Monday, October 29, 2012

Deferred Action and Deportation: Latinos and Obama | Richmond Confidential

Deferred Action and Deportation: Latinos and Obama

Nineteen-year-old cousins Luis Hernandez (left) and Jonathan Perez (right) have dealt firsthand with the controversy surrounding President Obama's policies toward Latino immigrants. (Photo by: Jason Jaacks)

By Stephen Hobbs and Rachel WittePosted October 26, 2012 4:35 pm

In this year’s dead heat presidential election, both candidates are vying for the Latino vote.
Last Tuesday, President Obama told Iowa’s Des Moines Register that his re-election rests in the hands of Latino voters.
Jonathan Perez is one of those voters. The 19-year-old will cast his first vote for Obama on Nov. 6., but two weeks ago, he found himself face-to-face with the contradictions of the Obama administration’s immigration positions when his cousin, Luis Hernandez*, 19 and undocumented, faced the threat of deportation.
“You hear about it, but you don’t expect it to happen to anyone in your family and someone you love,” Perez said.
The way this tension is resolved in individual voters might be critical to how many Latinos show up to the polls on Election Day, and how they vote. Most Latinos support the president, but doing so requires some mental gymnastics: the Obama administration has deported undocumented immigrants at a record level but also passed legislation that will allow undocumented youth a chance to stay in the country legally.
According to a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center earlier this month, 61 percent of Latinos view the Democratic Party as one that has more concern for Latinos, while only 10 percent view the Republican Party this way.
But support for the president is not so black and white. According to Arturo Carmona, Director of Presente.org, an online community devoted to raising the Latino political voice, Latinos are becoming independents faster than any other community. “It’s a clear indication that political parties have a long way to go. The rhetoric and policy of the GOP are very anti-Latino. On the other end, we haven’t seen too many friendly policies from Obama,” Carmona said.
The president made great strides with Latinos in recent months when he passed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). That is the program Perez’s cousin was applying for when he was arrested.

“Thankfully the person handling my case, took into account that I have been here my whole life,” Luis Hernandez said. (Photo by: Jason Jaacks)

Hernandez had spent the night drinking with friends, when he decided to drive his car home. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital and a police officer placing him under arrest.
He was taken to the county jail in Martinez, where he was told that because of his undocumented status, he was being placed under an immigration hold. “They know what they’re in there for,” Hernandez said of his fellow inmates at the county jail. “My consequence is much worse. I get taken out of the country.”
From Martinez, Hernandez was passed to the Contra Costa West County Detention Facility where he stayed until 3 a.m. on a Monday morning, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers took him to a separate facility in San Francisco. There, with his hands and feet chained together, he awaited his fate.
Contra Costa County participates in the nationwide Secure Communities program, a fingerprint sharing network between the FBI and ICE that notifies federal agencies when local police arrest an undocumented immigrant.
Secure Communities has led to the national rise in deportation levels, which started during the Bush administration and intensified through Obama’s leadership, said Lisa Garcia Bedolla, chairwoman of the Center for Latino Policy Research at the University of California at Berkeley.
It was Secure Communities that brought Hernandez to San Francisco, where he prayed for a lucky break.
At the detention facility there, an officer approached Hernandez and asked him how long he had lived in the country. He told the officer that he arrived in the U.S. at the age of three, and has very little memory of his life before then.
“Thankfully the person handling my case, took into account that I have been here my whole life,” Hernandez said, “and it would be pointless to drop me off in the middle of Mexico if I have no family or anything there.”
The officer also recognized that Hernandez would qualify for DACA and let him go on the condition that he file his paperwork.
“Deferred Action is important from a symbolic standpoint,” said Berkeley’s Lisa Garcia Bedolla. She said she recognizes that many critics view DACA as a temporary fix that is fraught with risk. But even a temporary fix will help to alleviate the unique stresses that many undocumented youth face, she said.

“You hear about it, but you don’t expect it to happen to anyone in your family and someone you love,” said Jonathan Perez about his cousin’s threat of deportation. (Photo by: Jason Jaacks)

Hernandez and Perez view DACA as a sign of a more positive future for the nation’s undocumented Latinos.
Like his cousin, Perez has had his own struggle with law enforcement. Growing up in a single-parent immigrant household was difficult, Perez said, and led him to fill his early teenage years with selling drugs and stealing cars. After nearly a year on the run for evading house arrest, Perez turned himself in and reformed during a one-month stint in jail.
Now, he fills his days working with Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization, where he remains active in civic engagement and the group’s prisoner reentry effort. He will vote for the first time this year, and views the president’s record level of deportations as a way to keep his opponents “content” while he works to prepare the framework for more comprehensive immigration reform, which Perez believes the president will pass during his second term.
In the meantime, while his cousin Luis Hernandez awaits his DACA approval, Perez works to encourage other Latinos with the power to vote to turn out on Election Day.
“There are so many people out there that wish they could vote so why would I take that for granted?” Perez said. “I have felt how it feels to have your rights and everything be taken from you and not be able to do anything about it. So now that I have my freedom, I take advantage of everything I can. But at the same time I don’t take it for granted.”
Even without a vote, Hernandez is still rooting for an Obama victory.
“What he did helped me out, and there must be millions of other kids in my situation who have been helped out by this,” he said.
*Individual’s name has been changed at his request due to privacy concerns.

3 Comments

Dave Francis
October 27, 2012 at 3:16 pm
California is a Sanctuary State for illegal aliens, shielded by a Liberal Governor Jerry Brown, and a near Socialist Sacramento assembly, that have an outrageous nerve to ask for more money for education. The school system is drowned in illegal alien children, which are forced on the taxpayers by the courts in uncompensated financial requirements. A state measure 30, a so called temporary tax to fund schools and 38 which is another measure for even extra funding for schools to employ thousands of more teachers is a ridiculous burden. This is the never ending cycle when California voters are being scammed to empty their pocket books. This is just another travesty of an educational system broken, as more of the taxpayers money is just be absorbed to pay for the overcrowded schools, but not just in California, but across the 50 states to pay for the education of illegal alien children. Just go into the schools in Los Angeles, and half the staff in the office is bilingual and the classrooms are overloaded with kids who can hardly comprehend English. It surprised me before I left California that the school my son was in, that an American flag was even flying?
Californians or come to that, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico in the Southwest need more tax money, but the issue is it just attracts illegal migrant and immigrant females in smuggling a large majority of unborn babies across borders or on international flights. The American federation of Immigration Reform (FAIR) in a report estimates that over 400.000 babies are smuggled into America annually through this method. All those children receive free delivery and as they are credited with immediate citizenship, the parent or parents are able to settle here for good. This is a carefully orchestrated situation that the politicians say little about, as they have already been coerced by the migrant organizations as the radical La Raza, Communist founded groups as the ACLU. The smuggling of the unborn is the origination of the children of the Dream Act. Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed every year, because the parents recognize the more children they conceive, the more difficult it is to deport them. Then even should the parents leave the child is still a holder of a U.S. passport and can return at a later date.
At the age of 18 they can their sponsor the parents, as then they are supposedly are able to financially support them. In most cases this is seldom happens in perpetuity, for then the parents are then catered to by the U.S. government after the sponsors no longer keeps them financially stable. Now enter–“THE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ACT, which will eliminate these entries, so at least one parent must have valid citizenship, for the child to gain citizenship. This would be very financially beneficial to U.S. taxpayers that would halt this activity, and would save over 100 billion dollars a year. This law will bring to halt illegal aliens bringing their children here to take advantage of our health services, educational system and many more free programs with cash benefits. Our borders still remain wide open in many places, including Canada for the illegal importation of drugs and people. For the record an estimate of a million legal immigrants are admitted to this nation each year, but we should recognize in this global market we should allow a steady stream of the paramount top list of Scientists, Technology, Engineering and mathematicians (STEM WORKERS) who would be highly beneficial to Americas future. What we don’t need are more people with no qualification, no education and adding to our own people who live in poverty.
Under another Obama 4 year administration is a promise to the 20 million plus illegal aliens a Path to Citizenship. So not only illegal aliens will be tempted to vote for the man, but many will and Democrats will intentionally stay oblivious. The cost according to the Heritage Foundation is well over TWO TRILLION DOLLARS to complete the process, which includes Social Security, Supplementary Social Security, retirement, pensions, health care, education and other different financial programs; much of it paid for by taxpayers. At a working age, American citizens begin paying for their retirement, having paid into these systems, but illegal migrants and immigrants in the majority have not? In fact they are even fraudulently using their children to collect 4.6 Billion dollars in child credits, which this government and probably the previous ones don’t think its worth prosecuting?
Adding further to restrictions THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT (E-Verify) should also be implemented, so businesses and the agricultural industry can no longer just hire illegal workers without penal implications and harsh fines. As we need temporary workers, then a fully regulated system should be installed as it was with the 1940’s “Bracero” Program. This worked well, but greedy politicians in collusion with the business community closed it down. Now we have a corrupt system that has been highlighted by many companies being raided by ICE and the owners punished. So getting back to the California state voting measures and probably in other states, illegal immigration is a very expensive situation, which needs a solution? But its not being continually taxed to pay for the illegal entry of illegal aliens and their children. Honest immigrants wait years to get an entry visa, while the other types get rewarded by Washington and individual states with a cornucopia of free welfare programs. The Legal Workforce bill could drive illegal aliens home, as if they cannot be hired, then they will leave. Instead of listening to my personal suggestions, go to TEA PARTY.ORG, NumbersUSA and JudicialWatch.org and you can judge the absolute financial negative effects of illegal immigration. Remember–this November its illegal and a felony for non citizens to vote.

Reply
Idaglia Flórez
October 28, 2012 at 3:44 pm
It is true limitless compassion when we view our histories as an intricately interwoven tapestry of hope. We are Democrates because We Never Forget the struggle that our parents, grandparent, great grandparents suffered in making a better life for their children.
My Great Grandmother Enriquez arrived to Mexico in the 1590 from the Canary Islands, a halfway refuge and port-o-call for Sephardic jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition. She was being exiled because of her religious practices, her religious beliefs.
In my family, we also have arab blood in the Medina clan as well as basque as noted in the Munguia and Mendieta families. In all my family’s histories, all my family clans were leaving oppression behind in hopes of a better life for their children generations to come.
Yet, the struggle continues.
But, we know the Dave Francis response is simply NOT TRUE. Common sense nullifies his hatred and misinformation. I could try to explain this to him but like all others that display their hatred in preventing a unified country, well, they have built walls. Ultimately, its not necessary to waste our energy in anger.
Instead, as the Minority Majority we stand in support of our undocumented allies
President Obama is a good and trustworthy friend and leader. He emulates an unlimited amount of compassion. Do Not Dismay, he has had to cover an insurmountable number of issues in a 3.5 year presidency whereupon the GOP Stonewalling Pact has in it’s own actions spelled out their fascist stance on doing all possible in seeing to it that our president fail.
In a twisted bit of sweet revenge, the GOP’s John Sununu, admited that Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Obama was because he is black. Shows how the GOP instigates blame on minorities blaming us as pulling the race card on any issue. They have twisted and slammed us all in all fronts, Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, Muslims and all other peoples or various races.
Así que a los que se han registrado, hijos, hijas, padres, abuelos . . .
VOTEN POR PRESIDENTE OBAMA ESTE NOVIEMBRE 6. Y PASENLO AS SUS AMIGOS Y AMIGAS Y FAMILIA.
¡ O B A M A N O S !

Reply
Idaglia Flórez
October 28, 2012 at 3:44 pm
HERMANDAD
Homenaje a Claudio Ptolomeo
Soy, hombre: duro poco
y es enorme la noche.
Pero miro hacia arriba
las estrellas escriben.
Sin entender comprendo:
también soy escritura
y en este mismo instante
alguien me deletrea
— Octavio Paz
BROTHERHOOD
Homage to Claudius Ptolemy
I am a man: little do I last
and the night is enormous.
But I look up:
the stars write.
Unknowing I understand.
I too am written,
and at this very moment
someone spells me out.
— Octavio Paz

Reply

Video: CAIR Assists NY Muslim Stranded Overseas By No-Fly List

Monday, October 22, 2012

Web extra: Interview with Maria Padilla

Friday, October 19, 2012

Borderline Crazy: Prop. 32′s Anti-Immigrant Allies

by Matthew Fleischer on October 19, 2012

In October of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Dream Act—which allows undocumented but high-achieving immigrant students to receive state funds to help pay for college. It was a monumental victory for tolerance and the culmination of a long fight—Arnold Schwarzenegger repeatedly vetoed similar measures during his tenure in the California governor’s office.
Come November 6, however, that fight could begin all over again if California’s Proposition 32 passes. The initiative will outlaw the use of automatic payroll deductions from union members and corporations for political purposes, crippling union political activity and empowering the measure’s billionaire backers to impose their political will on the state. While state unions passionately fought for the California Dream Act’s passage, they were opposed by politicians with ties to Prop. 32′s backers. Though they might not be rabid with anti-immigrant bile, Prop. 32′s moneymen have no problem funneling money to politicians who are.
Take, for instance, Allan Mansoor, currently running for the State Assembly. He is an avowed enemy of the Dream Act, calling it “A slap in the face to people who followed the rules.” Mansoor has received major donations and support from Prop. 32 backers like Larry T. Smith and his powerful political action committee Family Action and the Lincoln Club of Orange County, as well as Howard Ahmanson.
When he served as mayor of the Orange County city of Costa Mesa in the early aughts, Mansoor launched a very public crackdown on Mexican lunch trucks—or, in his words “roach-coaches” blaring “La Cucaracha”—that were supposedly despoiling the suburban tranquility of his once peaceful town.
The move was blasted by the local press. Wrote OC Weekly food critic Gustavo Arellano: “Trust me on this one: As someone who has followed [these trucks] for nearly a decade, they’re not going into Costa Mesa . . . Mansoor is a bigot.”
The lunch truck crackdown, however, paled besides Mansoor’s next foray into immigration politics. In 2005, well before Arizona ever passed its anti-immigrant law SB 1070, Mansoor authorized Costa Mesa police to run immigration checks on individuals suspected of crimes, as well as on unlicensed drivers. He even proposed authorizing local police to investigate federal immigration crimes—creating a national news story over fear the rule would result in the racial profiling of Latinos.
The situation was ultimately resolved by installing a permanent Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the local jail. But not before the American Civil Liberties Union sued Mansoor and Costa Mesa, after an immigrant rights advocate was arrested for speaking up against the plan at a city council meeting.
Belinda Escobosa Helzer, director and senior attorney of the ACLU’s Orange County office, which filed the suit, says that during the discovery phase of the lawsuit her group uncovered close ties between Mansoor and the anti-immigrant vigilante group the Minutemen, as well as its founder, Jim Gilchrist. Mansoor was even made an honorary member of the organization at one event.
“We believe the Minutemen to be a very dangerous group,” says Helzer. “Given the history of [Mansoor’s] activities in Costa Mesa, we would be concerned with any public servant who has those kinds of connections.”
Mansoor isn’t the only anti-immigrant zealot receiving material support from Prop. 32’s backers. San Bernardino Republican State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly recently received a $3,900 contribution from Howard Ahmanson’s political asset manager, Fieldstead and Company, for his reelection bid. Donnelly is probably best known for bringing a loaded .45-caliber Colt Mark IV on board a flight to Sacramento in January of this year. His excuse? Illegal immigrants were after him!
Donnelly is one of California’s most publicly anti-immigrant politicians. He’s the founder of his town’s chapter of the Minuteman—the xenophobic group that has tasked itself with patrolling the borders for undocumented immigrants. He was also the leading opponent of the Dream Act. Not only did he vote against the bill’s passage, Donnelly began collecting signatures to have the law repealed by ballot measure shortly after it was signed into law.
Fieldstead, incidentally, donated to Donnelly’s campaign well after his airplane adventure and anti-immigrant paranoia made national news. Ahmanson, rather disingenuously, claims that he himself isn’t anti-immigrant: “Most immigrants,” he told the Sacramento Bee in 2011, “are conservative on the social issues.”
Perhaps more hypocritical than disingenuous, however, is major Prop. 32 donor Jerry Perenchio. Even though he made much of his fortune as a co-owner of the Spanish-language TV network Univision, Perenchio has channeled $2.5 million in this election cycle to Republican candidates across America who could easily be described as anti-immigrant. The money was largely routed through Karl Rove’s American Crossroads Super PAC.
In Nevada alone, American Crossroads has supported Republican Senator Dean Heller, who vowed to alter the 14th Amendment to prevent those born in this country from automatically becoming citizens—in order to eliminate immigrant “anchor babies.” Earlier, in a 2011 special election, American Crossroads helped finance the campaign of Republican Mark Amodei, who compares the effects of illegal immigration to the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked on New Orleans.
Even before this election cycle, Perenchio donated money to such anti-immigrant California politicians as Santa Barbara Republican Tony Strickland—who voted against both the Dream Act and the Trust Act, the latter of which would have limited California law enforcement’s cooperation with federal officials in rounding up undocumented immigrants for deportation.
Strickland is a popular choice among Prop. 32 donors, receiving a rare direct donation to a California politician from Koch Industries—to the tune of $5,000.
Admittedly, most of Prop. 32’s backers aren’t aggressively anti-immigrant. At least not openly. They’re too savvy for that—after all, 38 percent of California is Latino. On a statewide level, pushing for an Arizona-type law would ultimately mean political suicide for California Republicans.
However, while political considerations may be keeping Prop. 32’s known backers from frothing at the mouth over immigration, it’s the unknown that is cause for concern. Earlier this week, the Prop. 32 campaign netted a massive $11 million donation from a mysterious non-profit calling itself Americans for Responsible Leadership. The organization is based in Arizona.
Little is known about ARL, and even less about its financial supporters. Our efforts to contact the group by press-time were unsuccessful.
Despite the scant details over the Arizona money’s origins, however, its infusion into the political process ultimately points to the greatest cause for concern over Prop. 32—the complete unknown. Even if California Republicans are too timid to launch an Arizona-type crackdown, that doesn’t mean shadowy out-of-state money from wealthy xenophobes couldn’t push for such a measure. As Perenchio’s national donations, as well as pro-Prop. 32 donations to candidates like Mansoor and Donnelly, indicate, curbing anti-Latino rhetoric and stemming the tide of xenophobic legislation is nowhere on the Prop. 32 donors’ priority list.

Tags: immigration • Proposition 32

Thursday, October 18, 2012

DREAMS NOT DETENTION Bus Tour & Vigils To End Immigration Detention (10-...

Immigration (Finally) Takes the Stage at a Presidential Debate » Immigration Impact

Oct 17

Immigration (Finally) Takes the Stage at a Presidential Debate

Administration, Border, Deferred action, Deportation, DREAM Act, Election 2012, Elections, Mitt Romney, Myths, President Obama, Progressives, Republicans, Rhetoric, SB 1070, Undocumented Immigration

by Mary Giovagnoli

George W. Bush made several appearances in last night’s presidential debate, but perhaps nowhere with greater effect than when President Obama contrasted Governor Mitt Romney’s position on immigration reform. Where President Bush supported comprehensive immigration reform, declared President Obama, Governor Romney supports “self-deportation” and Arizona style anti-immigrant laws. Moderator Candy Crowley then segued into a direct immigration question from an undecided voter about Romney’s plans for dealing with the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in our nation. The next few minutes revealed a great deal about both candidates’ positions on the immigration question, but perhaps more importantly, the points where the candidates challenged each other suggest that both parties recognize they must begin talking about immigration in new ways.

“This used to be a bipartisan issue,” Obama said.

In short, Governor Romney expressed his support for keeping highly skilled immigrants in the U.S., the electronic employment verification system, E-verify, and helping young people who are undocumented become permanent residents if they serve in the military. He said he opposes “amnesty,” and thinks self-deportation is better than mass deportation because it gives people a “choice.” He offered nothing new in terms of a plan for immigration reform, but repeatedly returned to the fact that President Obama failed to meet his campaign pledge of introducing a bill in 2009. President Obama found a way to reduce the criticism in one sentence: “This used to be a bipartisan issue.” President Obama didn’t apologize for delays in passing immigration reform, focusing instead on what his administration had accomplished, as well as his belief that immigration was an important economic and cultural force. He personalized the issue by tying Governor Romney to Kris Kobach, the architect of many anti-immigrant laws that passed around the country, including Arizona’s SB 1070, that have been successfully challenged in court. The President even noted that Arizona-style laws could put his own daughters at risk.
It’s hardly surprising that Governor Romney went after the President on his broken campaign promise, as many immigration advocates, and the Latino community more broadly have expressed dismay about the administration’s initial hesitance to push harder for reform. But recent developments, especially the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, have increased support for President Obama among Latinos and have given immigration advocates something positive to point to. Of course, many people continue to criticize the president on this issue, but by stressing the failure of a bipartisan system, the President was able to deflect his own role in the game.
The choice to use civil rights laced language to discuss immigration was also smart and strategic. One of the biggest miscalculations of the anti-immigrant movement has been the degree to which they pushed the envelope in states like Arizona and Alabama on civil rights in the immigration context. That President Obama felt comfortable saying his own daughters could be at risk says a great deal about how much closer the traditional civil rights community and the immigrant advocacy community have become in the years since the last Presidential election. Similarly, that Governor Romney didn’t feel that he could talk at length about protecting our borders or even endorse the Arizona laws, suggests that the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the primary campaign doesn’t work in a general election.
As with most issues in the debate, each candidate’s supporters probably heard what they wanted to hear and judged accordingly. The fact that President Obama was able to lean into the immigration issue by invoking George Bush and bi-partisanship, however, suggests he and his advisors calculated that the public was tired of the blame game when it comes to immigration. And since blame was exactly what Governor Romney was prepared to lay on the President, he couldn’t shift quickly or easily enough to something more proactive.
Let’s hope that this is a lesson for the coming Congress. Blame and punishment don’t work anymore when talking about immigration. Instead, solutions are in vogue again.
Photo Courtesy of Barack Obama
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Tags: barack obama immigration, blogs on immigration, immigration blog, immigration debate, kris koback mitt romney, mitt romney immigration, obama romney debate immigration, presidential debate immigration, sb 1070 mitt romney, self deportation mitt romney

Pace of DACA Approvals Quickens, but Will it be Fast Enough? » Immigration Impact

Pace of DACA Approvals Quickens, but Will it be Fast Enough?

Administration, Children, Deferred Action, Deportation, DREAM Act, Election 2012, Elections, Mitt Romney, President Obama, Progressives, Prosecutorial Discretion, Republicans, Students, USCIS

by Ben Winograd

For the first time since immigration authorities officially launched Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in mid-August, the federal government released statistics last Friday indicating that thousands of requests have been officially granted. But while the figures themselves are an encouraging sign, other evidence suggests that most applicants will not have their requests considered until after the next presidential inauguration in January, if at all.

Despite the significant increase in the pace of grants, other evidence suggests that most applicants will still be waiting for a response on January 20, the date of the next presidential inauguration.

As of October 10, according to figures from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), immigration officials had accepted nearly 180,000 requests; scheduled nearly 160,000 appointments to submit fingerprints; and formally granted deferred action to 4,591 individuals. (Of those whose requests have been granted, USCIS did not state how many had received work permits.) Compared to unofficial figures leaked earlier in the month—which revealed that 87,000 requests had been accepted and 36 approved through September 12—Friday’s numbers reflect a significant spike in both categories. Why? The jump in the number of applications is likely due to the fact that it simply took many DREAMers longer to submit their applications than was originally expected. School districts have been strained by requests for transcripts and other records demonstrating continuous presence in the country, and many applicants have reportedly collected more documentation than necessary as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, the rise in the number of granted requests is likely the result of more individual applicants completing the steps needed for USCIS employees to officially process their applications, such as submitting fingerprints during a scheduled appointment. In this respect, the backlog of DACA applications is similar to line of cars stopped at a red light: Not everyone can move once the light turns green, but as each driver gets space to accelerate, more and more vehicles make it through the intersection.
Yet despite the significant increase in the pace of grants, other evidence suggests that most applicants will still be waiting for a response on January 20, the date of the next presidential inauguration. As was reported in the Wall Street Journal, USCIS anticipates that most requests will take between four and six months to process, meaning that DREAMers who submitted their applications on August 15 may still be waiting for an answer when President Obama begins his second term or Mitt Romney begins his first.
Moreover, even after a request for deferred action is granted, USCIS has up to 90 days to issue a work permit. Given Romney’s pledge to discontinue the program upon taking office (at least for individuals who have not yet received deferred action), it remains unclear how his administration would treat applicants whose requests for deferred action have been granted but have yet to receive an employment authorization document.
In short, although 1.8 million immigrants could qualify for deferred action now or in the future, Friday’s numbers suggest only a small fraction will be reap the full benefit of the program by inauguration day.
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Tags: amount of deferred action approvals, blogs on immigration, daca approvals, deferred action approvals, illegal immigration, immigration blog, mitt romney and deferred action, new daca numbers, pace of daca approvals, undocumented immigration

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

DREAMS NOT DETENTION Bus Tour & Vigils To End Immigration Detention (10-...

Friday, October 12, 2012

Border Wall in the News: Border Patrol Kills Rock-Thrower At Border Fence

Dan Kowalski: Connect the Dots

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Dan Kowalski

Editor, Bender's Immigration Bulletin

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Connect the Dots

Posted: 10/11/2012 2:00 pm

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Immigration , Arizona , Border , Border Patrol , Border Patrol Deaths , Border Patrol Shooting , Hernandez , Latino Politics , Politics News

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In May 1997, a team of four U.S. Marines shot and killed an 18-year-old U.S. citizen. He was herding goats just outside the tiny town of Redford, Texas, on the Mexican border. The Marines thought he was a drug smuggler.
Last week a Border Patrol officer died in a hail of "friendly fire" on the Arizona border with Mexico, at night, in dark, rugged terrain. The officer who died apparently thought his colleagues were "armed smugglers" and opened fire. Unable to see who was shooting, his colleagues returned fire, killing the officer.
In the intervening 15 years, have we learned nothing? How many border deaths -- American-on-American shooting deaths -- will it take for us to wake up to the fact that we have militarized our border with Mexico beyond all reason?
The 1997 killing produced a $1.9 million dollar payout by the federal government to the young man's family, a report by the U.S. Marines, another report by Lamar Smith, a PBS documentary, and a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones. The shooter was not charged with a crime. The Marines withdrew from border drug patrols.
What will this latest Border Patrol shooting death produce? Another round of investigations, reports, and documentaries, no doubt. But will we change our border policies?
Researchers, journalists and border activists all conclude that while illegal border crossings are down, border deaths are up. The four horsemen of our current border apocalypse -- xenophobia, the migrants' need to work to feed their families, the profit motive that drives more border fencing, unmanned drones and private immigration jails, and a visa quota system completely out of touch with reality -- combine and conspire to make reform difficult and unlikely, at least in the short run.
For most migrants, there is no line for visas in which to wait, not even at the back. Private companies make millions building and staffing ever more immigration prisons. If a laborer can find a job in Mexico, it might bring him $5 or $6 dollars a day, versus $8 per hour in the U.S. And if racism has not vanished, 150 years after the Civil War, fear of foreigners is not likely to evaporate any time soon. These are the facts on the ground fueling border violence.
No, reform is not just around the corner. Unless... unless the families of the dead Americans, from goat herders to Border Patrol officers, connect the dots and say, "Enough!" We have become desensitized to the hundreds (now thousands) of migrants -- foreigners -- who have died in the desert trying to cross into America. Perhaps the deaths of Americans on the border will jar us, finally, from our unholy slumber.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Mississippi Joins Lawsuit Against Obama Immigration Policy

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Mississippi Joins Lawsuit Against Obama Immigration Policy

Posted: 10/10/2012 6:03 pm EDT Updated: 10/10/2012 6:15 pm EDT

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WASHINGTON -- The state of Mississippi joined a lawsuit Wednesday against the Obama administration over its decision to stop deporting some undocumented young people, claiming the move is unconstitutional and prevents immigration agents from doing their jobs.
"States must protect their borders while the federal government continues to ignore this growing problem," Gov. Phil Bryant, who joined the lawsuit on behalf of the state, said in a statement. "I believe this action by the Obama administration is unconstitutional and circumvents Congress’s authority. The fact remains that illegal immigration is a real issue with real consequences, and ignoring the rule of law is irresponsible. As governor, I cannot turn a blind eye to the problem of illegal immigration and its costs to Mississippi."
Mississippi is the first state to join the suit, which was filed Aug. 23 by a group of 10 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers represented by Texas attorney Michael Jung and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona's S.B. 1070 immigration measure. NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for reducing immigration, is funding the lawsuit.
President Barack Obama announced a policy in June to grant deferred action -- two years reprieve from deportation concerns -- and work authorization to young undocumented immigrants, should they meet certain requirements. Those eligible for the reprieve roughly align with the would-be beneficiaries of the Dream Act, a decade-old bill that would give legal status to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children.
The lawsuit also challenges an announcement in 2011 that the administration would encourage officers to consider certain factors, such as citizen family members and longstanding ties to the country, when choosing whether to push forward with deportation. The government's argument is that it leaves more time to focus on high-priority deportations -- repeat offenders, gang members and dangerous criminals -- but ICE agents in the suit argue it amounts to disallowing them from performing their duties.
"The Directive commands ICE officers to violate federal law [and] commands ICE officers to violate their oaths to uphold and support federal law," the lawsuit reads.
Mississippi joined the suit because of alleged costs to taxpayers caused by failing to enforce immigration laws, according to a statement from the governor's office. Bryant worked on a report as a state auditor in 2006 that estimated the net cost of undocumented immigration on Mississippi to be more than $25 million per year.
Kobach said he has been in contact with the state of Mississippi over the lawsuit since around the time it was filed, and that there are no plans at the moment for other states to join the suit. Still, he said the fiscal impact of undocumented immigration is an issue across the country.
"Mississippi is in a sense standing in the shoes of all 50 states because its injuries are similarly felt by other states as well," Kobach said. "In a way, Mississippi speaks for itself, but stands for all 50 states."
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton are all named as defendants in the suit.
The Obama administration deported a record number of immigrants in the 2011 fiscal year -- numbers for 2012 are not yet available. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, opposed the deferred action decision, saying last week he would end the policy if president, but honor deferred action already granted by the president.
Kobach has declined to comment on whether he agrees that deferred action waivers already granted should remain valid. Because of lawsuits like this one, though, he said it might not be an issue.
"I anticipate and hope that by the time the Romney administration is sworn in in January, the court will have already ruled that the Napolitano directive violates federal law, and the issue will be moot by then," he said.

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