sleep.

In the background, the few radio stations that can still broadcast convey the messages of agonized families and friends. A father comes all the way from a little village in the south of Haiti looking for his two daughters. Although his voice is breaking, he manages to enunciate their names and please could somebody, anybody tell him if they are alive? The newscaster quickly repeats the message and introduces someone else. There are so many of them, a litany of desperate voices.

Night settles. The stars provide the only light; the electricity has not been restored. We save the energy from our Inverter generator system to run the Internet, so we can stay in contact with friends and family. The telephone lines are unreliable.

But we Haitians are nevertheless connected — regardless of our social conditions, our economic status, our religious beliefs, if only because we share the same uncertainties, the same fears about the monstrous size of the task at hand.

Although the earthquake does remind us of our common and fragile destiny, the fact that the earth trembles and destroys with equal brutality luxurious and shabby houses, small and huge enterprises, does not obscure the inequalities that divide Haiti. Social and economic disparities, the unjust distribution of our resources and the dire poverty of the majority of the population cannot magically evaporate with the dust. But maybe this disaster will constitute a new beginning. Maybe the reconstruction effort that is now so urgent will also work to narrow the gaps between us.

It is with a sense of warmth that I think of all the messages of solidarity I have received from around the world. Like most Haitians, I marvel at the signs of humanity — fund-raisers, simple letters of sympathy, offers of help: “Just tell me what you need!” But it is our government’s responsibility to help those most in need.

I am focusing now on what is essential in life: love and friendship. Like most people here, I am not watching the news. We have limited power, and anyway it seems futile and even absurd to be a spectator of my own life, especially when the TV images highlight only the misery of our country. Many of us Haitians are offended by the coverage of the earthquake. Once more, a natural disaster serves as an occasion to showcase the impoverishment, to exaggerate the scenes of violence that are common to any catastrophe of this type.

No, I am not watching the news. I am too busy trying to find a way to keep my hope alive because the work in front of us is humongous. I am busy rejoicing in the laughter of the children in the camp near our house, smiling at the comical reactions of a passer-by after a recent aftershock. I am busy shedding tears at the news of a miraculous rescue of six students from the wreckage of a university building. I am busy collecting the fragments of life that reflect the enormous courage and resilience among us.

I am busy loving life and my country.

Évelyne Trouillot is a novelist whose short stories have appeared in English in the collection “Words Without Borders.”

Thank You for Lobbying to Protect Haitian Immigrants

2010-01-20T14:36:00.003-05:00

FCNL would like to extend a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who participated in last week's action alert to stop the deportation of Haitian immigrants. On the evening of Friday, January 15, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be granted to Haitian immigrants for the next 18 months, while Haiti recovers from the earthquake. This success may seem small, in light of the challenges still facing Haiti, but it is still extremely important.

Your successful lobbying efforts have helped to protect tens of thousands of Haitians in the United States from being returned to an unsafe situation in Haiti. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that between 100,000 and 200,000 Haitian immigrants are eligible for TPS, about 30,000 of whom are currently scheduled for deportation. TPS will allow these immigrants to stay and work in the United States for now.

In this way, Haitian immigrants will be empowered to contribute directly to the country's recovery. As they receive their work permits through TPS, they will be able to send their earnings back to support their families and communities in Haiti. Even before this crisis, the Haitian economy relied significantly on remittances. Now, the need for remittances is even greater and TPS will help to meet that need.

Thousands of Haitians still lack access to basic necessities like food, water, and shelter. Displaced people need to be protected, families need to be reunited, and broken infrastructure needs to be restored. As the international community seeks to supply aid, Haiti faces the threat of an impending public health disaster. For Haiti to successfully recover from this devastating crisis, the country will require not only short-term relief work or an international military presence, but an international commitment to sustainable long-term development.

For Haiti to become less vulnerable to natural disasters, the U.S. government and international aid organizations will need to coordinate their efforts with the Haitian government and Haitian nonprofit organizations. Haiti has the potential to emerge from this crisis stronger and more resilient, but only if today's efforts focus on strengthening Haitian institutions, infrastructure, and expertise.

We encourage you to hold the people of Haiti in your hearts and minds, even after the news cameras leave. For more information on TPS, please see the interfaith letter of support that FCNL coordinated last week. To keep up with our work on immigration, please visit our website, read our immigration blog, and email me (at rebecca@fcnl.org) to sign up for regular updates to learn about how you can get more involved in promoting immigration reform.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-01-19T09:14:00.003-05:00

As Martin Luther King Day reminds us all of Dr. King's call for equality and justice, our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Haiti as they strive to recover from last week's earthquake. Here is the news on immigration from Monday, January 11 to Monday, January 18.

On Friday, January 15, the Obama administration granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the United States. Thank you to everyone who participated in FCNL's action alert and signed FCNL's interfaith letter of support for TPS. Because of your actions, Haitian immigrants will not be deported and will instead be allowed to stay in the United States and work here for at least 18 months while Haiti stabilizes from Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

The Haitian economy depends significantly on remittances. TPS will enable Haitian immigrants to contribute to the country's recovery by sending their earnings to support their families and communities in Haiti. However, Haiti still has a long way to go, and the recovery will involve not only short-term relief work or U.S. military presence, but an international commitment to long-term development.

The Department of Homeland Security also instituted a humanitarian parole policy for certain Haitian orphans. This policy will allow certain orphans to temporarily enter the United States to receive medical care. While individuals will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the only eligible orphans are those in the process of being adopted by U.S. citizens.

While this is another small but welcome step, it stands in stark contrast to the broader message that the U.S. government is sending to the people of Haiti, which is: Don't try to come to the United States. Every day, a U.S. Air Force cargo plane has been flying over Haiti for five hours transmitting this message from Haiti's ambassador in Washington. Officials say they fear that Haitians will take to boats and cause a refugee crisis in Florida. However, with fuel prices in Haiti rising to astronomical levels and all efforts desperately needed for aid distribution, these daily five-hour flights are not the best use of U.S. personnel and resources at this critical time.

In other news, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that it will close the Varick St detention center in Manhattan and transfer immigrant detainees to another facility with outdoor recreation and visitation services. The agency is portraying this move as part of its broader overhaul of the U.S. immigration detention system. However, immigration attorneys and activists have significant concerns. Detainees will be moved to the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a county jail an hour away from Manhattan. These transfers will make it much more challenging for families and lawyers to visit detainees. In addition, attorneys and activists have recently drawn attention to misconduct and poor conditions at Varick St. Instead of fixing these problems, the administration has decided to transfer the detainees to a more remote location. Constant transfers and an ongoing reliance on county jails are no substitute for case-by-case reviews of whether immigrants need to be detained in the first place.

Finally, I'll leave you with a brief update on comprehensive immigration reform. On Friday, Politico ran an article describing how legislation on immigration and climate change are competing for space this spring. Senator Schumer (NY), who is writing a bipartisan bill on immigration reform, and Senator Kerry (MA), who is the lead negotiator on climate change, are both trying to push forward their issues. Both are in conversation with Senator Graham (SC) to try to gain his support. While both of these issues are hard to take up in an election year, the immigration advocacy community continues to insist that the time of waiting is over -- the immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed so that immigrants can live with dignity.

Wonderful News! U.S. Grants Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in United States

2010-01-15T17:35:00.003-05:00

Wonderful news! Just a few moments ago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that Haiti has been designated for Temporary Protected Status! Haitians already in the United States will be able to stay and work in this country while Haiti recovers from Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

We don't have an official press release yet, but the Washington Post announced the following:

The Obama administration announced Friday that it will allow an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally to stay and work in the country for 18 months as part of its response to Tuesday's earthquake, but warned Haitians that leaving the country now "will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation."

Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the decision to grant Temporary Protected Status to illegal immigrants from Haiti who were living in the United States as of January 12 was a gesture of compassion and an attempt to ensure that the flow of remittances and economic support to their devastated homeland continue.

"This is a disaster of historic proportions," Napolitano said in a 5 p.m. conference call, "Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be ended by returning to Haiti as part of this administration continue effort to support Haiti's recovery."

However, Napolitano coupled that message with a caution to Haitians now seeking refuge outside their country. While she declined to specify the consequences for those caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally, she said, "At this moment of tragedy in Haiti, it is tempting for people suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake to seek refuge elsewhere, but attempting to leave Haiti now will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation."

Today, FCNL, working with the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, submitted an interfaith letter to President Obama and Secretary Napolitano urging the administration to immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in the United States. We are thrilled to learn that the administration has done so and we hope that every effort will be made to streamline the registration process for Haitian immigrants as they apply for TPS.

Update on Haiti: ICE Halts Deportations of Haitians For Now, TPS Still Not Granted

2010-01-14T13:41:00.004-05:00

The United States and the international community continue to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake that struck on Tuesday evening. As a complement to the comprehensive relief and development efforts, the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has announced that it will temporarily halt all deportations to Haiti. While this announcement comes as welcome news, it does not mean that the Obama administration has granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants.

By granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the United States, the U.S. government would not only halt all deportations of Haitians from the United States to Haiti, but would also allow Haitian immigrants to obtain work permits. TPS would enable Haitian immigrants to better support their families and communities as they anxiously wait for the situation in Haiti to stabilize.

TPS is a temporary immigration status that does not allow its recipients to remain in the United States permanently. Rather, it protects people who cannot safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflicts, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary circumstances. For more on TPS, see the USCIS website. There are currently 30,000 Haitians in the United States facing deportation to Haiti, who would immediately benefit from TPS.

In order to protect Haitians already in the United States and allow the Haitian government to focus its limited resources on providing emergency care to its suffering people, the Obama administration should act immediately to grant TPS to Haitians. Contact President Obama to urge the U.S. government to immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants.

Take Action on Haiti: Stop Deportations

2010-01-13T17:08:00.002-05:00

The United States and the world community are mobilizing to respond to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday. That quake reportedly has killed upwards of 100,000 people and destroyed large parts of the country. All of us will be looking for ways to support those organizations working on the ground in Haiti to respond to this tragedy. Work in Haiti will not be enough, though.

Here in the United States, the administration should also immediately act to halt its deportation of Haitians, release those Haitians currently in detention centers, and give them a way to survive temporarily in this country. The administration can do this by granting Haitians in this country Temporary Protected Status, which would halt deportations and permit Haitians already in the United States to live and work here.

Because of the economic crisis in Haiti, FCNL has been lobbying for nearly a year for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians here in the United States. Now the need is even more urgent.

Take Action

Please send a letter to President Obama and send copies to your representative urging the U.S. government to immediately act to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants. Encourage three friends to take action as well.

More Resources

Find out more and see updates here, on our immigration blog.

FCNL's Program Assistant Stephen Donahoe has posted links to groups providing on-the-ground assistance to people in Haiti.

Devastating Quake Strikes Haiti, Time To Grant Haitians Temporary Protected Status

2010-01-13T10:47:00.008-05:00

There is no better time than now for the Obama administration to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the United States. On Tuesday just before 5 pm, a massive earthquake struck Haiti, leaving thousands dead and many more without basic resources. The epicenter of the earthquake was only 10 miles from the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, where buildings and shantytowns collapsed and the ground continues to shake from aftershocks. An estimated 3 million people are in need of relief, yet international relief efforts are hampered by blocked roads, a lack of electricity, and damage to communications infrastructure.

Now is not the time to deport Haitians from the United States.

Haiti, which had recently suffered the blows of four hurricanes and was still working to rebuild from those storms, has not seen an earthquake of this magnitude in two hundred years. As international aid flows in, the country will begin efforts to stabilize from this environmental disaster and provide basic support to its population. Deporting Haitians from the United States now would only deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The Obama administration should act swiftly to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status, which would halt deportations and permit Haitians already in the United States to live and work here as Haiti responds to this devastating earthquake. Granting TPS would allow the Haitian government to invest its limited resources into rebuilding damaged infrastructure and offering emergency relief to its suffering people.

FCNL has been advocating for nearly a year for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, as part of our ongoing efforts to fix the broken immigration system. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 would allow Haitians, along with other undocumented immigrants, to step out of the shadows and legalize their status. Humane immigration reform would enable Haitians in the United States to better support their families and communities in this time of need.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2010-01-11T09:15:00.004-05:00

Welcome back to your local source for immigration news and updates! Since the holiday break, there's been a lot to report so grab your cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy. Here is your news from Monday, January 4 to Monday, January 11. Happy reading!

It's been a mixed bag this week for the Department of Homeland Security. Starting on January 4, 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) changed its policies on asylum-seekers. People who enter the United States and demonstrate a credible fear of persecution or torture will now be automatically considered for parole, instead of detention. Holding asylum-seekers for months or even years in jail-like detention facilities has been proven to aggravate post-traumatic stress disorder, so this policy change is an important step in the direction of reducing our nation's dependence on detention.

However, the New York Times and ACLU have revealed a shocking story in which immigration officials had actively tried to cover up details about some of the 107 deaths in immigration detention since October 2003. Records show that one detainee was held in isolation for 13 hours with a head injury before treatment was sought, and another was deprived of prescription painkillers for a broken leg. Both died, yet the agency's main concern was apparently not how to prevent their deaths but how to avoid unwanted publicity. See this video from the New York Times for details.

The inhumane treatment of immigrant detainees indicates the real and urgent need for immigration reform. Rep. Luis Gutierrez's has introduced the CIR ASAP Act of 2009, a bill that would reform the immigration system to keep families together, protect workers' rights, and promote immigrants' human and civil rights. FCNL urges you to contact your representative and ask them to cosponsor this bill. This bill offers practical solutions for the broken immigration system, which will hopefully be incorporated into the final immigration bill passed by Congress.

The Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress have introduced a new report, which finds that legalizing undocumented immigrants through comprehensive immigration reform would yield $1.5 trillion for the U.S. economy over the next 10 years. While some are understandably hesitant about reforming the immigration system during a recession, this report indicates that immigration reform would actually help promote economic growth. Immigrant workers would be better positioned to contribute to the economy, and the U.S. government could direct resources away from enforcement and towards the public's urgent needs. For more information, check out the Immigration Policy Center's top 10 resources of 2009.

In fiscal year 2009, the number of federal prosecutions reached an all-time high, due in large part to a flood of immigration prosecutions. Immigration prosecutions started climbing after the 1996 immigration laws were passed, and then prosecutions skyrocketed under the Bush administration. Now, immigration prosecutions make up 54% of federal filings. If immigrants had reasonable legal avenues to come to the United States and integrate into their communities, then the government wouldn't have to devote so many resources to these prosecutions.

Four immigrant students are taking a bold step - several thousands of bold steps, as a matter of fact. These students have embarked on the Trail of Dreams, a 1,500-mile walk from Florida to Washington, DC. Their goal is to promote the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students who came to the United States as children to pursue an accelerated path to legal status and eventual citizenship. To support them on their journey, visit the Trail of Dreams website.

I'll leave you with a surprising tidbit: a clip of Lou Dobbs on the Bill O'Reilly show. If you listen carefully and brush past their anti-immigration rhetoric, you'll find that they're actually stating their support for a workable, non-punitive legalization program. They also support family members joining their loved ones in the United States through the legal visa system. Who knew these two could be so liberal?

Immigrant Students, Risking Detention, Boldly Set Out on Trail of Dreams

2010-01-08T10:01:00.006-05:00

Photo courtesy of Students Working For Equal Rights

Sometimes, when the world will not listen, when the insistent voices calling out for immigration reform go unheard, a few brave souls must take it upon themselves to lay out the path toward justice and equality. Enduring personal suffering for the sake of what's right, these individuals urge us all to be our best selves and reach out to one another in solidarity.

Felipe, Gaby, Juan, and Carlos are today's brave souls. These four immigrant students have taken it upon themselves to march from Florida to Washington, DC, in support of the DREAM Act. Following the Trail of Dreams will take them four months and 1,500 miles in search of justice and equality for America's immigrants.

Their mission: To empower Americans to unite in solidarity for the passage of just and humane immigration reform.

Sleeping in churches and immigration centers, these students risk more than blisters and sore feet during their journey. Three of the four are undocumented and could be detained and deported for stepping out of the shadows. However, as Juan says, "I'm tired of coming back to school each semester and hearing about another friend who was picked up and deported." For these students, it's time to hit the pavement and march for reform.

Yet they are not alone: Supporters are welcome to join the walkers on the trail, shelter them or organize events, and sponsor them as they seek to reach DC. The media, including the Associated Press, has already picked up on their ambitious actions. The Reform Immigration FOR America campaign will join the students on May 1, when they plan to arrive in DC, to hold a rally for comprehensive immigration reform.

Many of today's undocumented youth, including the walkers, were brought to the United States as young children. Their memories are of growing up in the United States, going to school here, building a life here. Yet every day they face invisible barriers - they cannot get drivers licenses, in-state tuition, or meaningful employment. The DREAM Act would offer an accelerated path to legal status and eventual citizenship for undocumented youth who pursue higher education or military service.

How can you embark on the Trail of Dreams? Follow the walkers' blog and spread the word. Support them on the trail. Plan to be in Washington, DC, on May 1 to be one of the 100,000 people at the rally. Finally, show your support for the DREAM Act by urging your members of Congress to support comprehensive immigration reform.

TAKE ACTION: Urge Your Rep. To Support Humane and Fair Immigration Reform

2010-01-04T09:58:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! The turn of the year carries with it a new reason for hope - the chance for Congress to make good on its promise to humanely reform the broken immigration system. With the new year comes new opportunities for us to recommit ourselves to the struggle for justice.

On December 15, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL) and 91 original cosponsors unveiled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (H.R. 4321), which proposes reforms for the broken immigration system. The bill would promote family unity, bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, and uphold immigrants' human and civil rights.

Now it's your turn to act. Send a message to Congress urging your representative to support humane and fair immigration reform. Together we can make 2010 the year that Congress reforms the broken immigration system that disrupts the lives of so many each day.

Looking for more information? Take a look at FCNL's easy-to-read table outlining our position on the bill, or read our press release and blog post about the press conference announcing the bill. For the full text of the bill, click here. And don't forget to contact one or two friends and ask them to send their own letters of support!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-18T16:20:00.002-05:00

Just a brief update: To celebrate the holiday season, I will be visiting family and friends between now and January 3. I look forward to sharing more news, stories, and analysis on immigration reform when I return! Enjoy the holiday break!

Broadening the Scope of Our Vision

2009-12-17T16:43:00.001-05:00

This reflection was written by Mike Huber, an FCNL constituent, in response to FCNL's Annual Meeting 2009 and the approval of an epistle encouraging Quakers to engage with American Muslims:

I see a connection between FCNL's outreach to American Muslims and the work FCNL is doing on immigration reform. After September 11, our nation has become preoccupied with the story of foreigners penetrating the security of our borders. We've become increasingly fearful of the "other." Our policies have emerged from this place of fear. We need to broaden the scope of our vision. We need to hear about the experience of our Muslim neighbors. We need to hear about the experience of Mexican, Filipino, Indian and Chinese immigrants. We need to hear about children and families. Once we know these stories, we will find our way to new policies.

New Book on Immigration Offers Compelling Coming-of-Age Story

2009-12-16T15:39:00.002-05:00

Helen Thorpe, an FCNL supporter from Denver, CO, has just published a wonderful new book, Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America. This compelling story is an excellent resource for local faith organizations, book clubs, and discussion groups, especially in areas where the community is struggling with cultural barriers or hate groups.

FCNL's Executive Secretary, Joe Volk, sees a lot to like in Thorpe's remarkable ability to portray the human side of the broken immigration system. By telling the story of four young women facing diverse barriers to integration and acceptance in the United States, Thorpe urges readers to reconsider the definition of who may be considered "American." Click here to read Joe Volk's blog post on Just Like Us.

Just Like Us has been chosen as one of the Five Best Books in the West of 2009 by New West and selected for the Washington Post's Holiday Guide: Best Books of 2009. The book is available in stores and on Amazon and Borders. Enjoy and please share the word!

Rep. Gutierrez Introduces Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009

2009-12-15T15:33:00.004-05:00

Today, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL) and 87 original cosponsors introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009. This progressive comprehensive immigration reform bill identifies a number of workable solutions to humanely reform the broken immigration system. It is the first comprehensive immigration reform bill to be introduced this Congress.

I attended the press conference for the introduction of the bill and, let me tell you, the room was packed. Members of Congress, Congressional staff, members of the press, immigration advocates, faith leaders, and immigrants of all backgrounds crowded into the room, cheering "Yes we can!" The energy was fantastic. While a lot of work remains for us to achieve humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform, Rep. Gutierrez's bill offers important elements of reform.

Rep. Gutierrez described his bill as pro-family, pro-jobs, and pro-security. He said, "We've waited long enough. We've turned the other cheek... Now with this bill let's end the blame game and turn our immigrants into Americans." All the members of Congress who spoke echoed the sentiment that now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform.

Rep. Velazquez, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said, "I am standing here so proudly. I have never been so proud in my eighteen years in Congress. Never." She, like Rep. Gutierrez, believes that comprehensive immigration reform is urgently needed, saying, "There's no wrong or right time. There is a moral obligation."

Rep. Crowley, who along with 110 representatives sent a letter to President Obama earlier this year calling for immigration reform, spoke strongly about the need to restore the rights and dignity of all immigrants. He said, "End illegal immigration. Secure our borders. But don't dismiss for a moment the issue of dignity, the dignity of humankind."

FCNL congratulates Representative Gutierrez and the 87 original cosponsors of CIR ASAP for advancing the conversation on comprehensive immigration reform. We look forward to working with Representative Gutierrez and other members of Congress to achieve humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform in 2010.

CIR ASAP is endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Its original cosponsors include members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. For more information on the content of CIR ASAP, check out this section-by-section summary by the Immigration Policy Center.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2009-12-14T16:07:00.003-05:00

Here it is, your immigration news from Monday, December 7 to Monday, December 14!

Very exciting news! Tomorrow, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL) will introduce his progressive comprehensive immigration reform bill, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP). In a press statement released today, Representative Gutierrez said: "We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President. The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year. It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain —mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says 'enough,' and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of." FCNL congratulates Representative Gutierrez on his bill and looks forward to working with him and other members of Congress toward humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform in 2010. Read this op-ed to learn why immigration reform is the "right stuff."

The introduction of Representative Gutierrez's bill comes at an important time, on the heels of a major raid in California that serves as a reminder of the urgent need for immigration reform. Nearly 300 immigrants were detained in this three-day raid and at least 100 have already been removed from the country. Meanwhile, advocates in New Jersey have been working tirelessly to keep Indonesian Christians in their community out of detention and state employees in Arizona are struggling to provide public services under new state requirements to report undocumented immigrants to ICE.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding an important hearing on December 16, "The Law of the Land: U.S. Implementation of Human Rights Treaties." This hearing, the first of its kind, will examine how the United States can fulfill its international obligations under human rights law. FCNL has submitted a statement for the record about our concerns regarding arbitrary and indefinite detention as well as the need for due process protections for detained immigrants.

An op-ed in the New York Times calls for "Coverage Without Borders," addressing the issue of access to health care for immigrants in the United States. A key quote: "It certainly does not help Americans as a whole to remain healthy when millions of people, including schoolchildren, cannot get basic preventive care like immunizations and medications." The Senate is expected to finish debating the health care bill by the end of the month and - hopefully - the final version of the bill will remove the 5-year bar on Medicaid for green card holders.

Undocumented students are speaking out in unison about the need for immigration reform. In this remarkable story, students who may risk deportation by identifying themselves are coming out en masse in support of the DREAM Act, a bill that would put eligible undocumented students on a fast track to legal status and eventual citizenship. Carlos Roa, from Venezuela, says: “The undocumented youth are losing our fear of being undocumented. I’m public with this. I’m not hiding anymore.”

Why do we need comprehensive immigration reform in a recession? Well, the Boston Globe says, more immigrants are leaping into business ownership now than ever. Immigrant-owned businesses create millions of jobs in the United States each year. Check out FCNL's new document, "Immigration Reform is Key to Economic Recovery," for more information.

I'll leave you with an incredible story by the Washington Post on how second-generation immigrants struggle to find their footing in communities in which they are only partially integrated. Another Washington Post article points out that the children of undocumented immigrants are twice as likely as others to live in poverty. Comprehensive immigration reform would permit families, such as those featured in this article, to fully integrate into the community and contribute more robustly to the U.S. economy.

In Commemoration of Human Rights Day 2009: Immigrants Have Rights Too... Right?

2009-12-07T13:51:00.015-05:00

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948

If you don't have your health, then almost nothing else matters. From the smallest of injuries to grave illnesses, poor health disrupts daily life and can threaten your livelihood or even your survival. What so many of us take for granted - a healthy body, access to health care, and an environment conducive to good health - remains inaccessible for many of today's immigrants.

This Thursday, December 10, is Human Rights Day, which commemorates the 61st anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This year, as health care reform advances in Congress and immigration reform is around the corner, let's take a moment to consider whether immigrants deserve to be in good health.

This should seem like a no-brainer, right? Of course immigrants deserve to be healthy, just like everyone else. But this notion, that people have rights based on their common humanity, is actually not yet well accepted in the United States. It is time for the U.S. government to recognize that the right to health is an essential and basic human right.

Immigrants face multiple barriers to good health. Conflicts abroad can force them from their homelands, sending them on a circuitous journey across national borders with few resources. Environmental destruction can dry up wells, destroy crops, and send people out in search of a better life. Economic disparities and governmental policies can deny immigrants and other marginalized populations access to basic health care even when it is widely available to the rest of the population.

The premise of human rights like the right to health is that people deserve to live with a certain level of dignity, and if they are unable to achieve that on their own, then their government will step in and help them out. Human rights law is a way of holding governments responsible to their people.

International human rights law clearly supports health as a human right. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights both state that all peoples have the right to a standard of living that promotes physical and mental health and well-being. In addition, the United States, as a signatory to the Charter of the Organization of American States, is committed to development efforts that promote a healthful life for all.

But how do these international commitments translate on the ground?

If the state of the current health reform legislation is any indicator, then the United States has a long way to go in ensuring that all of its residents - including immigrants - have access to adequate health care. Even with the upcoming reforms, immigrants face significant and unfair restrictions. Undocumented immigrants may not be able to buy coverage in the health insurance exchange even with their own money. Immigrants with green cards, who are in the country legally, would still face a 5-year ban for Medicaid.

From a public health standpoint, it just makes sense to want as many people as possible to have good access to health care. Healthy people make for healthy and productive communities. This is a common-sense solution to a shared problem. From a human rights standpoint, immigrants deserve health care coverage just as much as anyone else.

But the broken U.S. immigration system prevents immigrants from demanding their rights. Undocumented immigrants, unable to adjust their legal status, are particularly at risk of human rights abuses.

One of the most prominent sites of human rights abuses is the immigration detention system. The Department of Homeland Security will detain more than 440,000 immigrants annually by the end of 2009. Most of these immigrants are non-criminal and are suspected only of immigration violations, yet they are detained in jail-like settings and routinely denied access to basic and timely health care. Cases have been documented in which regularly taken medication was withheld, follow-up treatment for cancer was denied, and sick call requests were ignored. At least 104 immigrants have died in detention since 2003. This is unacceptable.

Just about everyone agrees that the U.S. immigration system is broken and needs fixing. Immigrants and their families need workable solutions that make it possible to live with dignity, in a way that is consistent with this country's values of equality and opportunity. Health is an essential part of this equation.

In honor of Human Rights Day and in recognition of health as a human right, Congress should include immigrants in the final health reform bill and work toward passing humane and comprehensive immigration reform in early 2010.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2009-12-07T09:30:00.002-05:00

Even though you may not have heard much about immigration policy in this past week's news, the broken immigration system continues to negatively affect communities across the country. Take a look at the news on immigration from Monday, November 30 to Monday, December 7.

Immigration news made it to the front page of the New York Times! Human Rights Watch and the Constitution Project have released reports on how immigrant detainees are denied their fair day in court due, in part, to frequent and unnecessary transfers to remote detention facilities. Another new report finds that the number of immigrants in detention has more than doubled since 1999. In fiscal year 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 369, 483 immigrants. Most of these immigrants are non-criminal and do not pose a risk to society - they are only held for immigration violations. Still, immigrant detainees are held for months or even years in jail-like settings with limited contact with attorneys and families.

Here's a paradox: The Department of Homeland Security is detaining refugees for failing to apply for permanent residence within a year - but the law requires refugees to wait a year before applying! As AlterNet points out, "In essence, ICE detains refugees for not doing what the law bars them from doing." Back in September, President Obama authorized the entrance of 80,000 refugees annually. Refugees, fleeing persecution abroad, have historically been welcomed into the United States. The U.S. government should take immediate steps to stop DHS from manipulating the broken immigration system as a tool with which to punish vulnerable refugees.

A border activist in Arizona is threatened with jail time for not complying with his sentence on leaving water jugs on a wildlife reserve. Walt Staton was originally convicted of littering for placing water jugs out for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He has so far refused to comply with orders to do community service, saying that humanitarian aid is not a crime.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security continues to expand border militarization. This time it's through virtual fence technology. The project, known as SBInet, would place cameras, sensors, and radar along hundreds of miles of the border. Initially plagued by delays and unforeseen costs, the project currently only exists in small segments of the border with Arizona and would not be fully implemented until 2014.

The Boston Herald reports that Pedro Tavarez, a 49-year-old Dominican immigrant who died in October while in a Massachusetts detention center, had gone into cardiac arrest and therefore died of natural causes. Tavarez's loved ones remain skeptical and hope for further investigation into the cause of death. Most immigrants held in detention centers lack access to basic health care.

Think that immigration has nothing to do with you? Think again. All residents of New Mexico may soon be required to carry passports in order to fly on a plane. These requirements come as part of the Real ID Act, an identity verification bill left over from the Bush administration. Some states have passed laws exempting them from complying with Real ID but New Mexico isn't one of them - and all its residents, including U.S. citizens, may soon face the consequences.

In the Houston Chronicle, the Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr. calls on us to follow Martin Luther King Jr.'s guidance on immigration reform. He recognizes the value of justice for all, saying, "King's vision provides a helpful tool with which to view the immigration struggle today." He points out that today's broken immigration system makes it nearly impossible for immigrants to enter the United States legally. Rather than perpetuating a broken system driven by fear, he envisions a world in which each person's humanity is valued and immigrants are welcomed into U.S. communities.

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, a known anti-immigrant group, has withdrawn its support for Lou Dobbs (who recently left CNN). ALIPAC says that it is concerned that Dobbs supports a pathway to legal status and eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Dobbs has talked in the media about a possible run for president in 2012 and may be trying to soften his message and reach out to the Latino community for votes, but for the moment it looks as though neither side is interested in having him on board.

I'll leave you with an excellent video making the case for open borders, which I found on the blog I am a shadow. If you haven't read this blog yet, I recommend you do - the author is an undocumented university student sharing his daily lived experiences.

New Reports on Detainee Transfers Outline Chaotic System and Due Process Challenges

2009-12-03T10:55:00.002-05:00

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just released a new report, "Locked Up Far Away: The Transfer of Immigrants to Remote Detention Centers in the United States." This report details the plight of immigrant detainees whose basic rights, including access to legal representation, are compromised due to frequent transfers to detention facilities in remote parts of the country. In HRW's press release, Alison Parker (the report's author and the organization's deputy U.S. director) says, "ICE is increasingly subjecting detainees to a chaotic game of musical chairs... And it's a game with dire consequences since it may keep them from finding an attorney or presenting evidence in their defense."

According to the report:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has so far rejected efforts to place enforceable standards on detainee transfers.
Detainee transfers are becoming increasingly common, more than doubling from 2003 (122,783) to 2007 (261,941). Transfers have significant adverse effects on detainees' access to legal counsel and families, ultimately leading to wrongful deportations.
HRW recommends that ICE should: centralize control of its facilities, instead of continuing to rely on subcontracted facilities such as local jails; turn to alternatives to detention as often as possible; work with the Executive Office for Immigration Review to improve detainees' access to attorneys; and revise current guidelines to prohibit transfers except when necessary under specific conditions.

Research for this report was conducted in collaboration with Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University, which has released its own report as well. TRAC also has made public a new and highly useful resource that can generate reports on transfer records for specific immigration detention facilities.

In addition, the Constitution Project has released its own report detailing immigration detention conditions and the need to improve access to legal counsel, called "Recommendations for Reforming Our Immigration Detention System and Promoting Access to Counsel in Immigration Proceedings". This document offers an overview of and recommendations regarding certain aspects of detention reform.

All of these reports come at an important time: The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security has also just released a report on detainee transfers. "Immigration and Customs Enforcement Policies and Procedures Related to Detainee Transfers" seeks to determine whether ICE detention officers properly justify detainee transfers according to ICE's standards. The report finds that ICE needs to create a national standard on detainee transfers because the current process is inconsistent causing errors, delays, and confusion.

Ultimately, detainee transfers cause hardship for immigrants caught up in the broken immigration system. Transfered to remote facilities away from their families and lawyers, with few ways to communicate with their loved ones and gather materials to argue their case, immigrant detainees face tremendous odds. Moreover, the majority of immigrant detainees are non-criminal yet they are held in jail-like settings and do not have the right to a government-paid lawyer. Comprehensive immigration reform, including detention reform, is desperately needed to restore justice to the U.S. immigration system.

UNHCR Sees 'Positive Development' in U.S. Pursuit of Alternatives to Detention

2009-12-01T11:30:00.004-05:00

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, commends the United States government for developing alternatives to detention for immigrants and asylum-seekers, most of whom are currently detained in jail-like settings as their cases are processed. Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller, who was briefed by ICE during her visit to the States, called the newest phase of the administration's alternatives to detention program a "positive development."

Although the current immigration enforcement system favors detention as a default, ICE has developed an alternative program known by its acronym ISAP. Earlier iterations of the program were very restrictive, requiring most participants to wear ankle bracelets with GPS tracking. The current version, known as ISAP II, is less restrictive and permits participants to remain at home while meeting regularly with staff for check-ins.

Erika Feller's visit is one piece of the early phase of efforts, on the part of UNHCR, to determine which alternative to detention program is most favorable for asylum-seekers. ICE, for its part, is in the process of working toward expanding its alternative to detention program on the national level. At FCNL, we see this as a positive step toward the ultimate goal of reducing the number of people held in immigration detention centers in the United States.

Most immigrants held in detention centers, including asylum-seekers, are non-criminal and do not present a security or flight risk. Detention is an overly restrictive measure for these populations. At FCNL, we say that there's a better way: alternatives to detention.

FCNL supports alternatives to detention, binding detention standards, and due process protections for detained immigrants. We encourage the administration to establish a presumption against detention by creating real nation-wide community-based alternatives to detention. For more information on alternatives to detention, read our blog series "Stories from Detention."

In Our Community: Immigration News

2009-11-30T09:47:00.002-05:00

Not too much to report this week on immigration, since Thanksgiving has been the first order of business for most. I think I can keep you busy for at least half an hour though. Take a moment to read the news on immigration from Monday, November 23 to Monday, November 30.

If you only read one article this week, it should be the Boston Globe editorial, "Where Conservatives Have It Wrong," which discusses how undocumented immigrants actually embrace the can-do spirit that has characterized the United States since its inception. Jeff Jacoby argues that conservatives should recognize that the broken immigration system itself impedes undocumented immigrants from adhering to the law. In calling for comprehensive immigration reform, he writes, "Those immigrants didn’t come here in order to be lawbreakers; they broke a law in order to come here."

The New York Times also has an editorial on immigration, but this one is on the criminalization of immigrants. The newspaper calls out Secretary Janet Napolitano for providing some misleading information on community enforcement actions in her recent speech at the Center for American Progress. Racial profiling has no place in immigration enforcement, yet ICE's Secure Communities program runs the risk of harming innocent immigrants in the name of fighting crime. A key quote: "Laws must be enforced, but doing it this way hurts the innocent, creating a short line from Hispanic to immigrant to illegal to criminal."

Georgia Detention Watch just held a rally, vigil, and funeral procession on November 20, in memory of Roberto Martinez Medina, a 39-year-old man detained at the Stewart detention facility who died back in March of a treatable heart infection. For more information on deplorable detention conditions and what you can do about it, read our blog series, "Stories from Detention." You can also watch a video of the Georgia events here:

Communities around the country continue to speak out, saying that now is the time for immigration reform, and the Associated Press has noticed unprecedented levels of diversity among immigration advocacy groups. Not only Latino immigrant-based organizations, but Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, the NAACP, Caribbean-Americans, faith groups, LGBT advocacy groups, and others are coming together in the quest for reform. By finding solidarity in their quest for equality and justice in immigration reform, advocacy groups of diverse backgrounds and origins are coming together for change.

Need Something to Read for Thanksgiving?

2009-11-25T09:03:00.002-05:00

If you're traveling for Thanksgiving, you're probably looking for something to read to while away the hours on the train or the bus. Luckily for you, Helen Thorpe, a journalist from Colorado and a long-time FCNL supporter, has just published a new book! "Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America" is a fast-paced piece of narrative journalism that examines questions of identity, nationality, and gender in a world where equal opportunity is called into question.

Thorpe, the wife of Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, masterfully personalizes the immigration debate by documenting the lived experiences of four young Mexican women growing up in Denver, CO. One is a U.S. citizen, another a green card holder, and two are undocumented. The story opens on the eve of their prom and follows the girls through four challenging years. Each desires to pursue her ambitions but some are thwarted by their immigration status.

Then, a high-profile murder - of a police officer by an undocumented immigrant - rocks the Denver community. Thorpe, her husband, and the four young women must struggle to deal with the aftermath.

Publishers Weekly writes, "Thorpe chronicles the girls' lives over four years, delineating the small but arresting differences that will separate them and shape their futures." The Denver Post reports, "Thorpe — a naturalized citizen originally from London — raises huge questions while simultaneously offering an uncommon insider's look at the ramifications of citizenship for communities coping with the issue."

Click here to listen to a podcast of Helen Thorpe discussing the book.

If anything, you should read this book because it takes a close and compassionate look at what it really means to live day to day without citizenship, which so many take for granted. In a world in which people are increasingly willing to adopt an exclusionary definition of what it means to be American, this book will encourage you to reconsider your outlook on immigration.

In Our Community: Immigration News

2009-11-23T09:17:00.003-05:00

As we prepare for Thanksgiving and gather our loved ones close, let's look forward to a new season in which all families, including immigrant families, can stay together. Immigration reform could be around the corner, but only if momentum keeps building. Take a look at the news on immigration from Monday, November 16 to Monday, November 23. Happy reading!

The Senate has started its final debate on the health care reform bill, which it hopes to pass before the turn of the year. However, the Senate version of the bill restricts health care for immigrants in ways that the House version does not. The House version allows undocumented immigrants to use their own money to buy into the health insurance exchange, if their employers do not cover them. The Senate version does not have this option. Neither would permit undocumented immigrants to receive federal subsidies on their insurance. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are upset at the Obama administration for supporting these restrictions - which reduce access to health care - and they're not afraid to voice their frustrations. Meanwhile, undocumented immigrants with life-threatening conditions are being turned away by public hospitals that can no longer afford to serve them.

The Reform Immigration FOR America campaign organized a telephonic town hall with Representative Luis Gutierrez last Wednesday and it was a huge success! Representative Gutierrez was joined by Representatives Nydia Velazquez and Raul Grijalva on a conference call with thousands of people across the country. Rep. Gutierrez restated his commitment to passing humane immigration reform this Congress. He plans to introduce his progressive bill on comprehensive immigration reform this December. Click here to listen to a recording of the campaign's conference call.

The economic recovery hasn't advanced as far as anyone would like and immigrants - just like everyone else - are feeling the pinch. The Migration Policy Institute's new report actually suggests that many immigrant workers have been affected more deeply by the recession than native-born workers. Labor unions have been speaking out in favor of immigration reform, recognizing that improving working conditions for immigrant and low-wage workers will benefit everyone in the long run.

One component of immigration reform that would support workers' rights and economic growth is the creation of a reasonable pathway to legal status and eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants. However, rising application fees may soon stand in the way of those seeking to come out of the shadows. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is experiencing a major budget shortfall and may increase application fees - again - in order to cover costs. Since 2007, a green card application has cost more than $1000 and a citizenship application costs $595. If fees rise again, many immigrants will be unable to overcome this barrier as they seek to integrate more fully into U.S. society by regularizing their legal status.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced plans to audit 1,000 more companies suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants. Following the dismissal of 1,200 janitors in Minnesota in what the Minnesota Public Radio called a 'quiet' immigration raid, this announcement by ICE points to a new enforcement trend. Comprehensive immigration reform would enable undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, ensure that their rights as workers are protected, and reduce incentives for disingenuous employers to exploit their workers. Let's be proactive by reforming the system, instead of ramping up enforcement.

The New York Times has published an excellent editorial on how children in immigrant families are suffering under the current broken immigration system. These children often endure long separations from one or both parents. These separations damage children psychologically, drive them into poverty, and negatively affect their academic performance. They are not well-supported by the current system, as they try to integrate into U.S. society. This is not an issue "out there" but one right at the doorstep. The United States is built on immigration, and the U.S. government would be doing a tremendous disservice to society as a whole by failing to integrate immigrant children into mainstream society.

There's a Better Way: Alternatives to Detention

2009-11-20T10:17:00.004-05:00

Stories from Detention - Week 6

Creating alternatives to detention would be a bold step in fixing this country's broken immigration system. Before we get into alternatives, let's take a brief look back to see what we've learned so far.

We've learned that immigration is a human rights issue. Protecting the human rights of all immigrants, including those held in detention centers, is critical in order to restore the credibility of the U.S. immigration system.

We've learned that lacking the proper documentation is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Even so, undocumented immigrants are being treated as if they were criminals - they are detained in detention centers across the country and deported at times without ever appearing before a judge. These immigrants deserve better.

We've learned that the conditions in detention facilities are substandard and that members of vulnerable populations are not sufficiently protected. While these conditions need to be improved, ultimately the number of people held in immigration detention centers must be reduced.

This final post will discuss humane and cost-effective alternatives to detention.

Before we dive into the details, let's watch a video from Human Rights First about the need for alternatives to detention for asylum seekers. Then we'll take a look at what it will take to create a nation-wide system of alternatives that works for everyone.

In order to move toward a more humane approach to immigration enforcement, the U.S. government should develop alternatives to detention in a systematic way. Currently, some alternatives exist here and there, but much more could be done to create humane alternatives on a national scale. A systematic approach to reform will ensure that all immigrants are treated equally.

What would humane alternatives to detention look like?

The first step in creating nation-wide alternatives to detention is establishing a standardized assessment. When each individual detainee is apprehended, ICE would conduct an assessment that would examine the detainee's risks and needs. Questions on risks would establish whether the detainee could be considered a flight risk or a threat to public safety. Questions on needs would determine whether the detainee belongs to a vulnerable population, whether they have a claim to citizenship or legal status, whether they need medical care, and so on.

By conducting this assessment, ICE would have a much better sense of who exactly is in its custody. The agency would then be well-positioned to consider whether detention is appropriate for each individual.

The next step would be to determine whether it makes sense to detain each individual. We're not talking about an either-or proposition here, as if either a person is detained or released. Instead, we're talking about creating a continuum of different alternative-to-detention options.

ICE would use its risk and needs assessment to determine which option is most suitable for each detainee. That way, ICE would treat each detainee individually instead of using the current one-size-fits-all approach in which detention is the default.

In this continuum, detention would be a last resort.

Let's start by looking at the least restrictive end of the continuum. At the far end, immigrant detainees who are non-criminal and do not pose a risk to society could be released on parole. They would be expected to appear to their court dates on their own. Others could be released into community-based or faith-based programs, where they would receive support as their cases proceed. Others could be enrolled in alternative-to-detention programs that would include regular check-ins with an officer or telephonic reporting. These would be the non-custodial alternatives to detention.

The more restrictive options in the continuum would be alternative forms of detention (as opposed to alternatives to detention). The most common of these forms is electronic monitoring, through ankle bracelets. Detainees in these programs could also be expected to check in regularly or adhere to a curfew. Then, moving up the scale, immigrant detainees could be held in residential facilities. Finally, those who are deemed a flight risk or a threat to public safety could be held in less restrictive detention facilities or traditional detention facilities as appropriate.

Essentially, detention would no longer be the first option. It would be the last. This continuum of alternatives would ensure that detention - an extreme measure - would only be used when it is absolutely necessary.

In political parlance, such a continuum would create a presumption against detention. The burden would be on the U.S. government to prove why immigrants should be detained, instead of on those in its custody to prove why they should not be detained.

Is this continuum of alternatives to detention possible?

It is not only possible, but necessary. The current immigration detention system is inefficient, costly, and prone to human rights abuses. Creating alternatives to detention would improve this system.

Pilot programs for alternatives to detention have demonstrated high levels of compliance, in that almost all participants still showed up for their court dates and removal orders. If people feel that they're receiving due process, if they respect the system and feel that they've been heard, then they're more likely to respect the final decision on removal.

In addition, creating a nation-wide system of alternatives to detention would save money. Alternatives cost as little as $12 per person per day, while traditional detention costs, on average, $95 per person per day. Finally, alternatives would make the system fair by keeping people out of detention who don't belong there.

The ultimate goal is to safely and humanely reduce the number of immigrants in detention. Creating a continuum of alternatives to detention would be a workable solution that would fix the broken immigration enforcement system and uphold this country's commitment to justice.

So call or write your Representatives and Senators and tell them that the time for immigration reform is now. Encourage them to include humane detention and due process reforms in comprehensive immigration reform. Contact the Department of Homeland Security and tell them that the government should use its discretion to create alternatives to detention. Speak up in church, at school, or at home and tell your community about how to support workable solutions to this broken immigration detention system that disrupts the lives of so many each day.

Want to learn more, or share what you've learned with others? Check out these resources on detention and alternatives to detention.

The Detention Watch Network is an excellent resource for information on detention and due process. Click here for their alternatives to detention fact sheet. Click here for the Rights Working Group fact sheet on detention and due process.

"Jailed Without Justice" is an Amnesty International report on the immigration detention system. "Seeking Protection, Finding Prison" is a Human Rights First report on asylum seekers in detention.

Wondering whether there's a detention center near you? Click here to see a map of detention facilities around the country. Want to get some friends together and visit detainees? Read this detention visitation manual to learn how to connect your community with immigrant detainees.

To read more stories on detention, visit this website from the Detention Watch Network.

To be neutral in a situation of injustice is to have chosen sides already.

~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In Our Community: Immigration News

2009-11-16T11:27:00.002-05:00

It's been a busy week for immigration news! Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and take a look at the news on immigration from Monday, November 9 to Monday, November 16.

First, and most importantly, Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that the Obama administration remains committed to reforming the U.S. immigration system this Congress. Speaking at the Center for American Progress, Napolitano referred to immigration reform as a "three-legged stool" that "includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here." Click here for a related New York Times article and here for a video of her remarks.

Lou Dobbs, known for his incendiary remarks on CNN about undocumented immigrants, announced on Wednesday that he is leaving the network. As a New York Times editorial opines, without Dobbs CNN will return to being a more nonpartisan, less ideological source of information on immigration. Members of the Drop Dobbs campaign celebrated his departure.

Sholom Rubashkin, one of the former managers of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa that was the focus of a massive immigration raid in May 2008, has been convicted of 86 financial fraud charges. Rubashkin will likely face a prison sentence of hundreds of years - effectively a life sentence. The Postville community and the families directly affected by the raid continue to seek healing.

Washington, D.C. will become the newest city to participate in Secure Communities, an immigration enforcement program run by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Secure Communities will allow D.C. police to check the fingerprints of those held in local jails in order to identify undocumented immigrants. Those identified as undocumented immigrants by the system will then likely be placed in deportation proceedings. At FCNL, we maintain that federal immigration law should only be enforced by federal agents with the proper training and oversight.

The New York Times reported this morning that remittance flows between the United States and Mexico have actually reversed temporarily due to the economic recession. Relatives outside the United States are sending money to their family members who have recently become unemployed in this country. Remittances are an often-overlooked aspect of immigration - for many countries, the amount of money received as remittances is greater than the amount received from foreign direct investments. In these countries, remittances are often a source of economic stability.

Who, might you ask, is joining the chorus of people calling for immigration reform? The answer: The pope. Pope Benedict XVI said on November 9 that "people should not look upon immigrants as problems, but as fellow brothers and sisters who can be valuable contributors to society." He spoke on global migration patterns, development, and the unequal distribution of resources. And guess who agrees? Google's co-founder's mom has also spoken out, saying that immigrants contribute a wealth of new strengths and ideas to the U.S. economy.

The Wall Street Journal reported that, according to federal data, the number of arrests at the U.S. border has declined by more than 23% in the past year. This trend can be attributed to declining economic conditions and increased border enforcement, among other factors. However, this decline in arrests does not take away from the need to realign border enforcement with humanitarian values in a way that respects fragile environments, preserves religious sites, and integrates the concerns of border communities.

Here's something you may not have heard of in mainstream media: Last month, there was a 'quiet' immigration raid in Minnesota in which 1,200 undocumented janitors were fired from their jobs. Minnesota Public Radio reported this raid on November 9. While workplace raids have been significantly less common under the Obama administration, immigration enforcement actions like this one still force undocumented workers to stay in the shadows.

I'll leave you with a powerful op-ed written by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA). Representative Roybal-Allard commends Secretary Napolitano for the administration's commitment to detention reform, but maintains that Congressional action is still needed to ensure the humane treatment of immigrant detainees. Enacting her bill, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, would be a strong step in the right direction. She writes, "With the adoption of these reforms, America’s immigration jails—long a national embarrassment—will finally reflect our laws and our values."