Colbert Report on Alabama Immigrant Farm Workers New Law

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Stephen Colbert was roundly criticized by politicos last year for his tongue-in-cheek congressional testimony on the plight of illegal farm workers, but now he's getting to revel in his own prescience.
After spending a day working on an upstate New York farm as part of the Take Our Jobs project, Colbert testified about his experiences before congress, sarcastically lamenting the backbreaking nature of the work due to most soil being at ground level. The stunt was an attempt to shed light on the country's benefiting off of the labor of the very people it maligns as a scourge on our resources, but it was a point not well-taken by many of the assembled.

See more of this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/alabama-immigration-law-colbert-i-told-you-so_n_1035165.html

Senate Apologizes To Immigrants (from China) for Discrimination

Anti immigration laws are not new.  But we don't seem to learn from the past.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate has approved a resolution apologizing for the nation's past discriminatory laws that targeted Chinese immigrants, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
The resolution, passed Thursday night by unanimous consent, "cannot undo the hurt caused by past discrimination against Chinese immigrants, but it is important that we acknowledge the wrongs that were committed many years ago," said Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., the lead sponsor.
A similar resolution, sponsored by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the first Chinese-American woman elected to Congress, is pending in the House. It is backed by members of both parties.
For Chu, the effort to get Congress to acknowledge the discrimination is personal; her grandfather faced the hostile laws.
"He decided to make something of his life anyway. He opened up a small Chinese restaurant in Watts, and worked day and night, and he was finally able to make ends meet," Chu said Friday. "The thousands of Chinese-Americans around this country with similar family histories will celebrate the passage of the Senate resolution."
The Chinese Exclusion Act effectively halted Chinese immigration for a decade and denied U.S. citizenship to Chinese immigrants in the country. The law was repealed in 1943 after China became a U.S. ally in World War II.
But Chu said that Congress has never apologized for the injustice.
Brown took up the issue after hearing about how another Massachusetts senator, from the 19th century, led the fight against the discriminatory laws, an aide said.
Congress has issued apologies before.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation providing $1.25 billion, or $20,000 each, in reparations and a formal apology for Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. No reparations are offered in the measures apologizing for discrimination against Chinese immigrants.
In 2008, the House issued an apology to African-Americans "on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow." The Senate passed a similar resolution a year later.
In California, the Legislature in 2009 passed a resolution apologizing for the state's discrimination against Chinese immigrants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a co-sponsor of the U.S. Senate resolution, said Friday she hopes the resolution will serve to "enlighten those who may not be aware of this regrettable chapter in our history and bring closure to the families whose loved ones live through this difficult time."

Read more: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/national/article_68d975e4-004e-550a-89d9-8f9adc52cf5e.html#ixzz1anwI4tes

Do Latinos still support Obama and his immigration efforts?

Latinos supported Obama in 2008 by 60% after an inspiring speech that sounded like music to them.

But the magic of the moment fizzled soon after President Obama was elected. The party favors, orchestra, and minstrels soon disappeared and the defiant and catchy melody turned grave and bewildered.

While there were a few well-meaning efforts to address immigration reform in the House and Senate under Democratic leadership, no progress was made. Outside Washington, DC, between President Obama's first day in office and the end of June 2011, one million immigrants and families have been detained, deported, or fired from their place of work. In addition, the well-oiled enforcement machine led by ICE in collaboration with local police departments under the rubric of the wrongly-named "Secure Communities," I-9 audits, and 287(g) agreements, just to name a few, is running full speed ahead.
Understandably, when the president argued once again at this year's NCLR conference that he is unable to do much on his own unless Republicans acquiesce and change our broken immigration laws, the chorus of "yes, you can" politely and in crescendo interrupted him.
During his speech, President Obama went to great pains to remind listeners that his administration is "keeping our promises." The audience must have nodded that when it came to the economy, gay and lesbian rights, and women's issues, the president has indeed delivered. But when President Obama pivoted to immigration reform, he blamed Republicans for the impasse, chided those who call on him to use his executive authority to alleviate the suffering of immigrant families, and committed to keep up the fight while encouraging the community to "keep the heat on me and Democrats." Lastly the Pied Piper in Chief, dressed in a most charming outfit, conceded he knows "very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause" and he made an appeal we have heard once before: "Let's be honest. I need a dance partner, and the floor's empty."
It must not be an easy for President Obama to be at a party and not have a partner he can enjoy the music with. Although his political advisors are telling the president he has Latinos in the bag in 2012, the jury is by far out deliberating whether or not this president means it when he says he will fight the fight with us on the moral and practical issue of immigration reform. Does he meant it when he says we will not be stepped upon again? Thousands and thousands, millions even, of families throughout the United States are suffering on a daily basis the failure of this administration and this Congress to update our immigration laws. In the absence of real reform, immigrant communities everywhere have endured two and a half years of sustained torture led by none other than another "friend" of the community, Secretary Janet Napolitano, and face an increasing chorus of legislatures approving anti-immigrant, discriminatory, and unconstitutional laws. This song's tune is not for dancing.
Thus, the president must have surely felt the heat even while he read his speech at the NCLR conference. If he did, he kept his composure and was as eloquent and convincing as he was in 2008. But President Obama, Republicans and Democrats should recognize that we have danced together quite a lot during the past two years and a half and our feet are getting tired. Not tired enough to stop our fight for justice and changes in immigration laws so that they accurately reflect our nation's compassion, values, and interest. Not tired enough not to register millions more and switch the tune at the ballot box if this one does not suit us. Certainly we are not tired enough to remind our national elected leaders that even the most avid dancer can trip if he is not careful.

Source:  Jorge-Mario Cabrera,   The Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jorgemario-cabrera/obama-immigration-policy-and-latino-vote_b_910328.html

I hate all crackers.

The crackers are taking all our jobs and eating all our corn.  We need a fence to keep them out.

Well maybe we should make it against the law for crackers to come here. 

Farmers: E-Verify a disaster for Americans

It sounds like the E-verify program, by itself, would cause a sudden and disastrous change in our way of doing things in America. 

Photo:  tribwekchron.com

If 80% of our farm workers are illegal immigrants, and if we suddenly enforce the laws which keep the farmers from hiring them, what happens to the food?  What happens to the farmers?  What happens to the illegals?  What happens to us when we want to buy groceries or eat a meal?

Will farmers just lose their farms?  Will the banks that have loaned money to the farmers foreclose on the farms?  Do the banks want the farmland?  What will it cost Americans to buy all our food imported from Mexico?  Will the farmers go on welfare? -- they may not be trained in office jobs and most of our factory jobs have already been sent abroad.

Most farmers will tell you that in their efforts to hire workers, they can't find enough legal workers to harvest their crops - or should we say "OUR" crops, since we are the consumers of those crops?

Alicia A. Caldwell from the Associated Press highlights the dilemna we face in answering these questions:

The agriculture industry fears a disaster on the horizon if the bit of new immigration policy that Congress seems to agree on becomes law.
A plan to require all American businesses to check their employees through E-Verify, a program that confirms that each is legally entitled to work in the U.S., could wreak havoc on an industry where 80 percent of the field workers are illegal immigrants.
"We are headed toward a train wreck," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat whose district includes agriculture-rich areas.
Lofgren said that farmers want to hire legal workers and U.S. citizens but that it's nearly impossible given the relatively low wages and back-breaking work.
Wages can range from minimum wage to more than $20 an hour. But workers are often paid by the piece; the faster they work, they more they make. A steady income lasts only as long as the planting and harvesting seasons.
"Few citizens express interest, in large part because this is hard, tough work," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak said last week. "Our broken immigration system offers little hope for producers to do the right thing."
Last year the United Farm Workers launched a Take Our Jobs campaign to entice Americans into the fields. But President Arturo Rodriguez said that of about 86,000 inquiries, only 11 workers took jobs.
"That really was thought up by farmworkers trying to figure out what is it we needed to do to show that we are not trying to take away anyone's job," Rodriguez said.
Manuel Cunha, president of Nisei Farmers League, a group representing growers in Central California, said farmers don't have the wherewithal to verify workers' status.
"If we were to use E-Verify now, we'd shut down -- either that or farmers would go to prison," said Cunha, a Fresno-based citrus farmer.
Shawn Coburn, a politically active farmer who grows thousands of acres of almonds in west Fresno County, said he favors tighter borders, a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for those already in the U.S., or at the very least their children. But, like Cunha, he believes that a mandatory E-Verify plan would be nothing but trouble for the industry.
"I don't think it's going to happen, but if it does it would throw the California economy for a loop," Coburn said.
Without a broad policy overhaul in the works, industry officials have focused on improving the H-2A temporary agricultural workers visa program, which is aimed at allowing seasonal workers to work on U.S. farms.
The program, is costly, time-consuming and inefficient, however, according to Cathleen Enright, vice president of federal government affairs for the Western Growers Association.
Lee Wicker, deputy director of the North Carolina Growers Association said the H-2A program "is too expensive, it's too litigious, it's too bureaucratic.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said farmers in his area want to do the right thing and hire legal workers but are frustrated with the stifling bureaucracy that comes with the visa program.
"It's a labyrinthine visa process, with the slow walking of applications," Gowdy said.
"You could not by accident come up with a better plan to ruin the small family farm."
Farmers, he said, "are just at their wits' end."

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA): Chair of House Immigration Subcommittee

By Matt Hildreth of America's Voice

The worst thing about Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) might not be his extremist views towards immigrants and immigration policy. Don’t get me wrong, they’re bad—I mean really bad. But the absolute worst thing about Gallegly has to be his incredible influence in Washington.
And when it comes to immigration policy, Gallegly takes full advantage of his position as the top Republican in charge of setting immigration policy to push his fringed agenda.
As chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee, he used our nation’s economic crisis to push for the mass deportation of millions, an idea that would make his home state of California even more broke than it already is.
And even though has more power over immigration polices than any other Republican in Congress, many people in his own district, let alone California, don’t even know who he is.

Read more of this and other articles:
http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/the_worst_thing_about_rep._elton_gallegly_r-ca/

Undocumented Immigrants: a burden or benefit?

Myth: Undocumented workers are a burden on the U.S. economy.

Reality: Immigrants not only pay taxes, but they also contribute significantly to the economy.In a 2007 report, the White House Council of Economic Advisers concluded that..

-. Immigration increases the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by roughly US  $37 billion each year.

- Given that employment has been the main driver behind undocumented immigration to the U.S. in recent decades, it should come as no surprise that this group is particularly hard working and has a high employment rate (96%).

 According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic owned firms increased by nearly 44 percent between 2002 and 2007, growing from 1.6 million businesses to 2.3 million.

Employment at Hispanic-owned firms also grew by 26 percent from 1.5 million to 1.9 million workers, a growth rate significantly higher than that of non-minority-owned firms.

Hispanic-owned businesses generated US$  345.2 billion in sales in 2007, up 55.5 percent compared with 2002.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/25/2233839/sc-house-approves-immigration.html#comment#ixzz1Nkjydl6z

Reform by Executive Order

Time to Fight Back Against Political Bullies Blocking Immigration Reform

By Juan Williams

Published May 17, 2011

FoxNews.com

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has it right on immigration reform. President Obama has it only half right.

They agree it is time to flip the script on congressional opponents of legislation to modernize the nation’s failed immigration system. The current system amounts to a mindless set of laws that makes it next to impossible to get the world’s brightest and most talented people into the country, and punishes employers and hardworking people who fill the nation’s need for low-wage workers.

But so far only Gutierrez has a plan for how to stand up and call the bluff of the political bullies blocking immigration reform.

Gutierrez is urging Obama to sign an executive order halting the deportation of all illegal immigrants who are college age. With that one step the president can shift the political dynamics and force the loudmouths to stop their fear-mongering and get serious about reform.

For years, right-wing extremists and bellicose talk show hosts have made it impossible to deal rationally with immigration. The central fact is that there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in the country who are not going anywhere. The U.S. government does not have the manpower, handcuffs or buses to send these illegals back to Mexico, Ireland and China.

Click for more on this and other articles from Fox News . com

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