Fencing the Border: Boeing's High-Tech Plan Falters by Joseph Richey, Special to Corp WatchJuly 9th, 2007
A 28-mile stretch of the Sonoran desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border west of the city of Nogales, Arizona, is a sun-baked battleground. Pronghorn antelope, javelina, rattlers, a few pigmy owls, and even jaguars compete for scarce resources amidst the saguaro, mesquite, and prickly pear. Also struggling for survival in the parched landscape are hundreds of migrants who hike the miles of uncharted northbound trails and roads pursued by border patrol officers, security contractors, and law enforcement agents. Many of the would-be immigrants are captured, processed and deported; some are identified as criminal aliens and detained; others make it into the U.S. to take low-wage jobs; and hundreds more die every year in the searing desert heat. A new predator is on the horizon. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued task orders to physically and electronically seal this stretch of the desert under a multi-billion dollar contract named the Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet) to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants, drugs, and potential terrorists by 2013. This first $20 million pilot phase, which is named Project 28 after the length of this part of the desert that it is supposed to cover, was to be completed by mid-June 2007.
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Showing posts with label US Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Home. Show all posts
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
U.S. Border Fence Protrudes Into Mexico
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL. The Associated Press. June 29, 2007
COLUMBUS, N.M. -- The 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.
(Click here to read more)
COLUMBUS, N.M. -- The 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.
(Click here to read more)
SANE: An Islamophobic group attempts to banish Islam from the U.S.
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali. 17 June 2007
Stepping into the foot prints of Daniel Pipes, Islamophobist and founder of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forums such as Middle East Forumand Campus Watch, another pro-Israeli Islamophobist, David Yerushalmi, has established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.
(Click here to read more)
Stepping into the foot prints of Daniel Pipes, Islamophobist and founder of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forums such as Middle East Forumand Campus Watch, another pro-Israeli Islamophobist, David Yerushalmi, has established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.
(Click here to read more)
62 migrant deaths in US detention since 2004
New Scrutiny as Immigrants Die in Custody
By NINA BERNSTEIN. June 26, 2007
Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention.
Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known.
(Click here to read more)
By NINA BERNSTEIN. June 26, 2007
Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention.
Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known.
(Click here to read more)
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Black Americans on opposite sides of immigration debate in South LA
Confrontation kept under control. Police keep things calm as two groups of marchers on opposite sides of the immigration debate parry in South Los Angeles.
A group of 100 marchers waving American flags headed south on Crenshaw Boulevard on Saturday to protest illegal immigration and what they called its damaging effects on the black community.But they never reached the park that was their destination, and the rally turned into two tense hours of confrontation under a hot sun with counter-protesters on the opposite side of the street. Insults and epithets flew across the asphalt as hundreds of Los Angeles Police Department officers kept guard. Although some people expressed concern about another May 1 melee, in the end, police earned praise for their restraint and efforts to calm the crowd.Police defused the standoff, both sides dispersed and five people, including organizer Ted Hayes, a longtime activist for the homeless, were arrested peacefully.
The marchers, made up of black activists and Minutemen, homeless people and neighborhood residents, held a city permit for an afternoon rally at the historic Leimert Park in the Crenshaw district. Nearly 500 counter-protesters, mostly black and Latino, some with Mexican flags and others with antiwar placards, swept down the other side of Crenshaw Boulevard. They converged on the park first and blocked the original marchers from entering. Some said they had heard those marchers would include KKK members, and the counter-protesters denounced what they called racist outsiders trying to incite violence.
(Click here to read more)
A group of 100 marchers waving American flags headed south on Crenshaw Boulevard on Saturday to protest illegal immigration and what they called its damaging effects on the black community.But they never reached the park that was their destination, and the rally turned into two tense hours of confrontation under a hot sun with counter-protesters on the opposite side of the street. Insults and epithets flew across the asphalt as hundreds of Los Angeles Police Department officers kept guard. Although some people expressed concern about another May 1 melee, in the end, police earned praise for their restraint and efforts to calm the crowd.Police defused the standoff, both sides dispersed and five people, including organizer Ted Hayes, a longtime activist for the homeless, were arrested peacefully.
The marchers, made up of black activists and Minutemen, homeless people and neighborhood residents, held a city permit for an afternoon rally at the historic Leimert Park in the Crenshaw district. Nearly 500 counter-protesters, mostly black and Latino, some with Mexican flags and others with antiwar placards, swept down the other side of Crenshaw Boulevard. They converged on the park first and blocked the original marchers from entering. Some said they had heard those marchers would include KKK members, and the counter-protesters denounced what they called racist outsiders trying to incite violence.
(Click here to read more)
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Choices for Black labor
Choices for Black labor by Bill Fletcher; Black Commentator; June 23, 2007
I came of age politically in the middle of the Black Power movement. Within the ranks of organized labor, both the Black Power movement and the Anti-Vietnam War movement had a significant impact through the mid1970s. Caucuses were being formed to challenge the bureaucratic leaderships of many unions. Wild-cat strikes were taking place in workplaces around the country. And in some locales, independent unions were being established where workers had concluded that the established union movement was incapable of making any significant changes to address the needs and demands of rank and file workers. At the national level, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists emerged as a major voice arguing that organized labor needed to take a new and different look at the Black worker, a look and engagement that was based on the need for respect and equality.
As we enter the 21st century, Black labor is in disarray. Within the ranks of organized labor, the various institutions that have often spoken on its behalf have ossified. Black caucuses in various unions have stepped back from challenging and pushing the union leaderships and instead have in all too many cases degenerated into social clubs or step-ladders for individuals to get positions in the union structure. While there are greater numbers of Black staff and, in some cases, elected leaders, there is an emphasis on acceptability—to the leadership of organized labor—within the ranks of the movement, rather than an emphasis on challenge and struggle.
(Click here to read more)
I came of age politically in the middle of the Black Power movement. Within the ranks of organized labor, both the Black Power movement and the Anti-Vietnam War movement had a significant impact through the mid1970s. Caucuses were being formed to challenge the bureaucratic leaderships of many unions. Wild-cat strikes were taking place in workplaces around the country. And in some locales, independent unions were being established where workers had concluded that the established union movement was incapable of making any significant changes to address the needs and demands of rank and file workers. At the national level, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists emerged as a major voice arguing that organized labor needed to take a new and different look at the Black worker, a look and engagement that was based on the need for respect and equality.
As we enter the 21st century, Black labor is in disarray. Within the ranks of organized labor, the various institutions that have often spoken on its behalf have ossified. Black caucuses in various unions have stepped back from challenging and pushing the union leaderships and instead have in all too many cases degenerated into social clubs or step-ladders for individuals to get positions in the union structure. While there are greater numbers of Black staff and, in some cases, elected leaders, there is an emphasis on acceptability—to the leadership of organized labor—within the ranks of the movement, rather than an emphasis on challenge and struggle.
(Click here to read more)
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Shut Down of Immigration Detention Center in Houston
Protest of Immigration Detention Center in Houston
Today, June 4th, the Dissent! Network in Europe has called for a Global Day of Action for freedom of movement and equal rights for all! We here in Houston, Texas, USA have heard this call to action and share the same concerns as our brothers and sisters in Europe and all over the world who are taking action today in solidarity with migrants and refugees of the global economy.
Here in the United States, a rising xenophobic sentiment in large parts of the population is being fed and exploited by politicians who are scapegoating immigrants and this system that is stratifying the working class. To this end we have chosen to commit an act of civil disobedience, blocking gates to the "Houston Processing Center"; an Immigrant Detention Facility in North Houston run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA is a company that turns a profit of over a billion dollars a year by administering prisons for state and federal governments. They run the notorious Don T. Hutto Facility in Taylor Texas, a converted jail that imprisons asylum seekers and children. These children are subject to inhumane treatment and ICE/CCA denied access to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants this past month as he tried to investigate the conditions at the Hutto Facility. By the fall of 2007 ICE will spend an estimated 1 billion dollars a year to detain over 27,500 people. ICE operates eight Service Processing Centers and seven contract detention facilities such as Hutto, Raymondville and the Houston Processing Center, all three run by CCA. We decided we had to put our bodies on the line in an effort to slow down and expose the oppression and exploitation of immigrants by the capitalist economic order, the US Government and the US Prison Industrial Complex. We condemn the policies of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Corrections Corporation of America. We recognize this escalation of raids and deportations are not a fundamentally new development, but part of a continued effort to terrorize our communities for the sake of maintaining an unjust social order.
(Click here to read more)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Honduras to US: Stop Deportations
Tegucigalpa, May 23 (Prensa Latina)
A record number of Honduran people deported from the US to that Central American country amounted to 8,546 this year, disclosed a source from Government Ministry Wednesday.
Rosario Murillo warned the ones deported by airplanes chartered by the US Migration Service might be more than 42,000 in 2007.
Murillo explained other 4,063 people were deported by land from Guatemala and Mexico. In general, she pointed out that the number of repatriates has gradually increased, while in 2006 US authorities expelled 24,666 undocumented, and in 2005 it was 18,941 deported.
(Click here to read more)
A record number of Honduran people deported from the US to that Central American country amounted to 8,546 this year, disclosed a source from Government Ministry Wednesday.
Rosario Murillo warned the ones deported by airplanes chartered by the US Migration Service might be more than 42,000 in 2007.
Murillo explained other 4,063 people were deported by land from Guatemala and Mexico. In general, she pointed out that the number of repatriates has gradually increased, while in 2006 US authorities expelled 24,666 undocumented, and in 2005 it was 18,941 deported.
(Click here to read more)
100 suspected illegal workers arrested
By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer. May 23, 2007
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Federal immigration agents raided a poultry plant Tuesday morning and arrested more than 100 workers who are believed to be illegal immigrants.
Most of those arrested at the George's processing plant in rural Butterfield were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, said Pete Baird, an agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations office in Kansas City.
(Click here to read more)
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Federal immigration agents raided a poultry plant Tuesday morning and arrested more than 100 workers who are believed to be illegal immigrants.
Most of those arrested at the George's processing plant in rural Butterfield were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, said Pete Baird, an agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations office in Kansas City.
(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Immigration Raid Leaves Sense of Dread in Hispanic Students
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN. May 23, 2007. WILLMAR, Minn.
The day before everything happened, Alex Sorto left Willmar High School as usual at 2:30, and grabbed a ride to his night job as a janitor at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant. He had been working there for four months, saving money for college tuition, and hoping to study art even though his mother wanted him to be a lawyer.
(Click here to read more)
The day before everything happened, Alex Sorto left Willmar High School as usual at 2:30, and grabbed a ride to his night job as a janitor at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant. He had been working there for four months, saving money for college tuition, and hoping to study art even though his mother wanted him to be a lawyer.
(Click here to read more)
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Feds crack down on immigrant labor organizers
by David Bacon. May 19, 2007. The American Prospect
Red Springs, North Carolina (5/10/07) -- To organizer Eduardo Peña, "the raid was like a nuclear bomb" - more precisely, a neutron bomb, that ingenious weapon of the cold war whose radiation was meant to kill a city's residents, but leave its buildings standing. After the immigration raid of January 24 at the Smithfield pork slaughtering plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, the factory was still intact. The machinery of the production lines was fully functional, ready to clank and clatter into its normal motion. But many workers were gone, and much of the plant lay still.
That day the migra [agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Homeland Security Department] picked up 21 people, while trying not to alert the rest of the plant's laborers. One by one, supervisors went to Mexicans on the line. You're needed in the front office, they'd say. The workers would put down their knives, take off their gloves, and walk through the cavernous building to the human resources department. There ICE agents took them into custody, put them in handcuffs, and locked them up in a temporary detention area. Later, they were taken out in vans and sent to immigration jails as far away as Georgia.
(Click here to read more)
Red Springs, North Carolina (5/10/07) -- To organizer Eduardo Peña, "the raid was like a nuclear bomb" - more precisely, a neutron bomb, that ingenious weapon of the cold war whose radiation was meant to kill a city's residents, but leave its buildings standing. After the immigration raid of January 24 at the Smithfield pork slaughtering plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, the factory was still intact. The machinery of the production lines was fully functional, ready to clank and clatter into its normal motion. But many workers were gone, and much of the plant lay still.
That day the migra [agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Homeland Security Department] picked up 21 people, while trying not to alert the rest of the plant's laborers. One by one, supervisors went to Mexicans on the line. You're needed in the front office, they'd say. The workers would put down their knives, take off their gloves, and walk through the cavernous building to the human resources department. There ICE agents took them into custody, put them in handcuffs, and locked them up in a temporary detention area. Later, they were taken out in vans and sent to immigration jails as far away as Georgia.
(Click here to read more)
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Bipartisan Senate plan would deepen exploitation of immigrant workers
Bipartisan Senate plan would deepen exploitation of immigrant workers By Barry Grey18 May 2007
A group of Democratic and Republicans senators on Thursday announced a bipartisan proposal to overhaul the US immigration system that contains punitive measures against undocumented workers currently in the US and regressive provisions that would prevent future immigrants from bringing parents, adult children or other family members into the country. Details of the proposed legislation, which runs 380 pages, remain sketchy. However, certain key points are clear.
The plan contains discriminatory and anti-democratic language provisions, requiring immigrants seeking permanent legal status to learn English, and mandates a massive expansion, to 18,000, of the border patrol police, the erection of 370 additional miles of fencing on the US-Mexican border, and a hi-tech employment verification system for immigrant workers. It would also establish temporary worker programs to vastly expand the number of immigrant workers brought into the country to serve as highly exploited cheap labor for agribusiness and other corporate interests. The plan would allow most undocumented workers who entered the US before January 1 to receive a temporary residency permit until they obtained a “Z Visa,” which would enable them to live and work in the US legally. However, they would have to pay a $5,000 fine and administrative costs before receiving the “Z Visa,” and face the prospect of waiting eight to thirteen years before achieving permanent residency.
U.S. town opposes "Big Brother" Mexico border fence
U.S. town opposes "Big Brother" Mexico border fence Wed May 16, 2007 2:07PM EDT By Tim Gaynor
ARIVACA, Arizona (Reuters) - A pilot project to place a high-tech network of surveillance towers along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border has met boisterous opposition in this Arizona town, where some residents call it "Big Brother." The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is installing a network of nine towers with ground radar and night vision cameras to monitor a 28-mile (45-km) stretch of border near Arivaca, southwest of Tucson.
It is the first trial for the communications and technology arm of the government's Secure Border Initiative announced in 2005. Dubbed "SBInet," authorities say it will be extended across some 6,000 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders in segments in coming years. Residents of this remote, high desert ranching town of 1,500 people have packed four public meetings in recent weeks to oppose the project, which is due to go live at the end of next month. "It's like Big Brother. It will place the whole town under surveillance," community activist C Hues told Reuters as residents gathered for a meeting late on Tuesday with CBP and Border Patrol representatives. "The government will be able to watch and record every movement we make, 24 hours a day. It will be like living in a prison yard," she added.
(Click here to read more)
ARIVACA, Arizona (Reuters) - A pilot project to place a high-tech network of surveillance towers along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border has met boisterous opposition in this Arizona town, where some residents call it "Big Brother." The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is installing a network of nine towers with ground radar and night vision cameras to monitor a 28-mile (45-km) stretch of border near Arivaca, southwest of Tucson.
It is the first trial for the communications and technology arm of the government's Secure Border Initiative announced in 2005. Dubbed "SBInet," authorities say it will be extended across some 6,000 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders in segments in coming years. Residents of this remote, high desert ranching town of 1,500 people have packed four public meetings in recent weeks to oppose the project, which is due to go live at the end of next month. "It's like Big Brother. It will place the whole town under surveillance," community activist C Hues told Reuters as residents gathered for a meeting late on Tuesday with CBP and Border Patrol representatives. "The government will be able to watch and record every movement we make, 24 hours a day. It will be like living in a prison yard," she added.
(Click here to read more)
Letter to Black America on Palestinian Rights
Letter to Black America on Palestinian Rights & June 10 March by US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation; May 19, 2007
On 15 May 2007, 22 Black American professors, writers, religious figures, and other leaders issued a call to Black America to join in the June 10 March and rally, and break the silence on the injustices faced by the Palestinian people.
To Black America:
It is time for our people to once again demand that the silence be broken on the injustices faced by the Palestinian people resulting from the Israeli occupation. On June 10th, the national coalition known as the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (endtheoccupation.org) will be spearheading a march and rally to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. We, the signatories of this appeal, ask that Black America again take a leading role in this effort as well as the broader work to bring attention to this 40 year travesty of justice.
(Click here to read more)
The new sanctuary movement
The fight against deportations The new sanctuary movement by Lee Sustar; May 18, 2007
A NEW faith-based movement to “awaken the moral imagination of the country” hopes to provide sanctuary for undocumented immigrants whose deportation would break up families. Calling themselves the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM)--a nod to the 1980s effort to assist refugees from Central America fleeing the carnage of U.S.-sponsored wars--churches and religious activist groups held press conferences around the U.S. May 9 to announce plans “to protect immigrant workers and families from unjust deportation” by giving shelter and material aid to the undocumented.
The initiative comes in the wake of efforts by immigrant rights activists to pressure local governments for sanctuary city policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. On May 8, Watsonville, Calif., became the latest city to declare itself an immigrant sanctuary. In other cities like Chicago, San Francisco and Oakland, activists have pressed city officials to reaffirm existing policies of refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
(Click here to read more)
Women Raise Heat on Immigration Debate
Women Raise Heat on Immigration Debate by Cynthia L. Cooper; WOMENSENEWS; May 19, 2007
In preparation for the march for immigrant rights that drew tens of thousands to Chicago's streets on May 1, 2007, Anita Rico stenciled T-shirts with the face of the woman who most inspires her: Elvira Arellano. Since last August Arellano, an undocumented immigrant, has been holed up in a small Chicago church with her U.S.-born 8-year-old son Saul to avoid an order of deportation back to Mexico.
"She gave a face to the crisis that is going on," said Rico, a youth coordinator at Centro Sin Fronteras, a community advocacy group in Chicago. "The way the government is treating people, especially women, is very inhumane. She's taking a stance. It's how Rosa Parks took a stance. We're literally turning the pages of history." Arellano, named one of the People Who Mattered in 2006 by Time magazine, co-founded the Chicago-based United Latino Family, which lobbies to keep together U.S.-born children and undocumented parents. Before taking sanctuary, she spoke from the podium at an immigration reform march in Chicago. Arellano's recognition level was so high during the 2006 elections that photos of her and Saul were used to get out the Latino vote.
(Click here to read more)
In preparation for the march for immigrant rights that drew tens of thousands to Chicago's streets on May 1, 2007, Anita Rico stenciled T-shirts with the face of the woman who most inspires her: Elvira Arellano. Since last August Arellano, an undocumented immigrant, has been holed up in a small Chicago church with her U.S.-born 8-year-old son Saul to avoid an order of deportation back to Mexico.
"She gave a face to the crisis that is going on," said Rico, a youth coordinator at Centro Sin Fronteras, a community advocacy group in Chicago. "The way the government is treating people, especially women, is very inhumane. She's taking a stance. It's how Rosa Parks took a stance. We're literally turning the pages of history." Arellano, named one of the People Who Mattered in 2006 by Time magazine, co-founded the Chicago-based United Latino Family, which lobbies to keep together U.S.-born children and undocumented parents. Before taking sanctuary, she spoke from the podium at an immigration reform march in Chicago. Arellano's recognition level was so high during the 2006 elections that photos of her and Saul were used to get out the Latino vote.
(Click here to read more)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement
Justice for the Undocumented Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement By ERIC JOHNSON-DEBAUFRE
On Wednesday, May 9th religious organizations in five U.S. cities announced the launch of the New Sanctuary Movement and pledged their determination to protect undocumented people against federal efforts to deport them. Modeled in part on the original Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, this new movement distinguishes itself in part by being both significantly more religiously diverse-at the New York launch, representatives included Rabbi Michael Feinberg and founder and amir of the House of Peace, Shaykh T. A. Bashir-and directed towards a larger and more diverse population of immigrants.
As a participant in the original Sanctuary Movement and someone who has in the past written about the need for revitalizing and expanding it (see "Building a New Sanctuary Movement," CounterPunch 5/19/06), I greeted the announcement with both surprise and enthusiasm. Undocumented people and their allies ought to be encouraged by the emergence of this New Sanctuary Movement and wish it all possible success. Nevertheless, as the founders of the New Sanctuary Movement no doubt know, this new movement faces serious challenges. The most significant source would appear to come from the larger culture in which the New Sanctuary Movement and, more importantly, undocumented immigrants find themselves. As several recent articles in CounterPunch make clear, these challenges include the proliferation of both discourses that aim to disguise racism and nativism under the veneer of legalism and even, as in the May 1st attacks on migrants by the LAPD, physical violence.
(Click here to read more)
On Wednesday, May 9th religious organizations in five U.S. cities announced the launch of the New Sanctuary Movement and pledged their determination to protect undocumented people against federal efforts to deport them. Modeled in part on the original Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, this new movement distinguishes itself in part by being both significantly more religiously diverse-at the New York launch, representatives included Rabbi Michael Feinberg and founder and amir of the House of Peace, Shaykh T. A. Bashir-and directed towards a larger and more diverse population of immigrants.
As a participant in the original Sanctuary Movement and someone who has in the past written about the need for revitalizing and expanding it (see "Building a New Sanctuary Movement," CounterPunch 5/19/06), I greeted the announcement with both surprise and enthusiasm. Undocumented people and their allies ought to be encouraged by the emergence of this New Sanctuary Movement and wish it all possible success. Nevertheless, as the founders of the New Sanctuary Movement no doubt know, this new movement faces serious challenges. The most significant source would appear to come from the larger culture in which the New Sanctuary Movement and, more importantly, undocumented immigrants find themselves. As several recent articles in CounterPunch make clear, these challenges include the proliferation of both discourses that aim to disguise racism and nativism under the veneer of legalism and even, as in the May 1st attacks on migrants by the LAPD, physical violence.
(Click here to read more)
Monday, May 14, 2007
Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants
By Juan Santos and Leslie Radford. May 12, 2007
(LOS ANGELES) Immigration activist Roberto Lovato was there when the Los Angeles Police Department launched its brutal assault on a park full of migrant families with children last week in LA, and this is what he saw and understood. “I saw the LAPD,” he wrote “dragging the immigrants and the entire country into dangerous terrain, a new threshold in the . . . immigration war raging around the country.”
What he saw was more than an Iraq-style surge; this was an all out escalation, a new strategic plateau in the US government’s War on Migrants. Javier Rodriguez, an immigration activist with L.A’s March 25th Coalition, called it a “political decision” to “dismantle this [immigrant rights] movement.”
(Click here to read more)
(LOS ANGELES) Immigration activist Roberto Lovato was there when the Los Angeles Police Department launched its brutal assault on a park full of migrant families with children last week in LA, and this is what he saw and understood. “I saw the LAPD,” he wrote “dragging the immigrants and the entire country into dangerous terrain, a new threshold in the . . . immigration war raging around the country.”
What he saw was more than an Iraq-style surge; this was an all out escalation, a new strategic plateau in the US government’s War on Migrants. Javier Rodriguez, an immigration activist with L.A’s March 25th Coalition, called it a “political decision” to “dismantle this [immigrant rights] movement.”
(Click here to read more)
Haitian Refugees: Capsized Boat Deliberately Overturned
Haitian migrants 'angry and revolted' at alleged boat ramming off Turks and Caicos. The Associated Press. May 8, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Survivors of the worst sea disaster to hit Haitian migrants in years were "angry and revolted" Wednesday as they accused a Turks and Caicos vessel of ramming their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized, killing 61 in shark-filled waters, a senior Haitian official said.
Reports about the alleged involvement of the Turks and Caicos boat has taken days to come out because the 78 survivors are locked in a jail-like detention center and barred from speaking to the media. Officials say about 160 migrants were jammed in the rickety sailboat when it capsized before dawn Friday, flinging most of them into the Atlantic Ocean less than a kilometer (a half-mile) off the Turks and Caicos Islands, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Haiti.
(Click here to read more)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Survivors of the worst sea disaster to hit Haitian migrants in years were "angry and revolted" Wednesday as they accused a Turks and Caicos vessel of ramming their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized, killing 61 in shark-filled waters, a senior Haitian official said.
Reports about the alleged involvement of the Turks and Caicos boat has taken days to come out because the 78 survivors are locked in a jail-like detention center and barred from speaking to the media. Officials say about 160 migrants were jammed in the rickety sailboat when it capsized before dawn Friday, flinging most of them into the Atlantic Ocean less than a kilometer (a half-mile) off the Turks and Caicos Islands, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Haiti.
(Click here to read more)
Monday, May 7, 2007
Mayday Immigrant Rights are Worker Rights
Video of Police attacks of NYC & LA May Day Immigrant & Workers Right Marches
LA police (including against Fox reporters!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijWfZ9aCHAo
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197854.php
NYC (including confrontation with Minutemen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RstfALrC1s&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RstfALrC1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0DqcvssfcM&mode=related&search=
Democracy Now MayDay Immigrant Rights Special
http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20070502
Stories include:
- May Day 2007: Hundreds of Thousands March for Immigrant Rights
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants took to the streets on Tuesday in protests in dozens of cities across the country. Calls focused on demanding a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, ending immigrant raids and deportations and rejecting anti-immigrant legislation. We speak with organizers of the day's two largest protests: Los Angeles and Chicago. [includes rush transcript]
-Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas Into Peaceful LA Immigration March In Los Angeles, an afternoon immigrant rights march ended when police fired dozens of rubber bullets and tear gas into the peaceful crowd. Families with young children were forced to flee for their safety. Eyewitnesses said police gave little or no warning before firing therubber bullets. [includes rush transcript]
-Hundreds of Students Walk Out of Classrooms to Support Immigrant Rights Students once again played a key role in the May Day protests. In LosA ngeles, city officials reported around six hundred students walked out ofclass to join the march for immigrant rights. Meanwhile in Detroit, dozens of students were arrested for taking part in a walkout that also protestedthe planned closure of dozens of schools. We speak with two student organizers. [includes rush transcript]
-A Look at the Forces Behind the Anti-Immigrant Movement We take a look at the forces behind the anti-immigrant movement with journalist Max Blumenthal of The Nation. Blumenthal says the ideas for the movement "did not come from a vacuum and they're not necessarily a rational response to a crisis. They come from the white nationalist movement, a movement that seeks to maintain what they consider the white character of then United States." [includes rush transcript]
LA police (including against Fox reporters!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijWfZ9aCHAo
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197854.php
NYC (including confrontation with Minutemen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RstfALrC1s&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RstfALrC1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0DqcvssfcM&mode=related&search=
Democracy Now MayDay Immigrant Rights Special
http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20070502
Stories include:
- May Day 2007: Hundreds of Thousands March for Immigrant Rights
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants took to the streets on Tuesday in protests in dozens of cities across the country. Calls focused on demanding a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, ending immigrant raids and deportations and rejecting anti-immigrant legislation. We speak with organizers of the day's two largest protests: Los Angeles and Chicago. [includes rush transcript]
-Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas Into Peaceful LA Immigration March In Los Angeles, an afternoon immigrant rights march ended when police fired dozens of rubber bullets and tear gas into the peaceful crowd. Families with young children were forced to flee for their safety. Eyewitnesses said police gave little or no warning before firing therubber bullets. [includes rush transcript]
-Hundreds of Students Walk Out of Classrooms to Support Immigrant Rights Students once again played a key role in the May Day protests. In LosA ngeles, city officials reported around six hundred students walked out ofclass to join the march for immigrant rights. Meanwhile in Detroit, dozens of students were arrested for taking part in a walkout that also protestedthe planned closure of dozens of schools. We speak with two student organizers. [includes rush transcript]
-A Look at the Forces Behind the Anti-Immigrant Movement We take a look at the forces behind the anti-immigrant movement with journalist Max Blumenthal of The Nation. Blumenthal says the ideas for the movement "did not come from a vacuum and they're not necessarily a rational response to a crisis. They come from the white nationalist movement, a movement that seeks to maintain what they consider the white character of then United States." [includes rush transcript]
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