April 9 and 10th 2006

[JJ]

MN March for immigration with Dignity
2:30 March
Come support humane immigration reform that will provide
Family reunification
Protection of workers' rights
Dignity and civil liberty for all
A path to citizenship

AND...

On April 10, 2006, immigrants and their allies are continuing historic mobilizations in Washington, DC and multiple cities to oppose the harsh and unworkable HR 4437 and demand real immigration reform that is comprehensive, respects civil rights, reunites families, protects workers, and offers a path to citizenship for the current undocumented and future immigrants to the US. Below is a list of April 10 events happening across the nation.

National Day of Action is sponsored by the National Capitol Immigration Coalition (NCIC), an NAOC member organization, in partnership with organizations across the country.

[brianold]

how was the joint on sunday? did you go?

[JJ]

Yes, I did go. It was amazing! Actually yesterday I found what was missing in my heart and got the answer to the questioning I've felt for so long when thinking about my life and the multiculturalism I live in. My identity of who I am and the reasons I think the way I think. My whole feeling of confusion was diminished in seconds. Epiphany, perhaps? A simple answer but a clarity that resulted in peace.

Since the last march I went to on March 22 for the Dream Act (resident tuition for illegal immigrants versus out of state tuition) I focused more and more into the subject of immigration and as The Liberator Boards document I've had this issue in my heart. I am faced with it all the time it surrounds me. However, the question remained and I wondered for so long...Why risk your life for this? (This being what I, in my life call “struggles” and all the injustice I see and am inflicted with being from and living in the US)

Especially, when I was torn by it all when faced with a death in the family. A distant aunt who along with her 3 daughters and another male had tried to cross the boarder to be with her son and husband who were already in the U.S. The distance, the walking, running, no water, the heat, and being over 35 and not in great shape, being diabetic made it that much harder. But she had faith and hope, to be with her family, a risk worth taking. However, she did not. The result became more confusion in my heart. I saw the pain. I saw the faith. I saw the lost of faith. I saw the lost of hope. I saw the tears. I felt the pain. I didn’t see why anyone would risk his or her own life. I couldn’t understand the hope that she had when even thinking or planning this journey that resulted in her death. I just saw and felt the pain and agony.

However, clarity was around the corner, I could feel it. I went to Mexico. I witnessed it. I understood. But the risk still is so high, suicidal in many ways. And still I was confused.

But the scruple of my soul just got larger and more intense. I began to work for change. And Although I was engaged in it I still felt something was missing. I was working for something I still didn’t quite understand. I began to hear stories, very sad stories. And the why, was still there. I’d ask them why and the answers were the same ones I’ve heard my parents tell me. I just didn’t understand.

March 22nd 2006 and the days to come, it became work, promote, promote, speak, long hours. Would it all be worth my time? Could our voices be heard or would they be lost. And in turn I got lost in negative media clips, negativity from people who are Latino and other minorities, people for the cause making bad calls of action (in my opinion), was I working in vain? I was still very confused just doing the actions.

Monday April 3rd. I got my schedule at my job. I was booked for 2 shifts the day of the march. I debated going to the rally. I finally asked if I could cancel a shift thus I’d be off at 2. It starts at 2:30.

Sunday 8 am I call friends again to remind them. I ask if they need a ride. I thought I’d even get out earlier but I couldn’t. I had a friend to pick up in Eagan and I was in St.Louis Park. I’m thinking damn I’m going to be late. Is it worth it? I was asked to volunteer from the alliance I couldn’t make it. But still I was doing the actions I didn’t know what was driving me inside but I went along with it. I drove fast and as I drove, it became clearer…

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning, and it was warm out. And as I drove by lake Calhoun and looked out my window it all became clear. This is why I was working hard, to be heard, these past months. This is why it’s important to me. I drove with my window down, the sun shinning, and I saw people walking, on a bike, eating, having fun, a child on the swings, no worries to the eye. A paradise you can say. I saw peace. I took a breath and enjoyed it. This is what everyone wants. This is a quality of life that everyone deserves to have. I got the glimpse of why these people risk their lives, just the hope to have a quality of life. They just want the basics of food, shelter, and to be clothed. To have the opportunity to be human and to have dreams. The opportunity that if not their children perhaps their grandchildren, an education, to be without worries of basic needs, to not live in fear, and to be able to dream.

I got there late it was 3:00. I thought parking would be terrible as I approached the Capitol. But it wasn’t. I parked right next to the Capitol. We walked to the main center; I was confused not knowing if it was over, or like the stereotype we along with everyone was late? The stage was set, speakers playing music, I felt like I was at a festival when the doors are opening. And then, I turned around toward the Cathedral. The street was packed! Signs were waving. Thousands of people, I couldn’t hold it in. A tear ran down my face, the people were united!. I was amazed and joyful. I had hope and have it; I have faith and will continue.

Along the street were babies, teens, young adults, seniors, primarily Latinos but also Africans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hmong and others. It was beautiful. I was astonished. The march from the Cathedral had just begun. Signs read: We are not criminals, we are workers, I am a mother not a criminal, I pay taxes and immigrants built this country. Children with shirts that read I am not a criminal.

B, it was unbelievable. Numbers were reported at 40,000 at the march! The speakers were all on point, and as many see it as a Latino issue it was organized so that the awareness be opened to show that it wasn’t better said it isn't. A polish speaker (deputy police of Mpls.) speaking about safety being the first priority not fear, thus many illegal immigrants do not report crime because of the fear of being deported. A young adult spoke of his struggle of not being able to afford to go to college because there is no financial help in his case although he’s lived here since he was 9 (Dream Act Bill). A Hmong lady spoke about the importance of family in her culture and the importance of family reunification, family reunification being one of the very important reasons for my involvement. It was astonishing. But more importantly "Si, se puede!" And marches continue today, history in the making…Peace and hope for a better future! Ojala que nuestos voces sean oido!

[brianold]

the NY Times published some nice photos:
link

[brianold]

Immigration Marches Likened to Civil Rights Movement
link

Eighth Grader Commits Suicide After Being Threatened by School Official With Jail Time for Organizing Walkouts
link

A Hispanic Civil Rights Movement
link

A Nation Built on Immigrant Genes
link

Immigration 'Nirvana,' Lost
link

Some See Marchers as Taking a Step Back
link

[brianold]

i posted some more stories. one about them increasing raids in texas. are people still talking about it? or has the energy died down?

[brianold]

what's good with this in MN? have people stopped talking about it?

[brianold]

yo jessica check this article out:

-----
MIGRATION-US:
The Myth of Low-Wage Warfare

Analysis by Peter Costantini*

SEATTLE, Washington, Jun 7 (IPS) - How could it be that an influx of less-educated workers from poor countries would not significantly harm low-income U.S. workers?
If the labour market were a zero-sum game, there might be fierce competition between them. But experts say other factors compensate for increases in the supply of low-wage labour and soften its effects.

"American labour markets appear to be rather segmented," according to Douglas Massey, co-director of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton University. "There are certain sectors where foreigners enter and they complement Americans in production and don't really have any displacement or wage effects."

Massey pointed to agriculture as the clearest example of this segmentation. There have been few white farmworkers since the 1930s, he said. To attract them, employers would have to raise wages considerably. But if they did this, the produce would end up being imported from abroad because that would be cheaper, or farmers would find it economical to mechanise more jobs.

Although competition may exist in some areas between immigrants and native workers, its main impact falls on a declining number of U.S. workers. Among all immigrants, the proportion who did not finish high school is about 38 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. For illegal immigrants, the figure is closer to two-thirds. Of the U.S.-born workforce, the proportion of high-school dropouts is much smaller, under 15 percent, and in urban areas it has fallen by more than a quarter over the past two decades.

Low-wage immigrant workers may foster economic growth in the areas and industries where they work.

When firms profit from the cheap labour of immigrants, they sometimes respond by reinvesting that money in expanding their production. When they do, this increased capital investment can create new jobs.

Angelo Amador, director of Immigration Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pointed to the example of meat-packing in Nebraska. "The factories were closing and people were moving, there was more unemployment and the wages were going down," he said in an interview.

"Once they had this influx of immigrants to work at these factories, some of the closed plants reopened and the economy around the area actually picked up. And they found that the wages even went up."

There is a potential multiplier effect, too: when an industry like meat-packing expands, it can create jobs in firms that provide equipment, supplies and services to the industry.

In areas with booming economies, when workers are needed to fill jobs, immigrant workers can fill gaps. Still, Amador said, there should be some guarantees that U.S. citizens will be able to compete for these newly created jobs.

Certain kinds of jobs would likely have been moved out of the country had immigrants not taken them at lower wages here. This is particularly true in agriculture and manufacturing, where U.S. businesses are competing with Mexico and other developing countries.

By contrast, firms that employ immigrants may become more competitive in global markets. This can enable them to expand rather than shipping the jobs overseas. "People focus on immigration," said Massey, "but it's a globalised economy within which all factors of production except land are moving."

In the U.S., wages for less-educated, lower-income workers have been mostly stagnant over the past three decades. If immigration is not a major cause of lower wages and job losses, what are the more significant pressures?

A ubiquitous factor has been the automation and reorganisation of work, which has relentlessly reduced the demand for low-skilled workers in many U.S. industries.

In manufacturing, runaway shops, outsourcing and sub-contracting of some functions have eliminated many manual jobs with relatively good pay and benefits over the past few decades.

But very little of this job loss can be attributed to competition from immigrants, who work mostly in other sectors. The loss of such jobs has mainly been caused by the inability of U.S. manufacturing firms to compete with foreign ones and by movement of their operations offshore.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof describes a neighbour he knew in his childhood who earned 26 dollars an hour in a union job in 1971. For the last decade, he says, the neighbour has had to work as a janitor for not much more than the minimum wage..

The long-term decline of labour unions in the U.S., often accelerated by union-busting, has also helped depress wages on the lower end of the scale. U.S. labour laws that favour business and an anti-union political environment have increased the difficulty of union organising among unskilled workers, native and immigrant.

At the same time, the long-term decline in the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has moved the floor of the labour market downward.

Ruth Milkman, a sociologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, has found a distinctive pattern in some industries, including construction and building services, now dominated by immigrants in Los Angeles. These jobs had once been unionised, offered relatively good wages and benefits, and were held overwhelmingly by U.S.-born workers.

Starting in the late 1970s, she told IPS, there was "a very direct employer effort to downgrade them, mainly through destroying unionism". As the jobs became less desirable, native-born workers often left voluntarily for the greener pastures offered by other sectors of a robust local economy. Only after that process did employers turn to immigrants.

"So there really isn't any kind of story of competition there, it's an ethnic succession story," Milkman asserts. "Wages do go down, but I don't think it has much to do with immigration. Immigration is a result rather than a cause."

For African-Americans, some particular factors do far more damage to their economic prospects than competition from immigrants, argues labour economist David Card. A criminal justice system that incarcerates large numbers of young black men, many for minor drug offences, leaves them with bleak job prospects when they are released. Poverty-related medical issues such as diabetes and congestive heart failure are exacerbated by lack of access to medical care because many have no health insurance.

Many forces have conspired to reduce wages and job opportunities for those at the bottom of the labour force. At the same time, many immigrants, legal and illegal, have entered the U.S. economy over the past 15 years.

Not surprisingly, a study by Stephen Camarota of the Washington-based Centre for Immigration Studies found that employment of low-wage immigrants rose while that of low-wage native workers fell by more than twice as much from 2000 to 2005.

But according to Harry J. Holzer, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labour, these findings "do not prove that the former development caused the latter." Rather than competition from immigrants, Holzer attributes the employment situation of native-born U.S. citizens primarily to "the underlying weakness of the U.S. labour market".

As Holzer testified before Congress, "Of course, some less-educated Americans have been hurt by immigration, and more importantly by many other forces in the U.S. labour market -- such as new technologies, foreign trade, the diminishing presence of unions, and the decline in the statutory levels of the minimum wage."

Rather than trying to curb immigration, Holzer suggested, low-wage workers would benefit more from improving education and training, increasing the minimum wage, making it easier to organise unions, and providing more widespread child care, parental leave and health insurance.

The U.S. could also take a lesson from the integration of Spain, Portugal and other poorer countries into the European Union, suggests Carlos Gil, emeritus professor of history at the University of Washington.

"The Europeans created a social fund for worker-retraining programmes after they opened their national borders and created one single market. Why can't we look for similar approaches?"

*This article is the second of a two-part series on the impact of migration on the U.S. labour market. (FIN/2006)

[brianold]

Here's an interesting perspective. It concerns american citizens who are having their identities stolen by illegal immigrants. It was on Lou Dobbs.

I can see how the anti-illegal immigration folks would use this as ammo. Then again I think it's important to realize that this is bigger than legal/illegal... and remember the causes for "illegal" immigration in the first place and the desperation of the immigrants who go through these treks. If anything identity theft victims and immigrants should realize a larger, common enemy that is causing them both to suffer.



-----
Identity Theft By Illegal Immigrants
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ldt.html

DOBBS: We've been reporting on the theft of identities by illegal aliens taking the identities of American citizens. Last night we reported to you about a northern California woman whose Social Security number was stolen more than 200 times by illegal aliens. Tonight we report to you on our tracking down of those employers who hired some of those identity thieves.

Casey Wian has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AUDRA SCHMIERER, ID THEFT VICTIM: All different people...

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Audra Schmierer says she's contacted 35 companies who hired illegal aliens using her Social Security number. She says none of them have agreed to take action against the identity thieves. But she's been rejected from jobs because her Social Security number is now linked to criminals. SCHMIERER: I found in one situation that they entered my Social Security number, and I think because it was a larger company they were able to see that my number actually had a felony under it. I don't have a felony. I've never even received a parking ticket.

WIAN: But there's a warrant for her arrest in Texas, while dozens of illegal aliens work there under her Social Security number. One of them -- her last name is Camaccio (ph) -- worked in Jack in the Box for two years then Denny's for three. The address listed on her W-2 form does not exist. Another man named Ramon (ph) used Schmierer's Social Security number to find jobs at five different companies.

(on camera): What do you say to people who say that these illegal aliens who come here, they just come here to work, they just come for a better life, they're really not hurting anybody in the United States?

SCHMIERER: Absolutely they're hurting someone. They're hurting me. I'm -- this has completely consumed my entire life.

WIAN: The employers apparently violated no law, because according to the IRS, they're only required to rely on good faith to verify an employee's identity. So, if documents aren't obviously fakes, they're acceptable. One of the ID thieves worked for Avon as an independent sales representative, not an employee. Legally the burden is on independent contractors to certify, under penalty of perjury, they're using their own taxpayer ID number.

Jack in the Box and Avon would not discuss individual employees but say they follow federal law. Denny's did not provide a statement in time for this broadcast. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the answer is not stricter standards but education.

MICHAEL ZANEIS, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: The closest thing we have to a panacea for this problem is education and trying to help and empower the businesses, again, that want to comply with these, with these regulations or at least with best practices.

WIAN: Many businesses fail to act when the IRS notifies them a worker is using a false ID. The potential fine is just $50 per employee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: The IRS says it resolved more than 12,000 cases last year of taxpayers whose Social Security numbers were stolen. And that number is likely to grow until there's a mandatory secure employee verification system in place, Lou.

DOBBS: Casey, that is simply an overwhelming statement by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It's obvious, the Chamber is the biggest business group in the country. They're obviously pro illegal immigration, pro open borders. But the temerity to say the issue is one of education. I mean, that's insipid at best. WIAN: We asked for their official statement on the issue of a mandatory workplace identification system for employers. They didn't get back to us with an official response but they did say that they're holding meetings around the country, trying to educate small businesses on what they can do to avoid this type of fraud. The problem is many small businesses just want to cut corners, Lou.

DOBBS: How about let's help out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce here tonight. You ready, Casey? Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, it will work out pretty good.

[brianold]

Is Superman an Illegal Alien?

just curious...

and if yes, why is he so welcomed?