The Exploring Amor and Exile Last Thursday Series, in partnership with Boise City Arts and History Department Artists in Residence Program at 8th Street Marketplace, presents A Slice of Life in Exile at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday August 25, 2011 at the Cole/Marr Coffee and Photography Workshop.
Nicole and Margarito
Amor and Exile coauthor and native New Yorker Nicole Salgado will share a slice of her life in exile in Queretaro, Mexico, where she’s lived for the past 5 years with her husband Margarito and their daughter, who was born last fall. Along with Salgado’s slice of life in exile, you will hear readings from popular blogs by other Americans in exile because of their partners’ immigration woes. Salgado will narrate a photo slideshow, share a recipe from her cookbook, The Bajio’s Bounty, and field Q&A from the audience. Join us!
Event details:
Thursday, August 25, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
The Cole/Marr Photography Workshops
404 S. 8th Street, Lower Level
Boise, ID
FREE (beverages and snacks available for purchase from our lovely hosts)
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has just released a report that documents 127 cases of immigrants who were taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after minor interactions with local law enforcement officials. This often happens through the Department of Homeland Security’s “Secure Communities” program, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. Secure Communities provides immigration authorities with fingerprints from local jails, but DHS has several other means of scanning arrestees for immigration violations including 287g, which deputizes some local police and sheriffs to enforce immigration laws and the Criminal Alien Program, which screens inmates in select jails and prisons for immigration violations.
Perhaps most chilling, however, as documented in the AILA report, is the tendency of local law enforcement, including U.S. Forest Service rangers in one example, to call in ICE after routine traffic stops and hand the case over to them.
The opposition to Secure Communities and to the large numbers of deportations under the Obama administration that the program has facilitated, is still being led by fearless undocumented youth, as evidenced by demonstrations in Chicago and Los Angeles (see YouTube video below). But as the numbers of U.S. citizens or permanent residents with close relatives and friends caught up in this federal dragnet increase, a new opportunity for protest is on the rise.
Of the 127 cases the AILA report documents, at least 27 of the immigrants in deportation proceedings have U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouses or fiances. Four are dating American citizens. And even more have U.S. citizen children, siblings and parents. Imagine for a moment that you are driving with your husband in Florida, you get a ticket and when you go to court to challenge it, your husband is arrested by ICE agents and placed in deportation proceedings:
In 2010, a man in Florida was a passenger in a car driven by his wife, a U.S. citizen, when the car was pulled over. The wife was given a ticket for driving without a license. The wife went to traffic court to challenge the ticket because she had a valid driver’s license. The man accompanied her to court. Even though the wife was a U.S. citizen, she was not fluent in English because she had spent many years outside the U.S. However, plainclothes ICE agents were at the courthouse arresting people who needed an interpreter, and they arrested both the man and his wife. He has been placed in removal proceedings and has no relief other than voluntary departure. He was the sole source of support for his wife and two U.S. citizen children. He also helped support his wife’s U.S. citizen sister and her two children. —AILA Case Study #26
These cases are occurring all over the country at all times of day and night. Even Good Samaritans and VICTIMS of crimes are being caught in the dragnet:
In September 2007, a man called the police after being the victim of a hit and run car accident in New Mexico. The sheriff’s deputy who responded to the call repeatedly asked the man if he was “illegal.” When he finally admitted to being in the country unlawfully, deputy arrested him. He was held until ICE picked him up and was eventually deported to Mexico. His lawful permanent resident wife and their U.S. citizen child moved to Mexico as well. —AILA Case Study #83
I cannot see how President Obama, a student of the 1960s Civil Rights struggle can watch this type of injustice occur, much less sit idly by as “citizens”—and I use that term in the broadest way possible, as in good citizens—take to the streets over it.
On the heels of the Rick Perry Jesus-fest in Texas, it’s nice to see some mainline Christian groups stepping up to the plate in Alabama and actually getting some press for it.
2006 Pro-immigrant march in Chicago | Edu-Tourist on FlickrAlabama took the mantle from Arizona for most regressive state immigration law in the country when it passed H.B. 56 in June. The law, which goes into effect next month unless stopped in court, contains Arizona-like provisions for police stopping “suspected illegal immigrants.” But it also goes further in forcing public schools to check the residency status of students and making it a crime to transport or harbor undocumented immigrants. The Obama administration has sued to stop implementation of the law, as have at least 16 other nations.
But the latest opposition is coming from a several mainline Christian groups: Methodists, Episcopals and Catholics have actually sued for the right to minister to people regardless of immigration status. These groups have long been supporters of comprehensive immigration reform, but stepping into the spotlight and suing the state is a good move, and reminds us that the Christian right is not the only religious group out there mixing it up in the political realm.
That reminder is important. To non-Christians such as myself, it’s easy to lump all Christians into one big group. I know that Christians have always been on the left and the right side of American history; I know that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez were both Christians and I occasionally read liberal Christian journals like Sojourners. And perhaps the Christian right—the prayer breakfast, God and Country, fundamentalist right—is more amplified here in Idaho. But it seems like the Christian right is just so much louder than the Christian left. So I’m heartened to see mainstream, liberal Christians raise their voices through this lawsuit.
Maybe they could also take a hint from their non-proselytizing Jewish and Muslim brothers and start preaching to their own co-religionists on the right who have lost their way, rather than looking far and wide for new Christians?
Last week, while visiting family on the East Coast, I spent a day in Washington, D.C. I hoped to interview several congressmen about their views on mixed immigration status couples but my timing was really bad: I arrived the day after the debt ceiling vote and most lawmakers were on their way home to “brag” about their votes. But I ended up meeting with staffers in two congressional offices and I think our background conversations were even more valuable than an interview with the elected officials would have been.
Though mixed status couples have not gotten very much press compared to other groups seeking immigration relief (like DREAM Act students or same-sex couples), there are some very good ideas floating around Capitol Hill, backed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The CHC and individual lawmakers have requested that the Obama Administration:
Switch to processing waivers to the 3- and 10-year bars (essentially pardons for SOME undocumented immigrants who would otherwise have a family visa available) inside the United States, rather than forcing tens of thousands of relatives of Americans to travel abroad while waiting for their applications to be processed.
Expand the definition of “extreme hardship”—the standard for getting the above-mentioned waiver—so it includes separation from a spouse, for example, or from U.S. citizen children. These seem obvious, but currently Americans have to prove that they will suffer medical or serious financial hardship for their immigrant partners to win these cases.
I also heard that the Obama administration is very sensitive to media coverage—both in English and Spanish language press—on immigration reform. Perhaps this is obvious or old news, but I was surprised by some of the examples of press determining policy that staffers offered. I have to confirm this notion further.
I also realized that Obama is about two years behind the curve in thinking on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a tactic that many in the pro-immigrant movement abandoned in favor of individually tweaking policies that help mixed status families, students, youth, and same-sex couples. Maybe a year ago, there were still a few pro-immigrant congressman who were saying they wanted comprehensive reform or nothing. The DREAM Act activists changed their tune by successfully demanding a vote and now Obama (and other presidential candidates who do not want to take a stand) is the only one talking about comprehensive or nothing. At least many Republicans talk about specific policies like border control or mass deportations—as flawed as their logic is—rather than the vagaries or Russian Roulette of comprehensive reform.
Another view from Capitol Hill is that LGBT advocates have made better headway in working with the immigration agencies than the undocumented in part because La Migra has a built in bias against people in the country illegally, but not necessarily against same-sex couples. Of course, those groups do overlap frequently and many same-sex couples are going to need the same relief that mixed-status couples are seeking, be it in-country processing, an expanded hardship definition or a legalization program.
Walking across Capitol Hill, from the Senate office buildings to the House side, you have to pass right in back of the U.S. Capitol. I’m always struck by how small it looks from the back: the nation’s capitol is just another building really (as is the Supreme Court, which sits just off the back lawn). I’m struck by how members of Congress appear so normal looking away from the TV cameras, as they walk to lunch or to their cars, sweating just like everyone else. While the business of governing exudes a mystical, larger-than-life persona on the evening news and in the papers, it’s just regular folks there in Washington, trying to keep themselves sane and popular. It’s worth a stroll around the congressional parking lot every few years to remember that.
The Exploring Amor and Exile Last Thursday Series, in partnership with Boise City Arts and History Dept. Artists in Residence Program at 8th Street Marketplace, will present Ruth Leitman’s award-winning immigration documentary Tony & Janina’s American Wedding this week.
Film Premier Details
What: Tony & Janina’s American Wedding
When: 7-9 p.m., Thursday June 30, 2011
Where: The Cole/Marr Photography Workshops, 8th Street Marketplace, Lower Level, 404 S. 8th St, Boise, Idaho
Suggested donations of $7 – $10 will benefit the filmmakers as they take the film across the country and fight to reunite Tony and Janina. Or support the film on its IndieGoGo page.
Tony & Janina’s American Wedding is a feature length documentary that gets to the heart of the broken, red-tape ridden U.S. immigration system. After 18 years in America, Tony and Janina Wasilewski’s family is torn apart when Janina is deported back to Poland, taking their six-year-old son Brian with her. Set on the backdrop of the Chicago political scene, and featuring Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez at the heart of the immigration reform movement, this film follows the Wasilewski’s three-year struggle to be reunited, as their Senator, Barack Obama, rises to the Presidency. With a fresh perspective on the immigration conversation, this film tells the untold, post-9/11 human rights story that every undocumented immigrant in America faces today, with the power to open the conversation for change.
A month ago I read that Idaho was one of five states allowing residents to self-check their work authorization through the E-Verify system. I started to go through the process but then got paranoid and stopped.
It was perhaps an artificial paranoia: the feds already have my Social Security Number and I don’t even want another job. But I did live the first 16 years of my life with a typo in my SSN and frankly, I’m not keen on asking the government if I’m authorized to work. I think that should be between me and a potential employer. Also, I don’t like to take this guy’s advice. But in the name of journalistic curiosity, I went through the process again this morning and have huge news:
I am work authorized.
This morning, the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration Policy and Enforcement Subcommittee is holding a hearing on HR 2164 [pdf], the so-called Legal Workforce Act. I say so-called because one of the prime arguments against the Act, which mandates employers nationwide to check new hires against E-Verify, a national employment eligibility database, is that it will just drive even more workers into the cash economy.
Luckily (sort of) Arizona has served as a lab for E-Verify since mandating the database checks a few years ago. The National Immigration Law Center testified this morning [pdf] as to Arizona’s experience, arguing that:
Arizona income tax collections dropped 13 percent [pdf] after E-Verify became law there, but sales tax collections only dropped 2.5 percent for food and 6.8 percent for clothing, showing that workers were still earning money and spending it, but that income was not showing up on the tax rolls.
American citizens are frequently caught up in the e-bureaucratic web and then have to fight for their right to work. By NILC estimates, between 480,000 and 1.3 million people authorized to work in the U.S. will be flagged by E-Verify and have to deal with correcting their records.
Arguments that is has hurt small businesses by forcing them to take an extra step on hires is probably valid for some, but I found the self-check process to be pretty quick and easy. It took less than five minutes. First, an outside vendor verified my identity by presumably looking up my name, address and birthday in its own databases and then asking me a series of questions about myself: I had to verify that I used to live on Guerrero Street in San Francisco and that my maiden name (?) was not that of my wife. Then it spits you back into the US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Self-Check site, you enter your SSN and voila: you are work authorized. Or not.
I have to admit, I kind of wanted to be one of those flagged records so that I could go through the process of correcting my record for all of you. But alas …
There are lots of practical, political and philosophical problems with a national work authorization database, starting with how we define “work” and how we define “authorized.” But the biggest point that Congress should be considering is that no immigration enforcement action will work in a vacuum. As NILC Political Director Tyler Moran put it this morning:
NILC believes the key to good jobs for all workers is (1) reforming our immigration laws in a comprehensive and realistic way that also includes strengthening our labor, employment, and civil rights laws, and (2) vigorously enforcing these laws.Protecting the rights of all workers in this way will strengthen jobs and our economy. The Legal Workforce Act will do precisely the opposite.
Another very relevant point that has come to light in researching this book is that even people who are authorized to work in this country are facing blowback from the E-Verify push. One of the guys I’ve been interviewing for the book has a green card and is on his way to becoming a U.S. citizen, but he can’t find a job because employers either look skeptically at his green card, suspect his past undocumented status or—and this is his wife’s suspicion—avoid hiring Mexican workers, whether from personal bias or as a reaction to the national political climate. Or both.
Brookings has a study out today that shows that there are now more immigrants with college degrees in the U.S. than immigrants without high school diplomas. In 1980, only 19 percent of immigrants had their BA or higher; today that number is 29.6 percent.
This is an important, stereotype busting, statistic but I’m not sure that thinking of these numbers in terms of skills is entirely accurate. The Brookings study calls that 29.6 percent “high skilled” and refers to the 27.8 percent of immigrants who have not completed high school as “low skilled.” The largest group—42.6 percent—are somewhere in the middle, having completed secondary education and maybe some college.
Table shows rise of the highly educated immigrant. From "The Geography of Immigrant Skills: Educational Profiles of Metropolitan Areas," Hall, et. al., Brookings (click graphic for full report).
The authors do acknowledge that skill and educational attainment are not the same thing, but justify their terminology this way:
To be sure, educational attainment is not a perfect measure of occupational skill, particularly among the foreign-born, for whom the quality of educational degrees received abroad may vary substantially. Nor is educational attainment the only measure of human capital, which can include labor market experience and job- and sector-specific knowledge and training. Yet educational attainment itself remains a strong predictor of employment, job stability, and wages—especially for workers at the high and low ends of the educational distribution.
But I’d take issue with that, at least anecdotally. Many immigrants who have not completed high school are nonetheless highly skilled in whatever field they have chosen: building, fixing cars, agriculture, etc., even running small businesses. And in my experience, this high skill is often recognized and rewarded by U.S. employers, regardless of resume. I’d like to see more data on the assertion that schooling is still a strong predictor of employment and wages.
I do like how Audrey Singer, one of the authors of the report, talks about the context of the issue and it’s relevance for immigration reform, without demonizing “low-skill” immigrants:
Her tone jives with one of the key findings of the report:
Our report confirms what some industries, employers and municipalities have already begun to recognize: that the new arrivals to this country should be viewed as a positive and skilled addition to the labor force rather than as a strain on society. By examining the new geography of immigrant skills across the 100 top metropolitan areas, we have also provided the data necessary for beginning to explore more inclusive immigration policies at the local, state and regional levels.
Perhaps that opens the door for more cities and states to think proactively on immigration rather than in the reactionary way we’ve been seeing.
May 26, 7-8:30 pm
Cole/Marr Coffee House in the Lower Level of the 8th Street Marketplace in Boise, Idaho (next to Café Olé – 404 S. 8th Street)
Exploring Amor and Exile #2
The Santa Fe Bridge over the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo between El Paso and Juarez
The 8th Street Artist in Residence Last Thursday Series continues this month with a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border. An un-panel of experts (you and I) will invade our media-fogged brains with a cascading presentation of social, cultural, political and economic perspectives on Ciudad Juarez and the border region.
This event will include literary, journalistic, musical, visual and YouTube takes on the reality and symbology of “Juarez”. Some material may contain violent imagery.
Here is a starter source list for the discussion, just some things that I’ve been reading of late. I’ve chosen 12 perspectives from which to analyze Ciudad Juarez … I’m sure there are more and there are tons more sources we could explore. So please add to the Google Doc linked above and comment on the references already listed.
Walking across Capitol Hill, from the Senate office buildings to the House side, you have to pass right in back of the U.S. Capitol. I’m always struck by how small it looks from the back: the nation’s capitol is just another building really (as is the Supreme Court, which sits just off the back lawn). I’m struck by how members of Congress appear so normal looking away from the TV cameras, as they walk to lunch or to their cars, sweating just like everyone else. While the business of governing exudes a mystical, larger-than-life persona on the evening news and in the papers, it’s just regular folks there in Washington, trying to keep themselves sane and popular. It’s worth a stroll around the congressional parking lot every few years to remember that.
