Change in US Immigration Policy - Cambio político migratorio - EEUU

BBC Mundo reports a reprieve in deportation of illegal immigrants.  The Obama administration is shifting it's emphasis under pressure from the hispanic community and it's supporters.  Authorities are now trying to sort through the nearly one third of a million people held in U.S. prisons under immigration charges, to find and deport only those who have criminal records other than crossing the border without proper paperwork, or overstaying the alloted time limit of visas issued legally.

Este jueves los miles de hispanos indocumentados recibieron una buena noticia: la Casa Blanca anunció que postergará indefinidamente las causas de deportación de extranjeros sin papeles que no tengan expedientes criminales o que no representen una amenaza a la seguridad nacional.

La decisión -comunicada por dos altos funcionarios de gobierno en una conferencia telefónica de la que participó BBC Mundo- introduce un cambio importante en las políticas migratorias de la gestión de Barack Obama, durante la cual se ha alcanzado un número récord de deportaciones.

Contenido relacionado

• Arizona hoy: ¿cómo es ser hispano bajo la ley antiinmigración?
• Georgia, en un “día sin inmigrantes”
• Obama al margen de las leyes contra indocumentados

Las organizaciones que luchan por los derechos de los migrantes celebraron la propuesta de aplazar indefinidamente un buen número de causas, por considerar que atiende a razones humanitarias.
"La administración del presidente Obama ha dado señales de que es capaz de ofrecer ayuda a las familias inmigrantes. Esperamos con impaciencia que miembros de la comunidad confirmen que sus familias ahora pueden estar juntas y quedarse en este país", expresó la ONG Casa de Maryland, en un comunicado enviado a BBC Mundo.

Sin garantías

"Esperamos con impaciencia que miembros de la comunidad confirmen que sus familias ahora pueden estar juntas y quedarse en este país"

ONG Casa de Maryland

En el año fiscal 2010, el Departamento de Seguridad Interior expulsó del territorio estadounidense por vía legal a más de 392.000 indocumentados, según cifras oficiales, el mayor número de la historia del país.
El gobierno señaló que las nuevas políticas regirán sólo para personas que tengan una causa de deportación pendiente (lo que técnicamente se conoce como removal procedures) y permitirán que estos inmigrantes postulen para un permiso de empleo, aunque sin garantías de que éste les sea concedido.
Aunque no existe un cálculo oficial, se estima que se beneficiará así a miles de hispanos indocumentados, cuyos casos serán evaluados uno a uno por un comité.
Sin embargo, eso no significa que sus causas de deportación vayan a quedar cerradas: sólo serán congeladas y podrán ser reabiertas por el gobierno en cualquier momento, si reciben información sobre presuntas conductas delictivas de los beneficiarios o a discreción de los funcionarios de migración.

Cortes saturadas

Las nuevas políticas regirán sólo para personas que tengan una causa de deportación pendiente.

Altas fuentes del gobierno estadounidense, que pidieron reserva de su nombre, reconocieron ante BBC Mundo que el número de causas de deportación que aguardan un veredicto -unas 300.000- excede la capacidad de las cortes de inmigración encargadas de revisarlas, lo que genera demoras de hasta dos años.
El cambio de estrategia apuntará ahora a concentrar los recursos en casos de indocumentados convictos por crímenes diversos, personas que hayan cruzado ilegalmente la frontera recientemente (en lugar de aquellos sin papeles que llevan muchos años instalados en el país) o que hayan reincidido en el ingreso ilegal después de haber sido deportados en el pasado.
Son, en la jerga de las dependencias de migración estadounidense, "residente ilegales de nivel 1" o de alto riesgo. Los demás casos serán considerados "no prioritarios".
Los anuncios continúan los lineamientos expresados por el secretario del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés), John Morton, en un memorándum de junio pasado. En él, instruía a sus empleados a utilizar el "criterio de discrecionalidad" a la hora de iniciar un proceso de deportación y evaluar cuestiones tales como cuánto tiempo lleva la persona en el país, si tiene cónyuge o hijo estadounidense o si posee antecedentes delictivos.

Escépticos

"La administración de Obama simplemente ha decidido usurpar la autoridad constitucional del Congreso e implementar un programa de amnistía para millones de inmigrantes ilegales"

Dan Stein, presidente de la Federación Estadounidense para la Reforma Migratoria (FAIR)

Otros recibieron la novedad con escepticismo, al considerar que lo que se anuncia desde las oficinas de Washington "no siempre se ve reflejado en el terreno", donde los indocumentados continúan siendo detenidos de a centenares.
"Somos escépticos sobre la habilidad del ICE y las patrullas fronterizas de hacer de esta política la nueva norma, teniendo en cuenta cómo han operado estas agencias durante años. Pero este anuncio establece un nuevo nivel de responsabilidad y claridad que deberían llevar seguridad y estabilidad a miles de familias que hoy se ven desmembradas por las deportaciones", apuntó la organización civil America's Voice, que aboga por una reforma migratoria integral.
En tanto, los grupos reacios a suavizar las políticas migratorias consideraron el anuncio como una velada "amnistía administrativa".
"Habiendo fracasado por el proceso legislativo, la administración de Obama simplemente ha decidido usurpar la autoridad constitucional del Congreso e implementar un programa de amnistía para millones de inmigrantes ilegales", señaló Dan Stein, presidente de la conservadora Federación Estadounidense para la Reforma Migratoria (FAIR, por sus siglas en inglés).

See more of this and other articles from BBC Mundo:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2011/08/110818_eeuu_deportaciones_suspension_cch.shtml

Arizona Sheriff's Office in Bed with Drug Lord.

Three employees of the self-proclaimed strictest sheriff in the USA, were arrested on charges of trafficking people and drugs, authorities reported on Monday.

Maricopa county sheriff, Joe Arpaio said that three of his employees, two of them women, were among 12 people detained for forming an international narco trafficking network, centered in Phoenix.

One worker, Marcela Hernández, told authorities she was married to the presumed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

See complete story:  El Universal

Geo Group Locations

Graphic source:  The Geo Group Inc

What is the Geo Group?
They are located at all the dots on this map.


You are paying them close to 2 billion dollars a year to do something.


For one point of view on what they do:  Click on the map.

(Notice the dot in Cuba?  That's Guantanamo Bay, one of their locations.)

Click to see more about Geo Group Inc.

AMERICANS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE

Some Americans have to cross the Border Fence to get back into America.

According to Reform Immigration for America, The federal government has spent over $2 billion already building a border fence with Mexico that even Sen. John McCain called ineffective. And for what? Apparently, to keep Americans on the other side:

Lately, though, there’s been a distinctly surreal flavour to Ms Taylor’s colourful display of patriotic identity. About 350 metres from her porch, an imposing metal fence looms into view. It is supposed to divide the US from Mexico, but by a cruel twist of fate, the 83-year-old grandmother’s family home has ended up on the “wrong” side. Four years ago, amid the seemingly endless hand-wringing over the flow of drugs and illegal migrants across their southern border, Washington politicians voted to erect a tall fence that would stretch thousands of miles from San Diego, on the Pacific coast, to Brownsville, on the Gulf of Mexico. The best-laid political schemes do not always work out as planned, though. When government engineers arrived in Ms Taylor’s neighbourhood, their plan hit a snag: the Mexican border follows the meandering Rio Grande in this area. And the river’s muddy banks are too soft and too prone to flooding to support a fence.
As a result, this corner of south-eastern Texas had its barrier constructed on a levee that follows a straight line from half a mile to two miles north of the river, leaving Ms Taylor’s bungalow – along with the homes and land of dozens of her angry neighbours – marooned on the Mexican side.

Click to see the rest of this story:  Reform Immigration For America

ICE Raids on Elem Schools

Another Side of the Broken Immigration System

May 02, 2011 - Posted by Maurice Belanger

National Immigration Forum

At the end of March, and again in early April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted enforcement actions at two Detroit elementary schools.  These actions unleashed a firestorm of public criticism, and resulted in a decision by ICE headquarters to investigate these and other incidents in Detroit.

The ICE union, in a statement, denied allegations that the school was being raided and blamed ICE headquarters for indicating the agents may have been acting against ICE policy.

ICE agents are, according to their union, feeling besieged. The publication Working In These Times reported on an e-mail interview with the ICE union president Chris Crane.  Mr. Crane noted that, in a survey of local ICE union leaders, the number one issue the leaders felt needed addressing was “redefine officers, agents and employees to the American public.”  A couple of excerpts from that interview:

ICE employees are ridiculed and hated by all; from the public, to special interest groups, to other law enforcement agencies and the media, to politicians and our own president.

Our employees are incredibly understaffed and absolutely overwhelmed with their workloads, but remain dedicated and work extremely hard for extremely long hours every day, but in the end practically everyone has some type of negative opinion about them.

Here is the real problem: ICE agents are charged with enforcing broken immigration laws that Congress has, for the past 10 years, refused to fix. 

Ordinarily, a law enforcement agent might expect public appreciation for arresting a criminal who might pose a threat to the public.  ICE agents do some of that, but they also arrest community members who  pose no danger and are loved and respected by a lot of people.  To the extent that ICE agents stray from the agency’s own rules and priorities, they are, in the public’s eye, not arresting people who are public safety threats, but people who are friends, co-workers, classmates and parents of classmates, employees, parishioners, neighbors.  These are people who, having lived in the U.S. for years and who have been contributing members of communities all across the U.S., should be given a way to gain legal status.  That’s Congress’ job, and it doesn’t look like Congress will be doing their job anytime soon.

ICE Raids

Click to see more of this and other articles from the National Immigration Forum

Moral Questions

Click on the above YouTube video for a look at some moral questions.

US News.com

Congress remains deadlocked over immigration. Many Republicans and border state legislators emphasize securing the U.S. border with Mexico as the critical first step toward reform. Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl in April 2010 called for 3,000 National Guard troops to help close the border and stem cross-border violence. A bill sponsored by Democratic Sens. Clair McCaskill and Chuck Schumer became law in August 2010, sending about 1,000 additional enforcement personnel to the border and providing increased funding for unmanned surveillance drones. Republicans have also called for an expansion of guest worker programs and for an end to birthright citizenship, which, under the 14th Amendment, means anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen. Democrats, led by Sen. Harry Reid, argue for a “comprehensive” approach--which critics derisively characterize as “amnesty”--including not only border security but also a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the country.

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Click to see more of this article from US News.com

As we debate the issues, what are the moral questions we need to ask?

My Immigration Plan

 from a businessman who works in Arizona and writes the Coyote Blog :

More than any subject on Coyote Blog, my immigration posts have engendered more disapproving comments than anything else I have written.  I won’t repeat my position except to say that I don’t care if immigration is currently illegal, because my point is that it should be legal.  In short, my stance has been that our rights do not flow from the government but from our basic humanity, and therefore activities like association, employment decision-making, and property purchase should not be contingent on citizenship.  Its one of those arguments where I wish many on my side of the argument would shut up — If the best argument you can muster for immigration is ‘who will pick the lettuce’, you are not helping very much. 
For the first 150 years of this country’s history, our country was basically wide-open to immigration.  Sure, there were those opposed (the riots in NYC in the 19th century come to mind) but the opposition was confined mainly to xenophobes and those whose job skills were so minimal that unskilled immigrants who could not speak English were perceived as a threat.   It was only the redistributionist socialism-lite of the New Deal and later the Great Society that began to make unfettered immigration unpopular with a majority of Americans, who rightly did not wish to see the world’s poor migrate to the US seeking an indolent life of living off of government handouts.
But, as Congress debates a series of immigration plans that make not sense and don’t seem internally consistent, I will propose my own.  I hope that this plan will appeal to those who to date have opposed immigration because of the government handout problem.  I am sure it will continue to be unappealing to those who fear competition in the job market or who don’t like to be near people who don’t speak English very well; This is an elaboration of the plan from this post:

1. Anyone may enter or reside in the US. The government may prevent entry of a very short list of terrorists and criminals at the border, but everyone else is welcome to come and stay as long as they want for whatever reason.  Anyone may buy property in the US, regardless or citizenship or residency.  Anyone in the US may trade with anyone in the world on the same terms they trade with their next door neighbor.
2. The US government is obligated to protect the individual rights, particularly those in the Bill of Rights, of all people physically present in our borders, citizen or not.  Anyone, regardless of citizenship status, may buy property, own a business, or seek employment in the United States without any legal distinction vs. US "citizens"
3. Certain government functions, including voting and holding office, may require formal "citizenship".  Citizenship should be easier to achieve, based mainly on some minimum residency period, and can be denied after this residency only for a few limited reasons (e.g. convicted of a felony).  The government may set no quotas or numerical limits on new citizenships.
4. All people present in the US pay the same taxes in the same way.  A non-citizen or even a short term visitor pays sales taxes on purchases and income taxes on income earned while present in the US just like anyone else.  Immigrants will pay property taxes just like long-term residents, either directly or via their rent payments.
5. Pure government handouts, like Welfare, food stamps, the EITC, farm subsidies, and public housing, will only be available to those with full US citizenship.  Vagrancy and squatting on public or private lands without permission will not be tolerated.
6. Most government services and fee-based activities, including emergency services, public education, transportation, access to public recreation, etc. will be open to all people within the US borders, regardless of citizenship status, assuming relevant fees are paid.
7. Social Security is a tough beast to classify – I would put it in the "Citizen" category as currently structured (but would gladly put it in the "available to everyone" category if SS could be restructured to better match contributions with benefits, as in a private account system).  But, as currently configured, I would propose that only citizens can accrue and receive SS benefits.  To equalize the system, the nearly 8% employee and 8% employer social security contributions will still be paid by non-citizens working in the US, but these funds can be distributed differently.  I would suggest the funds be split 50/50 between state and local governments to offset any disproportionate use of services by new immigrants.  The federal portion could go towards social security solvency, while the state and local portion to things like schools and medical programs.

With this plan, we return to the America of our founding fathers, welcoming all immigrants who are willing to take the risk of coming here.  We would end the failed experiment of turning citizenship from a voting right into a comprehensive license that is required to work, own property, or even associate and be present within the US border.  Since immigrants today who are "illegal" pay no income or social security taxes into the system today (they do pay sales and, via rent, property tax), this plan would increase tax revenues while reducing some welfare state burdens.
I think if you asked many prospective immigrants, they would agree to this deal – no handouts, just a fair chance to make a living and a life.  However, immigrant advocacy organizations are hugely unlikely to accept this plan, as most seem today to have been co-opted by various Marxist organizations who are opposed to anyone opting out of the welfare state (it is no coincidence that the recent immigration policy protests all occurred on May Day, the traditional Soviet-Marxist holiday).
Finally, I would like to offer one thought to all those who worry about "absorbing" ten or fifteen million new immigrants.  First, I would argue that we have adopted many more immigrants than this successfully in this country’s history, including my grandparents and probably yours.  Second, I would observe that as recently as the last several decades, we managed to absorb 40 million new workers quite successfully, as I wrote here:

Check this data out, from the BLS:

• In 1968, the unemployment rate was 3.8%.  22.9 million women were employed in non-farm jobs, accounting for 34% of the work force.
• In 2000, the unemployment rate was 4.0%.  62.7 million women were employed in the work force, accounting for 48% of the total
• In these years, the number of women employed increased every single year.  Even in the recession years of 1981-1983 when employment of men dropped by 2.5 million, women gained 400,000 jobs

See more of this article and others on the Coyote Blog

Immigrants for Sale

Are we buying and selling immigrants?  What do the Geo Group Incorporated and Corrections Corporation of America have to do with immigrants?  What happens to someone picked up for being in the US without the proper documents?

View this YouTube video for more information.