Today’s New York Times has a powerful editorial on immigraton enforcement under the Obama administration. Using the exmaples of Saturday’s peaceful protest against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and last week’s unexpected immigration raid in Bellingham, WA, the piece picks apart the notion that Bush-era enforcement-only tactics can somehow solve the immigration issue in this country.
An excerpt:
Americans who might applaud any crackdown on illegal immigrants, particularly in a recession, should know that scattershot raids and rampaging sheriffs are not the answer. The idea that enforcement alone will eliminate the underground economy is a great delusion. It runs up against the impossible arithmetic of mass expulsion — no conceivable regime of raids will wrench 12 million illegal immigrants from their jobs and homes.
The country is not a safer or better place because one more business and two dozen more families are torn apart outside Seattle or because Sheriff Arpaio has much of Maricopa County terrified. The system under which illegal immigrants labor, without hope of assimilation, is not any less broken. A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows that federal oversight of the 287(g) program has been sorely lacking.
So, a question: Are Mr. Obama and Ms. Napolitano in charge or not? Let them show it by ending the raids and Sheriff Arpaio’s abuses. Something has to be done about immigration, but it has to be smarter than this.
To read the full article click here.
Categories: Editorials
Tagged: 287(g), arpaio, bellingham washington, immigration raid, immigraton reform, napolitano
Nevada has one of the speediest eviction processes in the US. Especially in these hard economic times, tenants should be given a reasonable opportunity to get into compliance to avoid eviction or to find substitute housing if evicted. AB189 is a good bill that would make the eviction process more fair and less biased toward landlords.
Problem: Property managers and landlords are conducting an email campaign opposing AB189 and overwhelming committee members. We need to get calls and letters pointing out how Nevada’s pro-landlord laws hurt low and moderate income people.
Solution: AB189 will be heard this Friday in Assembly Judiciary. Our lobbyists need your help describing how Nevada’s eviction process hurts the working poor. We’ll face a room full of angry landlords, property managers and realtors screaming about these “deadbeats,” so action is needed now!
Action Needed: Email the members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee below and voice your support for AB189. If you can testify contact Jon Sasser at jsasser@washoelegalservices.org or call his office direct line at 775- 785-5722 or cell at 775-745-2215.
Categories: Action
Tagged: AB189, eviction, eviction notice, nevada
Today, the New York Times reported that the Government Accountability Office has released their findings on a study of the infamous 287(g) program. The program, which has 67 participating local law enforcement agencies, is designed to allow local law enforcement agents to enforce Federal immigration laws.
We have been saying for years that not only is 287(g) ineffective, but it is costly to communities, who experience a heightened sense of insecurity and fear under the program. Well, now the GAO is coming out and saying basically the same thing.
The report, to be released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the government has failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported under the program were the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out.
Some law enforcement agencies had used the program to deport immigrants “who have committed minor crimes, such as carrying an open container of alcohol,” the report said, and at least four agencies referred minor traffic offenders for deportation.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has already ordered a review of the program. A top official at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is set to testify at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The ineffective program is yet another symptom created by the lack of Immigration Reform at the Federal level. When Federal laws are pushed off onto local entities for enforcement, you are bound to run into issues. This is a Federal problem and should be dealt with as such.
Again (and I feel like a broken record here, people) this draws even more attention to the NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM. The system is broken and no amount of manuevering at the local level can fix it. Immigration Reform must be passed, and soon.
Categories: immigration news
Tagged: 287 (g), DHS, government accountability office, ICE, local immigration enforcement, napolitano
On Saturday, February 28th, one of FIRM’s lead organizers was on the ground in Phoenix, Arizona, marching alongside thousands of others, demanding justice for immigrants and an end to the authority of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Here is his experience:
We were demanding that Sheriff Arpaio must go and with him the infamous 287(g) agreement, and a stop to the ICE raids. But the march was more than that; it was the people’s way to demand justice and respect for all.
Led by The Natioanl Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON), ACORN: Arizona, Tonatierra, SOMOS America and other key organizations and supporters, Phoenix witnessed a peaceful, well-attended march which began at the Steele Indian School Park.
Over 8 thousand marchers walked 4 miles under in the hot sun; mothers with their small kids in strollers, fathers with their kids, elder folks, men and women, youth, latinos, whites, blacks, people of faith, and workers from different industries. All of these people turned out to show that human rights and immigrant rights are supported by the people of this country. What a show of power it was! On Saturday, our demands to stop the abuses against immigrants and their families were made in a powerful way.
At one point the police wanted to keep us on the sidewalk, away from the streets, but thanks to the hundreds of participants we won the streets! Youth were asking as: “whose streets are these?” And we all just took the streets over. That’s how democracy really works; you push yourself all the way until you get what you want. One more time, a peaceful, but massive demonstration can bring the power to change things.
On Saturday, the sense that immigrant communities were afraid of Sherriff Arpaio was totally shattered. The notion that we can defend and demand our rights was affirmed. The march showed that the people in Phoenix, Arizona and throughout the country are tired of the abuse and impunity of authorities.
We marched, and we will continue to march until we assert our rights in this country. So, Sherriff Arpaio, you should take notice, you have been warned.
Keep reading for a roundup of media coverage of the march.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 287(g), arpaio protest, joe arpaio, maricopa county, phoenix arizona, sheriff joe
