Defend Immigrant Rights
Oppose Detentions by Defending Our Communities Residents Oppose Big Brother Tower Making Town Into Prison Yard
Step Up Resistance By Defending Rights of All
The government is systematically organizing to put in place arrangements that deny rights. A main feature of these arrangements is the concentration of power in the hands of the executive, from the Office of the President on down. Another main characteristic is the criminalization of broad sections of the people, simply for being youth or immigrants, for example, and the criminalization of dissent. The right to speak and organize is broadly under attack as the government works to both silence and divide the people in a desperate effort to block their resistance.
An effort is being made to create an atmosphere that says public spaces and public opinion have no place, whether it’s the public opinion against the war and against repression. Public places are being ruled off-limits for the people while turned into open hunting grounds for the military. Schools, libraries and malls regularly have military recruiters with their military hardware. Those who resist and denounce the unjust Iraq war — representing the large majority of Americans and the world’s peoples — are kicked out, threatened, prosecuted and jailed. Building resistance by defending public spaces, public opinion, the rights of the public, and all its collectives and individuals, to speak and organize, is critical.
The fascist immigration bills now in Congress are also designed to split and silence the people, especially immigrant workers. They serve to criminalize many millions of people and force undocumented workers to pay to work and pay for the concentration camps where they and their families will be forced to live! It serves to impose the notion that everyone should pay to work and that only some people “merit” benefits and government approved documentation. Others, who cannot meet an arbitrary government “point-system” are to be shunned — blocked from working, receiving social services and from participating in civil society, like voting.
President Bush and Congresspeople regularly refer to sending the 14 million undocumented workers to the “back of the line.” Who among us does not hear the echo of sending African Americans to the “back of the bus”? Who has forgotten the arbitrary “merit-based” system for voter registration, that for decades denied African -Americans the right to vote? And who has any doubt that the criminalization being imposed on certain sections of the population now will be imposed on all? The entire backward direction of government is to slavery, genocide, and civil death. The public, as a body politic, as a political force to be reckoned with, is to no longer exist. And with the elimination of the body politic, the government expects its consciousness of rights will also be eliminated. There is no way!
Across the country people are organizing conferences and actions of various kinds to strengthen their resistance and build stronger working ties among all those resisting. Discussion is developing on the direction of the government and analyzing how to oppose it. By stepping up the defense of rights, resistance is developing. There is no doubt that it is the peoples organized to defend the rights of all that is opening a path forward.
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Immigration Bills
Congress Pushing Anti-Worker Police State Measures
Anti-worker police state measures are common to both the Senate immigration bill now being debated (S- 1348) and the STRIVE Act introduced in the House. One main feature of both measures is the Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS). The immigration bills will make the program compulsory for all employers and will make the government-issued biometric ID it requires mandatory for all workers.
If the bills become law, immediately, all those “suspected” of being undocumented workers would have to secure the federally-issued ID in order to work. Within 18 months all new hires would need to have it. Within three years all workers would be required to have the ID.
It is the employer who secures the ID from the worker and the federal government that verifies it. Existing experience already shows that this makes the system subject to arbitrary actions by employers or the government seeking to punish workers, whether for being active in defending rights at their workplaces, for having high seniority, or those the government claims are a “national security” threat, etc. It is well known that literally thousands have been wrongly accused and detained simply on the basis of their name. This system will institutionalize these unjust and arbitrary actions and allow governments and monopolies to starve people into submission, by demanding they submit, or not receive the ID card. To facilitate such arbitrary action, a government claim of “non-compliance” must be challenged by the worker within ten days or it is considered final. Again, notification of non-compliance goes through the employer, not directly to the worker.
To secure this national work ID card, a White House fact sheet states that only the following documents will be accepted:
• U.S. passport issued by the state department (for U.S. citizens only)
• Document issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the State Department containing photo, biometrics, and other such personal identifying information needed to ensure identity (for non-citizens)
• State-issued REAL ID Act-compliant driver’s license presented along with a Social Security card
• For a limited period before implementation of the REAL ID Act, a State-issued license with a photograph that can be verified by DHS, presented along with an [original or certified] birth certificate and social security card.
A “REAL-ID compliant driver’s licenses” means the license will only be issued on the basis of the above documents, and will have a photo and biometric identifiers, like fingerprints or eye-scans. Already, many state DMV’s are opposing the requirements as they are often contrary to state law concerning who can and cannot get a license and with what documentation.
Information Sharing with FBI and Military
Another significant police-state measure is that the DHS verification of the information provided will involve an “unprecedented sharing of information across numerous electronic databases” according to the White House fact sheet. These include DHS, the State Department, Social Security, state vital statistics agencies, and every state-level Department of Motor Vehicles. In addition, the law requires sharing information with the FBI, which in turn shares with the CIA and military. In this manner, every worker will have all their basic civilian information passed on to the military and policing agencies, while having committed no crime. The national work ID will become a requirement of work and the next generation of workers will consider it normal for the military and FBI and CIA to have a complete file on them.
The Senate bill as proposed also gives the federal government blanket authority to deny anyone applying for the “Z” visa, even if they have not committed any crimes. This authority, along with the development of “merit-based” citizenship is first being applied to the close to 14 million undocumented workers already in the country. But similar measures could easily be extended to all workers, using the national ID card as the mechanism.
For those applying for the “Z” visa, they must first register with the government, have employment and pass a background check simply to be put on “probation.” Remaining employed, passing several additional background checks, paying numerous fines and fees (at least $11,000 in fines alone for a family of 4) are then required to become eligible for permanent residency status. Even then there are no guarantees, after at least ten years of jumping through government hoops. And then any that wish to become citizens must, as individuals, “pay a total of $5,000 in fines, pass multiple background checks, complete accelerated English and civics requirements, go back home to apply in their home country, demonstrate merit in the new merit-based green card system AND go to the back of the line behind those who applied lawfully.” And still, no guarantees, only the arbitrary dictate of DHS. The aim is not to provide equal status for workers, but to require workers to submit to any conditions and wages and pay for the ability to do so!
The government can disqualify any applicant for: “any felony conviction; any three or more misdemeanors; any serious criminal offense; crimes involving moral turpitude; violations of a law relating to a controlled substance.” Crimes of “moral turpitude” can include shoplifting, simply the intent to defraud or steal, intentional or reckless infliction of harm to persons or property. Obviously many workers engaged in strikes or participating in mass demonstrations could be convicted of such misdemeanors. In addition, all applicants, including those convicted of no crimes, can be branded ineligible if the government decides “there are ‘reasonable grounds’ for regarding [them] as a danger to the security of the United States.”
Experience has already shown that measures first imposed on one section of the working class, such as the thousands of Arabs and Muslim indefinitely detained with no charges after September 11, will be extended to all, as occurred with the Military Commissions Act. The national ID requirement being put in place already applies to all workers. Reasons for denying such documentation, such as “reasonable grounds” for regarding the individual as a “danger to the security of the United States,” now imposed on undocumented workers, can equally be imposed on all workers.
These immigration measures are design to fully regulate all workers and force them to submit to government dictate or be refused the documentation required to work. They are measures to force everyone to submit to whatever conditions of work dictated by the “cooperation between employers and government” that the bills mandate. They most assuredly are aimed at smashing resistance and increasing the competition among all workers. They also serve to eliminate any distinction between civilian and criminal agencies and their relevant information. And it will likely become a crime simply to refuse to secure the documentation demanded.
An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
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Lawmakers Cite Cost Savings
Congress to Hire Immigrants to Write Immigration Bill
In an attempt to break the nagging logjam over immigration, congressional leaders announced today that they were hiring “illegal” immigrants to write the nation’s new immigration bill.
While some observers criticized the decision to employ “illegals” to draft the very bill that would regulate themselves, Sen. John Kyl (R-Arizona) said that the move was a “win-win” for the American people. “No one understands the thorny issue of immigration better than the people who have been sneaking into our country,” Mr. Kyl said. “Plus, these folks work cheap.”
One outspoken critic of the plan was CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who blasted Congress for putting illegal immigrants in charge of the nation’s immigration laws. “This would be the equivalent of CNN outsourcing my xenophobic rants to Bangalore,” Mr. Dobbs said.
According to the plan, which went into effect at midnight, the U.S. will bus illegal aliens across the border to work as “guest congressmen” to draft the nation’s new immigration laws. The “illegals” will remain in the country long enough to write the new immigration laws, after which they will be permitted to run for election for permanent congressman status.
Juan Carmelo Gutierrez, 35, a former migrant worker who is taking advantage of the “guest congressman” program, says that while drafting the nation’s immigration’s laws is arduous work, he still prefers it to his previous job.
“Being a congressman is definitely easier than picking fruit,” says Mr. Gutierrez. “Plus, you get most of the year off.”[TOP]
National Immigrant Strategy Conference, July 27-29
Yesterday We Marched, Today We Organize, Tomorrow We Will Achieve Our Dreams and Goals
Mark your calendar! Please attend our 2007 national grassroots immigrant strategy conference at the University of Richmond School of Law in Richmond, Virginia. Our conference will be based on our May Day 2007 call to action:
1) No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.
2) No to militarization of the border.
3) No to the immigrant detention and deportation.
4) No to the guest worker program.
5) No to employer sanction and “no match” letters.
6) Yes to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
7) Yes to speedy family reunification.
8) Yes to civil rights and humane immigration law.
9) Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers.
10) Yes to education and LGBT immigrant legislation.
We envision this as a grassroots activist conference of broad-based, multiethnic organizers from African American, Native American, African immigrant, Asian American, Latino/Latina, Arab-Muslim-North African, progressive labor, interfaith, LGBT, student, anti-war and global justice groups from across the country. We want everyone to meet face-to-face and discuss how to build a national, broad-based, -immigrant rights/civil rights movement, and to set a 6-9 month national strategy for the 2007-2008.
During our 3-days conference, we will have more than 30 workshops as well as plenary sessions. Topics so far include: Congressional Legislation, Militarization of the Border, Immigrant Detention and Deportation, Labor Organizing, Student/Youth Organizing, Education & Outreach, Multi-Ethnic Organizing, Community Support Network and Diverse Tactics to Achieve Goals.
Please come to join the movement! Submit proposals for workshops. Bring your literature to table and network. See you in July in Richmond, Virginia!
Together We Build A National, Broad-Based, Immigrant Rights/Civil Rights Movement!
Register On-Line or by Mail
www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
Registration Fee:
$50.00 for organization
$20.00 for individual
$15.00 for low-Income/student
Includes: conference materials, Sat/Sun light lunch and Saturday evening plenary dinner.
Mail the Registration From and the Check Payable to: NISN/AFSC to:
National Immigrant Solidarity Network - Conference Planning
ActionLA / The Peace Center
8124 West 3rd Street, Suite 104
Los Angeles, CA 90048
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United Nations Fact-Finding on U.S. Treatment of Immigrants
Defend the Rights of Immigrants!
Across the country people are standing up to the brutal and illegal treatment of immigrants by the government. People have been opposing the death wall and militarization of the border, legislation denying immigrant rights, and the increased exploitation of immigrants to make them virtual slaves. The many raids and deportations and the inhumane detentions of immigrants and whole families is also a focus of demonstrations. These efforts have helped to build public awareness in the country and internationally, and built support for actions and organizations -supporting immigrant rights.
As one result of the repeated protests, vigils, lawsuits and other efforts by various organizations to defend rights and expose the brutal and illegal conditions, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Dr. Jorge Bustamante toured the United States to review the conditions of migrants and immigrants from April 30 through May 18.
Immigrant and civil rights groups and other activists organized the visit. He was hosted at each step by local organizations active in fighting for immigrant rights. Dr. Bustamante’s fact finding mission took him from California to Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC. Bustamante visited and observed the border, detention facilities, toured living and working conditions and also participated in numerous forums, meetings and discussions. During the visit he learned directly from immigrants about the conditions they face. He also heard detailed reports from organizations active in the fight to defend rights.
Bustamante particularly decried violations of the rights of immigrant women and children and the use of excessive force. He spoke to people who had been detained, some with their children who “spoke about gross violations of human rights, in terms of separation of children from their parents, in terms of nourishment of the children, in terms of treatment of the children, the health of the children.” Bustamante will be presenting his findings and recommendations to the UN Commission on Human Rights in June.
Refused Entry to Hutto Detention Camp
The UN expert was denied access at his scheduled visits to the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas and the Monmouth Detention Center in Monmouth, New Jersey. The Hutto detention center is a former prison now used as a detention camp for families, including young children. The adults being held commonly have committed no crime and are often seeking asylum or detained for possible civil immigration offenses. Hutto is notorious for treating children and adults like prisoners, although the law requires that those detained be kept in humane conditions as close to home-life as possible.
Lawsuits, protests and vigils have exposed that Hutto is a concentration camp for whole families guilty of no crime. Adults and children wear orange jumpsuit prison uniforms. Families are divided into separate cells. Outdoor recreation was limited to half an hour, and education to one hour. As a result of many protests and lawsuits, time for both have now been extended but still remain far below what is required. The schooling for the children remains limited, without adequate time, facilities and teachers. Children have been threatened with separation from their parents as punishment.
Forcing children to wear prison uniforms, refusing to provide them with education and recreation, and splitting families, including young children from their mothers, are inhuman and crimes. As well, the U.S. is required, by law, to open facilities to the UN Rapporteurs. Bustamente formally protested the government decision to cancel his visit to the detention centers in a letter addressed to US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad.
The New Jersey County Jails, which contract with ICE to hold detained immigrants, have also been notorious in their violations and mistreatment. Amnesty International of New Jersey’s report, released May 15, details the violations.
The bills currently being discussed in the House and Senate call for 20,000 more beds in similar detention camps. This indicates that despite clear evidence that these camps are criminal, Congress plans to build more of them.[TOP]
No to Concentration Camps! Yes to Rights for All!
Demonstrate June 23
Close Hutto Concentration Camp Now
A growing number of organizations are joining together to demand that the Hutto concentration camp in Taylor, Texas be closed. These include a broad coalition in the area, Free the Children, Amnesty International, as well as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Council on American Islamic Relations, and more. As a call for the action brings out:
“In the country that touts ‘inalienable rights’ and ‘liberty and justice for all,’ no child should be imprisoned, let alone for greedy callous profit. Hundreds of children are imprisoned with their mothers in the Hutto prison camp in Taylor, Texas. This is shocking to many Taylor and Williamson County residents. This is immoral and criminal. It violates the conscience of thousands of Americans. Yet elected officials at all levels, from the city, county, state and federal, are complicit in this atrocity. […] Our government is committing this heinous crime of imprisoning children, an act that violates all moral and human decency. It is denying a U.N. Human Rights Rapporteur from inspecting conditions at Hutto.
“It is our country and our money...so we have a right to say ‘Hell no!’ we will not allow this!” Join the protest, June 23, Taylor,Texas.[TOP]
Oppose Detentions by Defending
Our Communities
There was a huge Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raid in Georgia and several more in South Central Los Angeles. We must oppose detentions by defending our communities.
The Frente Contra las Redadas (Front Against the Raids), a coalition of more than 40 Latino, Asian, white, African-American and Arab community and student organizations, extending from Oxnard to San Diego, will be holding a press conference to denounce the continuation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids against the undocumented migrant community and federal immigration reform legislation by the Senate.
We will also announce a new ICE Raids Hotline (562-236-3939) that will allow people, especially in southern California, to report an ICE raid so that the Frente Contra las Redadas can alert thousands and potentially millions of people within minutes via text messages, email, phone calls, mass media, etc.
The main objectives will be:
1) To publicly denounce the ICE raids across the U.S. and immigration reform legislation in the Senate, as well as the use of police check points to target undocumented migrants in Los Angeles.
2) To publicly announce a new hotline that the public can call to report a raid. The number is 562-236-3939. This service will begin on May 24, 2007. As part of a city-wide campaign to inform and keep the community on alert, distribution of the number will begin with the local community at Macarthur Park, and continue to other areas in urban Los Angeles.
3) To receive text message alerts of ICE raids and abuses by the police department that the public can register at www.txtmob.com. The name of our group is “FCR_LA.” Our coalition will send out text message alerts. This service is free to the public and is available to anyone who can receive text messages on their cell phone.
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Border Insecurity in Arivaca, Arizona
Residents Oppose Big Brother Tower
Making Town Into Prison Yard
In November of 2005 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) and in September of 2006 President George W. Bush gave military monopoly Boeing the contract to design and implement the SBInet, a multiyear program that will use cameras, radar, unmanned aerial drones along with more Border Patrols and national guards. Richard Skinner, inspector general for Homeland Security, put the price tag for this electronic monitoring of the border at $30 billion — to start. Physical barriers would cost an additional $7 billion, he said. Many expect the cost to top $200 billion. The Department of Homeland Security says that if the initial towers work, its plan is to erect them all along the entire Mexican and Canadian borders.
The government’s plans to use a “virtual fence” to stop immigration — supported and required as a first step in all the current Congressional legislation — is now being implemented in Arivaca, Arizona, population 1500. This militarization of the border has been opposed by local residents who have organized several actions and packed hearings. The government has already put in place one of nine 98-foot towers, equipped with long-range cameras, radar and night vision, right on the outskirts of town. While the tower is right next to the town, the border is 13 miles south of town.
Residents have made clear that the towers are bringing insecurity. It will be “like living in a prison yard,” one resident said. Another referred to the tower as Big Brother watching. Another store-owner said, “It’s so close . . . that we feel like we’re under the scope of the cameras and the radar units and the night-vision cameras, and that is troubling to the people here.” Another resident said the tower is “a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. We have the right to wander around and not be searched without probable cause and this thing is constantly searching us.”
Many townsfolk have brought out that surveillance towers do not solve social problems, they just impose more prison-like conditions on everyone. Residents have also rejected efforts to pit them against the people coming across the border. As one rancher put it, “I can’t blame the little guys who are coming in. They get taken advantage of. The way I see it, it’s another slave trade,”
The main objection by residents is that no one asked them what they thought about having the towers with their cameras following them around every hour of every day. And the government is now not listening to their demands.
Residents who went to meetings to voice their opposition to the tower, known as Project 28, were told the location of the “Arivaca Tower” was a done-deal, and the tower would not be moved unless “proven ineffective.” Tower construction started Monday, May 21st, and as of May 24th, the tower was up but not operational. The site is currently guarded 24/7 by Pinkerton guards.
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