Join the Vigil for Justice and the American Dream

Posted: April 9, 2012 at 1:01 pm By Donna

The tradition of holding candlelight vigils is close to our community: we gather together and light candles to remember, to protest, and to inspire. The light represents our faith and our dreams overcoming the darkness.

Today, we are launching the Vigil for Justice and the American Dream, a virtual vigil to stand for equality under the law. While the Supreme Court hears the case against Arizona’s SB 1070, we will light our candles in solidarity with immigrant families across the US.

When you light your candle, you can see it appear on an interactive map with those joining our vigil around the country. While we wait for a decision from the court, our vigil will light up the darkness with hope and strength. 

The Supreme Court needs to know that it doesn’t matter where these anti-immigrant laws are passed — state-sponsored discrimination hurts us all.

Help light up entire nation for justice for every family. Click here to light candle and join the vigil.

US Supreme Court will hear Arizona’s SB 1070

Posted: April 3, 2012 at 10:48 am By Donna

I recently sent a message to our community members on the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on SC 1070. Please read my letter, and contact our team if you are planning any events in your area. We will be posting further updates as we get closer to the national week of action.

You and I have witnessed the fallout from the current patchwork of state immigration laws: while we win victories in California and Illinois, we face devastating moral and humanitarian crises in Alabama and Arizona. A stance must be taken at the federal level to ensure that we can move forward to reform our immigration system as an entire nation.

Next month, the US Supreme Court will take on Arizona’s extreme anti-immigrant law, SB 1070.

The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on SB 1070 can’t be overstated. For all those who have fought back against this racist law for nearly two years, this could be the moment our government declares once and for all that state-sponsored hate and racial profiling will be not be tolerated.

While the justices debate, we will be in the streets and online across the country, calling for justice and equality under the law for all immigrant families. We are planning for a week of action with national and grassroots partners, to make sure the court knows that the entire country will be following their decision.

I’ll be writing more soon about all the ways you can get involved. If you or your community is planning events around the Supreme Court case, please let us know.

Simply put, Arizona’s SB 1070 is un-American – and we will unite to act for justice for all. Stay tuned for more details.

With hope,

Donna De la Cruz
Reform Immigration FOR America

PS: As part of the week of action, national allies will be launching an exciting project to encourage thousands of eligible individuals to start the process for naturalization. If you want to learn more about this project, please sign up for more information.

House subcommittee uses suffering of immigrants as punch line

Posted: March 28, 2012 at 1:25 pm By Allie

This afternoon, the US House Immigration Subcommittee will be reviewing new health and safety guidelines for immigration detention and detainment facilities in a session entitled “Holiday on ICE: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s New Immigration Detention Standards.” Led by Texas Representative Lamar Smith, the subcommittee will tear into these guidelines while ignoring the evidence of the systemic abuse of immigrants in deportation facilities.

In Smith’s mind, humane treatment in detention facilities is just “hospitality guidelines” — and preventing abuse and providing medical care are luxuries not to be squandered on the 400,000 men, women and children in immigration custody.

“ICE’s new guidelines are intended to help address well-documented civil and human rights abuses that continue to occur daily in immigration detention, abuses that Smith apparently finds laughable,” said Andrea Black, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network. “The very title of Wednesday’s hearing, ‘Holiday on ICE,’ mocks the seriousness of the suffering that immigrants in detention experience and mischaracterizes ICE’s new guidelines as mandating cushy resort-like conditions for those in detention.”

Testimonies and accounts of the appalling conditions are widely known. Annie Sovcik, Advocacy Counsel at Human Rights First, recounts some of her visits to these facilities, at Pinal County Adult Detention Center in Florence, Arizona and the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, TX:

My “vacations” at these “holiday” spots were also enviable. Detainees don’t have to move anywhere for the entire day or night! They spend 24 hours a day in the same room where they eat, sleep, shower and use the toilet without privacy. Their “outdoor” recreation is in a concrete room off of their pod with light from something that resembles a sky-light. Under ICE detention standards, a sky-light or open space in an otherwise closed, covered, concrete room is sufficient to qualify as “outside.” If you stay long enough, as I saw at Pinal County, you can build up a greenish, graying tone to your skin from lack of sun exposure.

Over 110 people have died in immigration custody since 2003. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, author Edwidge Danticat talks about the stories of just a handful of the victims — including his own uncle.

One of them was my uncle Joseph, an 81-year-old throat cancer survivor who spoke with an artificial voice box. He arrived in Miami in October 2004 after fleeing an uprising in Haiti. He had a valid passport and visa, but when he requested political asylum, he was arrested and taken to the Krome detention center in Miami. His medications for high blood pressure and an inflamed prostate were taken away, and when he fell ill during a hearing, a Krome nurse accused him of faking his illness. When he was finally transported, in leg chains, to the prison ward of a nearby hospital, it was already too late. He died the next day.

My uncle’s brief and deadly stay in the United States immigration system was no holiday. Detention was no holiday for Rosa Isela Contreras-Dominguez, who was 35 years old and pregnant when she died in immigration custody in Texas in 2007. She had a history of blood clots, and said her complaints regarding leg pains were ignored. It was no holiday for Mayra Soto, a California woman who was raped by an immigration officer. It was no holiday for Hiu Lui Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese immigrant with a fractured spine who was dragged on the floor and refused the use of a wheelchair in an ICE detention center in Rhode Island.

Without the force of law behind these guidelines, they can implemented at will by immigration facilities, and those who also see them as luxuries, like Rep. Smith, can choose not to provide. It is horrifying to know that cases like those described by Danticat could continue – but it is even more outrageous to know that anti-immigrant zealots like Smith can mock their suffering, without responsibility, in the halls of Congress.

Sara’s Struggle: An undocumented woman’s fight to remain with her daughter

Posted: March 28, 2012 at 11:17 am By Michael

UPDATE: Over the weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reversed its position on Sara’s case, and will now allow her to stay in this country with her daughter. The reversal comes after multiple appeals on Sara’s part to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a broad campaign involving by immigration reform groups, and a direct appeal made to DHS by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. We here at Reform Immigration for America are elated by the news and to have contributed in some way to Sara’s cause. Moving forward, we hope that DHS will apply the same prosecutorial discretion they used in Sara’s case to the thousands of others like her, who stand to be separated from their spouses and children due to their immigration status.

[May 7, 2012]

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On New Year’s Day, 2011, Sara Martinez sat with her family on a bus in Rochester, NY, thinking it would take them back to their home in New York City. The bus made it there, Sara did not. Before the bus pulled out of the station, two Border Patrol officers entered the bus, and asked Sara for her identification. After she showed them her Ecuadorian passport, the officers then asked to see documents showing her authorization to reside in the United States. When Sara could not produce a federally issued ID, she and her ex-husband were removed from the crowded bus by the officers, handcuffed, and placed in a squad car, all within the view of Sara’s 6 year old daughter. Though the bus was full, no other passengers were asked to show ID’s or produce papers. Sara and her ex-husband were singled out.

Sara, who has lived in this country for several years, who has never broken a law, and whose daughter was born here and is a US citizen, should qualify for prosecutorial discretion—a new measure issued by the Obama administration to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that calls for deportations cases to be prioritized according to risk factor. Under prosecutorial discretion, law-abiding and hardworking members of the community, who pay taxes and have set down roots by starting families, are considered low-priority while criminals are considered high-priority. Since her arrest, Sara has applied three times for prosecutorial discretion, and three times she has been told she doesn’t “fit the profile.”

Her story is not an uncommon one. Though prosecutorial discretion was issued by the White House as a way to make America’s immigration policy more just and humane, the DHS and ICE, the two agencies charged with deportation proceedings, have either ignored the measure or have refused to apply it to eligible cases. Both agencies pledged to review more than 300,000 deportation cases that are currently in process to see if they qualify for prosecutorial discretion. According to ICE Director John Morton, as of March 5th, ICE has only reviewed 165,000 cases, and concluded that only 11,000 fall under prosecutorial discretion. Most importantly, only 1,583 cases have been closed, meaning that out of 300,000 people, only 1,583 individuals have been allowed to remain in the United States when all is said and done.

It is up to DHS head, Secretary Janet Napolitano, to ensure that the DHS and ICE follow the White House’s directive and apply prosecutorial discretion to all deportation cases. The failure to do so means that good, hardworking people will be deported along with convicted criminals, and that families, like Sara’s, will be needlessly broken up.

Since her arrest, Sara’s daughter has lost weight (at 6 years old she weighs only 35 pounds), suffers recurring nightmares, and lives in fear of the day that the police will return to take her mother away to jail or another country. Sara wants only to be able to provide her daughter with a better life than she could in Ecuador. Sara’s daughter, for her part, deserves to have all the opportunity she is entitled to in this country as an American citizen, including being raised by her mother and living without fear.

To get involved in Sara’s struggle for a future in this country with her daughter, please sign this petition.

[March 28, 2012]

The Militia Problem

Posted: March 22, 2012 at 11:43 am By Michael

According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, after four years of massive mobilization against undocumented immigrants, the number of nativist extremist militia groups has fallen by 42% over the past year. Unfortunately, while this reduction should be celebrated, it is largely attributed to the anti-immigration laws enacted over the past year.

In 2007, there were 144 nativist groups founded by private citizens to patrol the border shared by the United States and Mexico. Thousands of activists—some armed—joined militias to seek and capture undocumented immigrants and turn them over to Border Patrol. From 2007 to 2010, the number of these groups expanded to 319, representing 35 states. The following year, however, witnessed a significant and unexpected reversal in that trend; in 2011, the number dropped to 184.

According to the report, there are three reasons for the reversal. First, after four years of continuing bad publicity—for example, in 2009, when militia members murdered a Latino man and his young daughter in Arivaca, AZ—public opinion has turned against nativist militias. Second, frequent infighting and a lack of cohesion within these organizations has caused many of their members to turn to the Tea Party instead, which has co-opted much of the political ideology of the extremists.

Finally, and most importantly, the consensus among many of the members and former members of these militias is that their groups are no longer necessary now that there are states like Arizona and Alabama passing anti-immigration laws. From their point of view, the components of these laws are so stringent that state police forces have effectively taken the place of the nativist militias. Now it is the police who must actively seek undocumented people, rather than the militias.

These laws are not a solution to the systemic problems of the current immigration policy. It’s clear that these anti-immigration laws encourage the police to racially profile anyone who may appear to be an “immigrant.” These laws are unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional; simply put, they are not in the best interest of our people, nor are they in line with our national character. States should not be allowed to create their own immigration policies. Such a precedent would create dramatic inconsistencies between states and upset make traveling between them a living hell—and not just for undocumented people.

The only solution is a national solution. Comprehensive immigration reform on the federal level is the only way to make sure that all people are treated with dignity and respect. It is the only way to ensure that the rights of all—immigrant and citizen—are protected.

[Source]

Indonesian community to New Jersey: Don’t send us back

Posted: March 21, 2012 at 10:34 am By Michael

Since the late 1990s, a community of approximately 2,000 Christian Indonesians has resided in the United States as refuges seeking asylum from religious persecution. For the past decade, these people have tried to make a life in this country, all the while living with the uncertainty that comes with being an undocumented person. That uncertainty saw a brief respite last summer when the White House asked enforcement agencies to refrain from deporting non-criminal undocumented individuals who have been living in the United States for several years.

For the refugee community of Highland Park, NJ, the respite came to an abrupt and unexpected end this year when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Newark issued letters to several people telling them to report to ICE offices for deportation. One of those people was Saul Timisela.

Rather than report for deportation, Saul sought asylum with the Reformed Church of Highland Park, which at the time of writing is still giving him Sanctuary from deportation. Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale is now reaching out to the faith community and other partners, asking for help for Mr. Timisela, as well as other members of the Indonesian refugee community of Highland Park.

If you want to stand with the beleaguered undocumented refugees of Highland Park please show your support encouraging your friends, family, and community members to sign on to the Reformed Church of Highland park’s petition on Change.org and to visit www.keepfamiliestogether.org for more information.

The immigration crisis of the Indonesian community of Highland Park is just one more testament to the failure of America’s current immigration policy.  With a unified effort, we can keep hardworking, law-abiding people in the communities they have called home for many years. Through organization, we can make immigration reform a reality.

Voter ID laws: Solutions without a problem

Posted: March 16, 2012 at 2:49 pm By Allie

With Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s signature to set the state’s voter identification bill into law, Pennsylvania is now the 16th state in the country to make identification mandatory at the polls. These measures are being proposed by legislators claiming that showing ID will combat voter fraud, and since we need to show identification to do things like board a plane, shouldn’t we be required to show it to vote?

Two problems with that logic. First, unlike other activities where identification is needed, the right to vote is expounded upon in great detail in the US Constitution, protecting against discrimination on the basis of race or gender. By passing these new ID laws, state governments are throwing road blocks into its citizens’ fundamental ability to cast their vote. As Judson Robinson III wrote in the Houston Chronicle, “The ballot box is often the only place we can express our dissatisfaction about issues, but sadly, if the voter ID bill is enacted, many of those affected will lose their ballot-box voice come the 2012 elections.”

Here are the key findings from a 2006 study “Citizens Without Proof” conducted by the Brennan Center on Americans’ access to identification:

As many as 11 percent of United States citizens – more than 21 million individuals – do not have government-issued photo identification, including:

• 18% of American citizens age 65 and above
• 25% of African-American voting-age citizens
• 16% of Hispanic voting-age citizens
• 15% of voting-age American citizens earning less than $35,000 per year

This also includes citizens without accurate IDs — those who do not have their current legal name or address:

• 10% of voting-age citizens who have photo ID do not have photo ID with both their current address and legal name, disproportionately affecting young people and married women who have changed their last name

Here’s the second issue with the pro-ID argument: it creates laws to solve problems that don’t exist. Unlike the urban legends of deceased voters casting their ballot, the real, proven instances of voter fraud in this country are few and far between. From the Brennan Center’s policy brief, explaining that “National Weather Service data shows that Americans are struck and killed by lightning about as often” as voter fraud is committed:

Each act of voter fraud risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine – but yields at most one incremental vote. The single vote is simply not worth the price.

Because voter fraud is essentially irrational, it is not surprising that no credible evidence suggests a voter fraud epidemic. There is no documented wave or trend of individuals voting multiple times, voting as someone else, or voting despite knowing that they are ineligible. Indeed, evidence from the microscopically scrutinized 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State actually reveals just the opposite: though voter fraud does happen, it happens approximately 0.0009% of the time. The similarly closely-analyzed 2004 election in Ohio revealed a voter fraud rate of 0.00004%.

Voter ID laws are intrusive, unnecessary measures proven to disproportionately hinder people of color, the elderly, low-income people, women and college students from being able to cast their vote. Immigrant voters are facing a wave across the country of legislation meant to burden them from participating in the process of democracy. Are voter ID laws coming to your state? Click here to check the National Conference of State Legislature’s policy map.

Your signatures are on their way to South Korea

Posted: March 15, 2012 at 10:08 am By Allie

In just a few weeks, we have gathered over 27,000 signatures calling on car companies Honda and Hyundai to take a stand against Alabama’s anti-immigrant law HB56. And right now, our allies on our their way to Seoul, South Korea to hand deliver your messages at the Hyundai shareholders meeting this week.

It’s part of our national campaign, working with labor and civil rights activists, to repeal HB56 and end its devastating attack on Alabama’s immigrant community. Beyond the countless stories of immigrants being terrorized and children frightened out of attending school, the law has proven to be bad for the state’s economy. HB56 could cost Alabama as much as $10.8 billion in economic output and up to $357 million in state and local tax revenue.

Since the bill was passed, a German Mercedes-Benz manager and a Japanese Honda manager faced charges for not “carrying their papers.” Daimler AG, Honda, and Hyundai are all major foreign-owned businesses operating in Alabama, and know firsthand the destructive and demeaning menace of HB56.

HB56 is leaving devastating impacts on Alabama’s community and economy — but companies like Hyundai have the power to stop the hateful law. Anti-immigrant politicians in the state legislature need to know that businesses won’t stand for state-sponsored discrimination. Hyundai’s stakeholders will hear your message loud and clear: Stand against the attacks on Alabamians, and help repeal the worst anti-immigrant law in the country.

Why we’re marching

Posted: March 6, 2012 at 5:20 pm By admin

3 days and 22 miles later, it’s time for an update.

We’ve met some incredible people along the way – from Idaho, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maryland, Alabama, and more.

I met a man from Waldorf, Maryland — who wished to not be named — whose uncle was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s roommate in college. His uncle never had a family, but taught his nieces and nephews one thing: “you must get an education, you must vote, and you must speak your mind.”

Through the harmful, disenfranchising bills passed in the Alabama state legislature, minorities — African Americans, immigrants, and women — are quickly losing these basic, human rights.

We’re marching because we won’t stand for it any longer.

Over the past two days, we’ve marched to raise awareness about voting rights and economic injustices. As we continue marching, we’ll be joined by our friends from the unions to lift up workers’ rights and, on Thursday, immigrant rights activists will embark on the final leg of the march. Friday afternoon, the march will culminate with a rally to repeal HB56 at the Alabama State House.

If you can’t join us by Friday, visit us on Facebook to get more pictures and updates from the march!

Join us as we march for immigrant rights in Alabama

Posted: March 4, 2012 at 1:43 pm By admin

Today, we arrived in Alabama for the 47th reenactment of the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. We will march for approximately 54 miles over the course of five days to stand up for civil, voting, and immigrant rights in Alabama and across the United States.

More than 5,000 people are expected to join the march along the way — but we need your help too! We know most of you aren’t in Alabama, but you can still join us and find out more:

1. Text MARCH to 69866. Each night, we’ll give you an update on what happened with the march and how you can continue to support the marchers and their efforts on the ground.
2. Share this graphic on Facebook.
3. Check out our recent posts about Alabama’s devastating anti-immigrant bill.

We want to show strong national support for the marchers as they embark on this tremendous journey to stand up for our civil and voters rights as well as the rights of immigrants. Our goal is to have 5,000 people join the march virtually over the next 5 days.

Will you join us, too?