Immigration Crackdown: Is This Alabama?

“Is This Alabama?” is a project of the Center for American Progress, America’s Voice Education Fund, and Define American. The videos were written and directed by Chris Weitz. Chris Weitz is the award-winning director of “A Better Life,” an authentic and compelling tale of the lives of today’s immigrants.

Is This Alabama?: "In June 2011 Alabama enacted H.B. 56—the most extreme state-level anti-immigrant bill passed to date—which went into effect in September. Now Hollywood director Chris Weitz has turned the camera on Alabama and is asking “Is This Alabama?” You be the judge. Watch and share the videos below."

Immigration Crackdown Joins Failed Wars on Drugs and Crime

From our CIP colleague, Tom Barry, director of the TransBorder Project

Border Lines: "The following is an excerpt from an International Policy Report of the Center for International Policy, which is titled Immigrant Crackdown Joins Failed Crime and Drug Wars. The report, published in April 2009 and written by Tom Barry, is once again available online -- at a time when the Obama administration faces increasing questions about its immigration and drug prohibition policies, as well its practice of criminalizing immigrants, both legal and illegal ones." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Hundreds rally against Alabama immigration law

AP/Boston.com: "Hundreds packed the Alabama Statehouse courtyard on Tuesday to rally against the state's tough immigration law, with organizers saying they chose to send a message on Valentine's Day that lawmakers need to love and respect immigrants." read more

Immigration Crackdown: US to pay $350,000 to settle lawsuit over 2007 immigration sweep in New Haven, Connecticut

AP/Washington Post: "Eleven men who claimed immigration agents violated their rights in 2007 raids on their New Haven neighborhood have won a $350,000 settlement from the U.S. government, which also agreed to halt deportation proceedings against the plaintiffs, their attorneys said Tuesday." read more

Immigration Crackdown: U.S. Policy Gives Mother of Three Criminal Treatment

Witness for Peace : "Mariela had been living and working in the United States for seven years. A mother of three, she and her partner worked to support her family in Nicaragua and her three-year-old son, a U.S. citizen with her in the U.S. Mariela was deported because she lived in a county that participates in the controversial “Secure Communities” program." read more

Immigration Realities: Illegal immigrants live on edge of society, fearing deportation

Another story from a series on the realities of the lives of undocumented immigrants; from the Janesville (Wisconsin) Gazette.

GazetteXtra: "Every year, migrants risk their lives to illegally cross the 2,100-mile border that separates Mexico and the United States, two neighboring nations that have one of the largest income gaps on Earth.

"I was lucky," said Ana, who lives in Rock County. "I've heard terrible stories about what can happen." More than a decade ago, Ana left behind her mother and nine siblings in Puebla, south of Mexico City, to join her husband in the United States. He had crossed the border illegally to work and had planned to return after two years. "It was hard to stay separated from each other," Ana recalled. "I told him that I can come and make money, too."" read more

Border Sanity: Arizona shouldn't fund questionable border militia

A sane Arizona response to some of its politicians´ insanity. 

azstarnet.com: "The border-militia bill snaking its way through the Legislature sure sends a message: When state lawmakers try to get serious about the U.S.-Mexico border, which is a federal issue, they end up looking pretty silly. State lawmakers are looking to fund the volunteer militia, which was created last year, with $1.9 million.

... Will any of this make a difference for Arizona's roughly 370-mile border with Mexico? With the federal government having spent billions and billions of dollars on the region, is this small amount of money just what the border needs to finally become safe? Is this the tipping point we have been waiting for?

State Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake and one of the bill's sponsors, didn't think so.
"I don't have any illusion that we can solve our border problem," she said. "But this will help."

Yes, it's always helpful to have more armed and slightly trained people on the border. This is just what the border needs." read more

Immigration Crackdown: US Hands Over 14,237 Unaccompanied Minors to Mexico in 2011

Fox News Latino: "U.S. authorities handed over 14,237 unaccompanied children and teenagers of different nationalities found traveling alone on the border to Mexico last year, the National Migration Institute, or INM, said. Of the minors handed over to authorities in Mexico, 11,520, or nearly 81 percent, were Mexican and the other 2,717 were of various unspecified nationalities." read more

Immigration Realities: “Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives”

A book review

Latin America Working Group: "I was not prepared when I opened Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives. One moment I was sitting at my desk, and the next I was with Roberto, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. I followed him as he moved from one underpaying, exhausting job to the next; working even harder once he had his own family. I was by his side when he received amnesty, but his family didn’t. They voluntarily left the country while he stayed behind to continue working to support them. Here Roberto recounts his own experiences, providing me a glimpse into his struggles and feelings of profound loneliness and loss." read more

Immigration Reality: Immigrants search for better life and understanding

Another personal immigrant story from Wisconsin. The local paper is doing a series to introduce its readers to the real lives of Mexican immigrants in its community. Laudable!

GazetteXtra: "Jorge Islas-Martinez sometimes stares at the underbelly of a passing train and wonders how he survived. "I hid underneath it," he recalled. "Suddenly, the train started to move. The only thing I could do is hang on." Inches off the ground, he clung to the cold mass of pulsing steel in the darkness. He prayed hard as the train picked up speed into California. "I thought about my mother, my brothers," he said. "I thought I would die."

More than 25 years later, he recounted the harrowing details of eluding immigration officers at the border in Tijuana, Mexico. "It seemed like hours and hours underneath that train," Islas-Martinez said. "I had my eyes closed. When the train stopped, I crawled out, and I could not feel my body. I was so scared. My heart was pounding."

Since his dangerous journey to the United States, Islas-Martinez has come a long way. Today, he is a United States citizen who works as a translator, teacher and bill collector. He volunteers widely in his community and owns a home. He also is a vocal activist for immigration reform." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Immigration, deportation -- and no right to return?

A Los Angeles Times editorial

latimes.com: "Three years ago, the Justice Department assured the Supreme Court that although it sometimes deported immigrants while they were challenging unfavorable court decisions, it would bring those people back to the United States if they won on appeal. That was U.S. policy, the department asserted. The justices relied on that statement in deciding that immigrants would not suffer irreparable harm if they were forced to leave the country while still appealing their cases.

Now it turns out, according to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, that the government's assertion may have been false. In fact, it may be that those who are wrongfully deported stand little chance of returning." read more

Border Madness: Arizona Legislature could fund militia for border

More insanity from Arizona.

KTAR.com: "The Republican-led Arizona Legislature is considering a bill to fund an armed, volunteer state militia to respond to emergencies and patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Gov. Jan Brewer could deploy the volunteers using $1.9 million included in the bill making its way through the state Senate. The militia itself was created by a law signed by Brewer last year." read more

Immigration Crackdown: US Immigration's 'Culture of Cruelty' Stretches from Arizona to Massachusetts

Right on! Clearly describes the consruction of "illegality" that keeps in place our economic exploitation of Mexicans and other Latin Americans and our resulting benefiting from of their low-cost labor.

Huffington Post: "When U.S. citizens rail about "illegals" or ask "what part of 'illegal' don't you understand?" they are subscribing to a set of beliefs that justify cruel and inhumane treatment. What they themselves fail to understand is that "illegality" is not a scientific fact, but a social construction. If a society creates a legal structure that deems some of its members unworthy or "illegal," then illegality comes to be naturalized as an attribute of those who have been accorded that status.

The concept of illegality, the wall between the US and Mexico, the institutions and structures that reinforce the wall's meaning on the border itself ... are part of the system for justifying and enforcing inequality. So are the ideologies and laws that create walls of exclusions that enforce the status of illegality inside the fifty states." read more

Immigration Crackdown--the Reality: Facing deportation to Mexico for a fourth time, he has NH roots

What has motivated a young Mexican man to cross the border--and be deported--four times.

New Hampshire NEWS06: "Four times, Alejandro Olvera-Corona has swum the Rio Grande, paid off the drug cartels that terrorize Mexican border towns, and crossed the Texas desert to make his way north. Just 29 years old, he's now in a Dover jail awaiting deportation to his native Mexico — for the fourth time." read more

Immigration Crackdown - Alabama: Changes coming to immigration law, lawmaker says

Changes coming to immigration law, lawmaker says | al.com: "Alabama Republicans should be ready to reveal their promised "tweaks" to the state's immigration law in the next week or two, State Rep. Jack Williams said today. Williams spoke at a conference sponsored by the Birmingham Area Consortium on Higher Education that looked at several aspects of the tough new law, from its political ramifications to how it's affecting municipalities, schools and health care.

... State Sen. Billy Beasley, D-Clayton, who opposed it from the start and has pre-filed an effort to have it repealed, said that the law is hurting the state's education, economy and reputation. "Sometimes if you realize you've made a mistake in your life, you have to have the courage to say I'm sorry and to rectify it," Beasley said .... "So I challenge the members of the Alabama Legislature to dig down deep in your conscience and do what's right for the state of Alabama"" read more

Immigration Crackdown: Justice Department reviews Georgia immigration law

policeone.com: "The Justice Department is reviewing Georgia's tough new immigration law and is discussing it with businessmen and law enforcement officials here, but it has not decided to sue to block the statute like it has in four other states, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Tony West said Tuesday.

West pointed out that the Obama administration is suing to block a similar law in Alabama and that both its law and Georgia's statute are scheduled to come under review by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta at the end of this month." read more

Immigration Reality: Commission says immigrants, illegal and otherwise, have had a positive impact on Maryland

AP/Washington Post: "A new report highlights the positive impact of foreign-born residents in Maryland and criticizes efforts to deport or deny services to illegal immigrants and their children. The University of Maryland on Thursday released the report by the Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland. It was prepared for Maryland lawmakers." read more

Immigration Politics: 'Anonymous' hacks state of Alabama

WTOL.com: Toledo, Ohio: "The so-called "hacktivist" group Anonymous claimed responsibility for the attack on government and law enforcement computers in Alabama on Friday in response to what it called the state's "racist" immigration law. ... It claimed to have stolen sensitive information belonging to more than 46,000 Alabama residents.

The information – obtained "because of your police being lazy when it comes to data security" – allegedly included social security numbers, license plate numbers, dates of birth and addresses. "This was not our desire, or our goal," the person wrote. "Your police administrators have made a terrible mistake and put the lives of tens of thousands of people in jeopardy."" read more

Immigration Crackdown: Gingrich "joke" about tracking immigrants using mail services gets played out in reality

CNN.com: "In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, two Guatemalans allege that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were guilty of unreasonable search and seizure, and racial profiling when they arrested Guatemalan nationals picking up a package at a FedEx facility in Florida. The package contained a passport mailed to one of them by the Guatemalan government in the type of sting Gingrich was jokingly suggesting.

... John De Leon, an attorney representing the two Guatemalans, said the lawsuit "challenges the interaction of private industry and the government in their attack on Latino immigrants in this country. ... There's nothing amusing about the idea of government using corporate efficiency in order to violate people's rights." De Leon,  has filed a suit against ICE and FedEx in U.S. District Court in Florida. "This is a rank operation against a Latino group of people. These passports were lawful passports. There was nothing illegal about them." He accused ICE of conducting warrantless searches of the packages." read more

Border Reality: Minnesota young man uses EMT training to aid immigrants along U.S./Mexico border

Here is one of those local news acccounts that takes you to the personal level of an issue: this one is the border and migration through the desert. 

Daily Globe | Worthington, Minnesota: " Growing up in Worthington, Dan Wilson was acquainted with the controversial issues surrounding immigration. “... I knew people made a lot of sacrifices to do it, and I had also seen some of the reasons for the immigration. I was feeling connected to that last step of immigration, and it was intriguing to me.”

So Wilson spent last summer working in the Sonora Desert along the U.S./Mexico border, using his skills as a trained emergency medical technician and witnessing firsthand another aspect of the immigration story." read more