a perverted version of its original intent
(Nashville) by Jan Snider
She looked so tiny holding the calloused hand of her young uncle, just 5 years old and excited about starting kindergarten. But as she shuffled down the polished floors of the church hallway toward our immigration legal clinic, there was worry in her big brown eyes.
She [...]
EDITORIAL
It’s time the U.S. take steps to keep thousands of migrants from dying attempting to cross into this country.
LA Times - October 29, 2009
Operation Gatekeeper started in October 1994, focusing federal border security efforts on the five-mile stretch from the Pacific Ocean to San Ysidro. Within three years, the budget of the old Immigration and [...]
The West Michigan Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform has developed a House Party Kit to help advocate and educate the public on the issues with the current immigration policies. The kit includes: a 10 minute video, a discussion guide, resource to support the discussion, materials to make your voice count, and directions on how to [...]
by Tom Rademacher | The Grand Rapids Press
Sunday August 30, 2009, 6:00 AM
In a child’s handwriting, the letter begins simply: “Dear President Obama, I am writing to tell you how I feel without my dad and my little twin brothers.” Thus begins Pablo Aguilar’s plea for help, help to be reunited with his stepfather [...]
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June 10, 2009
By MIRIAM JORDAN - The Wall Street Journal
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it is temporarily freezing a policy of deporting widows and widowers of U.S. citizens, a sign of the Obama administration’s interest in new approaches to immigration.
Only a few hundred people were at risk of deportation under the policy, but [...]
On May 20, Senator Menendez (D-NJ), Senator Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Kennedy (D-MA), and Senator Schumer (D-NY) re-introduced the Reuniting Families Act (S.1085) which contains practical solutions for reducing family immigration visa backlogs and promoting humane and timely reunification of immigrant families. Specifically, the bill includes provisions that would ensure that visas are allocated efficiently; alleviate [...]
May 13, 2009
Washington D.C. - Tomorrow, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Congressmen Adam Putnam (R-FL) and Howard Berman (D-CA) will introduce, in the Senate and House, the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security (AgJOBS) Act. AgJOBS is a bipartisan, compromise bill that is the result of years of negotiations among farmworkers, growers, and Members of Congress. The [...]
April 6, 2009
NY Times Editorial
It is more than bank failures and rising unemployment that give these troubled times echoes of the 1930s. An unfinished labor battle from the New Deal is being waged again.
The goal is to win basic rights that farm and domestic workers were denied more than 70 years ago, when the Roosevelt [...]
Last year on Monday, May 12, as spring was just beginning, “Irma” and “Jose” were on their lunch break at the meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa, just 20 minutes from campus; “Rosita” was waiting in line to go out to recess with her other first grade classmates at the Postville Elementary School; Sister Mary [...]
By NINA BERNSTEIN Published: February 3, 2009
New York Times
The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return to Sender.
And they garnered bigger increases in money and staff from Congress than any other program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even [...]