Amnesty isn't a dirty word

Amnesty isn't a dirty word
By Gregory Rodriguez
May 28, 2007


AMNESTY HAS become the political act that dare not speak its name. Nativists go wild when they hear the term. Mainstream immigrant advocates talk around it. Immigration-restriction fanatics have so poisoned and blurred the word's meaning that they see it lurking in any legislation that proposes anything less than jail time or mass deportations for illegal immigrants.

But is the idea of amnesty really as outlandish and un-American as radio talk-show hosts and Republican politicians make it sound? Is it really antithetical to our sacred notion of rule of law? Well, yes and no.

It helps to look back at the word's origins. Although dictionaries differ slightly, Webster's New International defines it as "the act of an authority (such as a government) by which general pardon of an offense is granted, often before trial or conviction, especially to a large group of individuals." The term "amnesty" derives from the Greek amnestia, which means forgetfulness and forgiveness.

The fundamental question, then, is whether the government should ever circumvent the legal process and dispense forgiveness. Certainly, the Constitution allows the president the power to pardon all offenses except impeachment. A holdover from monarchical government, the presidential pardon has been controversial from the beginning of the republic, when some of the framers worried about its potential for abuse.

More than two centuries later, President Clinton's infamous last-minute pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive commodities trader accused of tax evasion and of making illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis, resurrected such concerns, particularly because Rich's ex-wife donated nearly half a million dollars to Clinton's presidential library fund.

But not all pardons and amnesties in U.S. history have been so utterly devoid of social value. Whether you agreed with it or not, President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon did end our long, polarizing national Watergate nightmare. Historically, amnesties have served a similar purpose of social reconciliation.

It is true that the failure to punish lawbreakers challenges the rule of law and our collective sense of fair play. When we abrogate that rule, we threaten to undermine the social contract. And yet the very idea of pardons and amnesties presupposes that law has its limits and that, on occasion, it is trumped by other values — social cohesion, for one, and a larger view of justice, for another. If the hunger for judgment and punishment is driven — and I believe it is — by a sense of resentment toward lawbreakers, then acts of political forgiveness represent the lifting of that resentment.

As a means to keep the peace, in 1795 President Washington pardoned the leaders of a rebellion against the whiskey tax, a controversial law that was later repealed. In order to "bind up our nation's wounds" during and after the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson issued more than 200,000 presidential pardons to Union deserters and Confederate soldiers. Indeed, Johnson's 1868 Christmas amnesty proclamation granted unconditional pardons to all participants in the war.

In 1947, President Truman issued pardons to 1,500 World War II draft resisters. A few years later, he granted amnesty to 9,000 deserters from the Korean War. A generation later, in 1974, Ford offered a conditional amnesty to men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1977, in one of his first acts as president, Jimmy Carter granted draft evaders a "full, complete and unconditional pardon." His act was meant to put the divisions and antagonisms of the war behind us.

Not all amnesties have such lofty goals. But in all cases, those in authority must weigh the costs of enforcement against the benefits of bringing people together or back into good standing with the government. States routinely offer individuals and businesses tax amnesties. Every so often, libraries set up amnesty periods in which readers can return late books with no charge. Likewise, municipalities offer parking ticket amnesties to give scofflaws a chance to start over with a clean slate.

Sometimes even companies and private organizations resort to amnesties. In their fight against piracy, cable companies have offered immunity from prosecution to people who admit to using unauthorized service, assuming that forgiveness will get them to pay up. In an attempt to get people to quit drinking, one Southern university pardons students for violating campus alcohol policy if they seek medical assistance for themselves or others.

It's a political reality that general amnesty is no longer an option for illegal immigrants. But some form of it is probably going to be required to solve the mess of our long-delayed immigration policy, and even amnesty haters have to admit that it has its purposes.

Just ask those turkeys that get their necks saved by the president in the Rose Garden every year right before Thanksgiving.

What's needed is immigration reform

What's needed is immigration reform
By: Sen. John F. Kerry

August 12, 2010 04:28 AM EDT


It was stunning to see a senior senator declare, “I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen.”

Stunning, first, because in a year when we lost Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), guardian of the Senate’s history and defender of the Constitution, some senators need reminding that the 14th Amendment was born of a determination to end forever any question, any effort to enshrine in our laws a kind of second-class citizenship.

The amendment’s authors purposely chose an objective standard of citizenship, one not subject to politics: birth.

But the senator’s statement is also stunning for what it says about the political theater that today too often substitutes for meaningful debate and dialogue in what the Framers intended to be the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

There is no epidemic of people “flying in” just to have their children born as U.S. citizens — and every senator knows it. Just as they know it takes more than two decades for a child born in America to sponsor anyone for immigration — which means no back door for undocumented parents to become citizens on the sly.

Why, then, has repeal of the 14th Amendment become the subject of the day, consuming hour upon hour of cable news coverage at the expense of the real issue that Americans want addressed thoughtfully and rationally — fixing our broken immigration system?

Make no mistake — the lack of consensus on immigration reform frustrates us all, especially because it has unleashed some of the most divisive forces in America in decades. But that means it is time to renew the push for comprehensive immigration reform, not resort to a contrived conflict and fake solutions — with the short-term goal of winning a few more votes for a political party.

No. Senators should lead, not feed further division and romanticize partisan fighting as a virtue. If we fail to lead, we may never rise to the serious, long-term, structural challenges we face, which require deliberation, candor, thoughtful proposals and sustainable compromise.

The idea of repealing the 14th Amendment is just the latest example of how small our politics has become. This is so bad as to be laughable, were its implications not so grave. In America, we do not practice or believe in communal punishment. There are about 4 million kids legally in the United States but born to undocumented parents.

To deny them citizenship would create a generation of stateless children. We cannot force their parents’ countries to embrace them, nor should we reject them. They have done nothing wrong. They are born innocent.

If we repeal the amendment, how would we enforce our new citizenship standard? Would we station federal immigration agents in delivery rooms? Will every birth trigger an immigration investigation into the parents’ status? Do we want to amend the U.S. Constitution, the greatest document of liberty and freedom, so we can start deporting newborns?

In 2007, on the Senate floor, former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici recounted his mother's arrest by immigration agents, after they unwittingly learned she was an undocumented immigrant. Should he have been deported?

There are others, including members of our military, now serving in Afghanistan, who were born to immigrants here illegally. They are no less patriotic than their brothers and sisters in arms born to American parents.

America has overcome the demonization of immigrants before — even when the most demagogic statements came from government itself. During the 2007 immigration debate, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) cited the government’s 1910 Dillingham Report. He talked about how the report claimed immigrants were ruining America.

He listed the complaints: “They live among themselves. They have disease. They won't learn our language. They commit crimes. They are a burden on society, and we need to do something about it.”

Then he went on to say, “The people they were talking about became the "greatest generation.''

He was right then. And we would all do well to remember again that people come to America to work, not to have babies.

Throughout our history, each amendment to the Constitution has moved us closer to a more perfect union — toward greater freedom and inclusion. From the establishment of the Bill of Rights, to the protection of freed slaves and their children, to women’s right to vote, our journey has been forward — not back.

In the 21st century, we must strengthen our commitment to the principle that all people are created equal and not allow factionalism or fear to trump our commitment to liberty.

Moreover, effectively managing immigration demands more than political theater. We must reestablish a system governed by the rule of law.

But we also need to recognize that we have lived with a broken system for so long that the millions here today have become part of us. They need to get right with the law — by paying taxes and moving to the back of the line for citizenship. But we also need to make sure employers are no longer hiring and exploiting undocumented workers. They must check every hire, verifying with the government that the employee is here legally. Those who fail to do so should be punished.

The sad reality is that, behind closed doors, you won’t find a senator who really believes that any constitutional change is coming to end birthright citizenship.

Even sadder is the fact that behind those same closed doors — and in the public dialogue — too little is being done about what we all know is so desperately needed: a bipartisan, good-faith effort to reform a broken immigration system and improve border security, protect U.S. jobs and deal fairly with those now in the country illegally.

We can and should do all of this in good faith — and without amending our Constitution.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and serves on the Finance Committee.

© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC

Rethinking the American Dream

Vanity Fair

The Way We Were

Rethinking the American Dream

Along with millions of jobs and 401(k)s, the concept of a shared national ideal is said to be dying. But is the American Dream really endangered, or has it simply been misplaced? Exploring the way our aspirations have changed—the rugged individualism of the Wild West, the social compact of F.D.R., the sitcom fantasy of 50s suburbia—the author shows how the American Dream came to mean fame and fortune, instead of the promise that shaped a nation.

by David Kamp

April 2009

The year was 1930, a down one like this one. But for Moss Hart, it was the time for his particularly American moment of triumph. He had grown up poor in the outer boroughs of New York City—“the grim smell of actual want always at the end of my nose,” he said—and he’d vowed that if he ever made it big he would never again ride the rattling trains of the city’s dingy subway system. Now he was 25, and his first play, Once in a Lifetime, had just opened to raves on Broadway. And so, with three newspapers under his arm and a wee-hours celebration of a successful opening night behind him, he hailed a cab and took a long, leisurely sunrise ride back to the apartment in Brooklyn where he still lived with his parents and brother.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into one of the several drab tenement neighborhoods that preceded his own, Hart later recalled, “I stared through the taxi window at a pinch-faced 10-year-old hurrying down the steps on some morning errand before school, and I thought of myself hurrying down the street on so many gray mornings out of a doorway and a house much the same as this one.… It was possible in this wonderful city for that nameless little boy—for any of its millions—to have a decent chance to scale the walls and achieve what they wished. Wealth, rank, or an imposing name counted for nothing. The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream.”

Read more »

Pima County Sheriff Dupnik's letter to the Wall Street Journal

Pima County Sheriff Dupnik's letter to the Wall Street Journal


Posted: May 06, 2010 3:25 PM MST

The following was written by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor:

I have spent over 50 years in the law-enforcement profession in the Tucson community, the past 30 of which I have served as sheriff. I have seen relations between our community and law enforcement personnel shift with the times: sometimes challenged when the actions of a few police officers cross the line, and often improving when there is a sense of partnership. But in the past few weeks Arizona became a model for the rest of the country of what not to do.



The immigration reform law that was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on April 23 effectively requires that immigrants be able to prove their legal presence in the state of Arizona. I have argued from the moment that this bill was signed that it is unnecessary, that it is a travesty, and most significantly, that it is unconstitutional.



Pima County, where I am sheriff, shares 123 miles of border with Mexico. Patrolling this area for illegal immigrants is like trying to keep water from passing through a sieve.



I have always believed that the federal government, charged with the task of regulating immigration into the United States, bears the responsibility for this task. However, it has also never been the policy of my department to ignore the existence of those that are in this country illegally. That's why my deputies are instructed that if they come in contact with an illegal immigrant they should detain him, contact Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and turn him over to federal authorities.



My deputies have referred more illegal immigrants to Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement than any other state or local law enforcement agency in Arizona. But this new law will pass the burden of immigration enforcement to my county department. This is a responsibility I do not have the resources to implement.



The more fundamental problem with the law is its vague language. It requires law enforcement officials to demand papers from an individual when they have a "reasonable suspicion" that he is an illegal immigrant. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal" and that "they are endowed . . . with certain inalienable rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Those who look "suspiciously" like illegal immigrants will find their liberty in severe jeopardy and their pursuit of happiness disrupted—even if they are citizens or have lived, worked, paid taxes, and maybe even have served in our Armed Forces for decades.



When used in a law-enforcement context, "reasonable suspicion" is always understood to be subjective, but it must be capable of being articulated. In the case of identifying illegal immigrants, the ambiguity of what this "crime" looks like risks including an individual's appearance, which would seem to violate the Constitution's equal protection clause. Such ambiguity is especially dangerous when prescribed to an issue as fraught with emotion as that of illegal immigration.



I have an enormous amount of respect for the men and women of my department—the deputy sheriffs who respond to calls for assistance throughout Pima County every day of the week. I have no doubt that they make intelligent, compassionate and reasonable decisions countless times throughout their shifts. But no one can tell them what an illegal immigrant looks like and when it is ok to begin questioning a person along those lines. This law puts them in a no-win situation: They will be forced to offend and anger someone who is perhaps a citizen or here legally when they ask to see his papers—or be accused of nonfeasance because they do not.



There is a horrible problem with illegal immigration in this country, and it affects the citizens of Pima County every single day. Because of our proximity to the border, our county population demographic is heavily Hispanic (both legal and illegal). That means we must interact with witnesses and victims of crime in their times of need, regardless of their immigration status. Though this legislation states that inquiry into a person's immigration status is not required if it will hinder an investigation, that's not enough to quell the very real fears of the immigrant community.



Law enforcement did not ask for and does not need this new tool. What we do need is assistance from the federal government in the form of effective strategies to secure the border. Additionally, the federal government must take up this issue in the form of comprehensive immigration reform policy. If any good is to come from this firestorm, it is that our legislators will finally recognize that a problem exists and that they are the only ones with the authority to address it.

Phoenix Suns to wear 'Los Suns' jersey

Phoenix Suns to wear 'Los Suns' jersey


The Phoenix Suns basketball team is suddenly thrusting itself squarely into the center of the Arizona immigration law firestorm.

The Suns plan on wearing "Los Suns" on their jerseys tonight during their playoff game with the San Antonio Spurs to make a political point about the brewing controversy in Arizona.


From an AP story:

The Phoenix Suns will wear "Los Suns" on their jerseys in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night, owner Robert Sarver said, "to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation."

The decision to wear the jerseys on the Cinco de Mayo holiday stems from a law passed by the Arizona Legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer that has drawn widespread criticism from Latino organizations and civil rights groups that say it could lead to racial profiling of Hispanics. President Barack Obama has called the law "misguided."

Sarver, who was born and raised in Tucson, said frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with the illegal immigration issue led to the passage of what he called "a flawed state law."

Here in Houston, pro sports and politics will also collide tonight, as immigrant advocates plan to protest at Minute Maid Park during the Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks game.

There are already calls for Major League Baseball to pull the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona because of the new immigration law.

Arizona governor signs immigration bill

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a state bill Friday that requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally, which critics say will foster racial profiling and discrimination but supporters say will crack down on illegal immigration.


The Republican governor also issued an executive order that would require additional training for local officers on how to implement the law without engaging in racial profiling.

"This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," Brewer said after signing the bill.

Previously, officers could check someone's immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime.

What will Arizona's immigration law do?

Brewer's executive order was in response to critics who argue that the new law will lead to racial profiling, saying that most police officers don't have enough training to look past race while investigating a person's legal status.

"Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona," Brewer said.

The bill is considered to be among the toughest immigration measures in the nation. Supporters say the measure is needed to fill a void left by the federal government's failure to enforce its immigration laws.

This week, its leading sponsor, state Sen. Russell Pearce, said, "Illegal is not a race; it's a crime."

"We're going to take the handcuffs off of law enforcement. We're going to put them on the bad guy," said Pearce, a Republican.

Read more »

Inaction on immigration reform a travesty

By Julian Zelizer, Special to CNN


April 21, 2010 9:52 a.m. EDT
 
Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book is "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.




(CNN) -- Republicans and Democrats in Congress seem to have found one issue on which they agree. Neither party wants to get near immigration reform, the new "third rail" in American politics -- an issue so politically charged that politicians risk their careers by touching it.

Since Congress failed to reach agreement on legislation in 2006 that would have offered undocumented immigrants amnesty and a path toward naturalization, both parties have kept as far away from this issue as they did from health care after President Clinton's reform went down to defeat in 1994.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced that Democrats would tackle immigration reform, although he made some statements a few days later that seemed more hesitant. Despite Reid's promises that Democrats will deal with this issue, the verdict is still out as to how much political capital the party is willing to invest.

Although President Obama has repeatedly stated his support for immigration reform, there is still little evidence that the Democratic Party or the GOP is prepared to join colleagues like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, to fight for legislation.

If Congress is unable to pass immigration reform, it will create more opportunities for states to move forward with the kind of harsh restrictionist measures passed by the Arizona Senate on Monday.

Read more »

Better options needed on immigration reform

When Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced their immigration reform plan, the Obama administration said it will support it. Unfortunately, it recycles the same bad ideas that have led to the defeat of reform efforts over the last five years. In some ways, it is even worse.


Schumer and Graham dramatize the lack of new ideas among Washington power brokers. Real immigration reform requires a real alternative. We need a framework that embodies the goals of immigrants and working people, not the political calculations of a reluctant Congress.

What's wrong with the Schumer-Graham proposal?

-- It ignores trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA, which produce profits for U.S. corporations, but increase poverty in Mexico and Central America. Since NAFTA went into effect, income in Mexico dropped, while millions of workers lost jobs and farmers their land. If we do not change U.S. trade policy, millions of displaced people will continue to come, no matter how many walls we build.

-- People working without papers will be fired and even imprisoned under their proposal, and raids will increase. Vulnerability makes it harder for people to defend their rights, organize unions and raise wages. That keeps the price of immigrant labor low. Every worker will have to show a national ID card (an idea too extreme even for the Bush administration). This will not stop people from coming to the United States, but it will produce more immigration raids, firings and a much larger detention system.

-- They treat the flow of people coming north as a labor supply only. They propose new guest-worker programs, where workers would have few rights and no leverage to organize for better conditions.

-- Their legalization scheme imposes barriers for the 12 million people who need legal status. In 1986, even President Ronald Reagan, hardly a liberal, signed a plan in which people gained legal status quickly and easily. Many are now citizens and have made contributions to our country.

Instead, we need reform that unites people and protects everyone's rights and jobs, immigrant and nonimmigrant alike. We need to use our ideals of rights and equality to guide us. It's time to put those ideas into a bill that can bring our country together, not divide it. A human rights immigration bill would:

-- Stop trade agreements that create poverty and forced migration.

-- Give people a quick and easy path to legal status and citizenship.

-- End the visa backlogs.

-- Protect the rights of all workers - against discrimination, or getting fired for demanding rights or for not having papers.

-- Bring civil rights and peace to border communities.

-- Dismantle the immigration prisons, end detention and stop the raids.

-- Allow people to come to the United States with green cards that are not tied to employment. -- Use reasonable legalization fees to finance job programs in communities with high unemployment.

-- End guest-worker programs.

Those who say no alternative is possible might remember the "go slow" advice given to young students going to jail in the South in the early '60s. If they'd heeded it, we'd still be waiting for a Voting Rights Act. Do we believe in equality or not?

That's the choice.



David Bacon is the author of "Illegal People - How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants."

Schumer-Graham Immigration Reform Plan May Have Found 2nd GOP Supporter in Cornyn

Apparently under pressure from immigration reform advocates who will march Sunday on the Capitol, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) published their blueprint for an immigration reform bill on Thursday and President Barack Obama quickly expressed his support for it.

Shortly before, in a little noticed bit of news, the initiative may have found a much-sought-after second GOP senator to support it. Despite widespread opposition among Republicans, Sen. Jon Cornyn (R.-Texas) said he was committed to finding “common ground” on the issue, according to a Spanish-language media outlet.

As expected, the Schumer-Graham plan has a stronger focus on enforcement of border security and hiring practices than the one introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.) in December.

In a op-ed in The Washington Post, the senators wrote:

Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.

Despite the public gestures, which may be followed Friday by additional announcements from the administration, according to an activist, doubts persist on Capitol Hill on the overhaul’s chances of passing this year. Graham himself warned that Republicans would not support it if Obama and the Democrats pass health care reform using a controversial parliamentary maneuver.

One of the key to-do’s emerging from last week’s meeting between Obama and the two senators was finding another Republican who would support the bill.

Earlier Thursday, Senator Cornyn told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE that he was committed to finding “common ground” towards a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

“The problem is there’s no bill yet, there’s no written proposal. I want to see the proposal, see what’s in there… but it won’t happen without leadership from President Obama,” Cornyn said. (This is a re-translation of his remarks, which were reported in Spanish.)

Cornyn told EFE he has discussed the issue with Schumer and said he was ready to work to resolve their disagreements over the propsed bill.

The wire service interviewed Cornyn after he took part in a U.S.-Mexico legislative conference on border issues, during which he said that “the status quo (on immigration) is simply unacceptable

The right way to mend immigration

The Washington Post

By Charles E. Schumer and Lindsey O. Graham
Friday, March 19, 2010


Our immigration system is badly broken. Although our borders have become far more secure in recent years, too many people seeking illegal entry get through. We have no way to track whether the millions who enter the United States on valid visas each year leave when they are supposed to. And employers are burdened by a complicated system for verifying workers' immigration status.

Last week we met with President Obama to discuss our draft framework for action on immigration. We expressed our belief that America's security and economic well-being depend on enacting sensible immigration policies.

The answer is simple: Americans overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration. Throughout our history, immigrants have contributed to making this country more vibrant and economically dynamic. Once it is clear that in 20 years our nation will not again confront the specter of another 11 million people coming here illegally, Americans will embrace more welcoming immigration policies.

Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.

Read more »

Immigration Reform: Change Takes Courage and Faith

Immigration Reform: Change Takes Courage and Faith


by Jim Wallis 03-04-2010

The window is closing on comprehensive immigration reform. At least that’s what the politicians in Washington are saying. They’re afraid of more demagoguery. They’re afraid of upcoming elections. They’re afraid of the politics of fear. But I am more and more troubled by how little they seem concerned about the worsening plight of many of America’s most vulnerable families — about how families are being broken up by the U.S. government, forcibly separating children from their parents. And for the media, immigration reform is just another looming political conflict to report, more of the gamesmanship of Washington to cover.

As always, the real stories of real people get lost in the win/lose politics of the nation’s capital. Yes, the nation is going through some tremendous challenges right now. And we all know that Congress is hesitant to tackle tough issues before mid-term elections. But while politicians can write off one more piece of legislation on a packed agenda, they won’t be able to write off, or ignore, a movement rooted in our faith communities. If our political leaders won’t make room for the “strangers” among us, we will — because Jesus commands us to do so.

Significant social change does not begin with Congress, and it doesn’t happen overnight; it usually takes a movement, and it always takes courage. Sojourners has been convening, educating, and mobilizing Christians nationwide through our Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform campaign for the past three years, and we are proud to be in good company with the growing interfaith movement fighting for dignity and justice for immigrants.

On March 21, 2010, tens of thousands of supporters of immigration reform will join together in Washington, D.C. for the “March for America: Change Takes Courage.” In the faith community, we have amended the tagline to read “Change Takes Courage and Faith” because courage truly does come from our faith.

Changes to our immigration system will simply not happen without both courage and faith. For many of us, faith is a catalyst to action that can solve the really big issues — and this is one of the biggest ones we face now. People of faith will look beyond the political calculations and see this for the moral and family crisis it is. It will take people of faith to knock down the doors of Congress and bring the stories of immigrant friends, neighbors, and family members as evidence of the injustices that are experienced on a daily basis. Finally, we need faith in a God who is larger than we can imagine, the God who cries as we humans build border walls to separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters on the other side, the God of justice who isn’t persuaded by the political timetables of Washington, D.C.

It’s time to stop playing politics with something that should have been dealt with long ago. The situation will only get worse for both citizens and immigrants if we don’t resolve it now. That’s why Sojourners is launching Voices of Immigration, a new campaign aimed at highlighting stories of immigration in our country and exposing the flaws in the current system. As people who believe that everyone is made in the image of God, we want to restore the human element to the conversation around immigration reform, including subsequent legislative and policy decisions. Each day next week a new story will be highlighted on God’s Politics with additional ones posted throughout March on CCIR’s Web site.

It is our hope that bringing to light the human face of the social, political, and economic problems caused by the current system will demonstrate the urgent need for immigration reform. I hope these stories will inspire you to join us in fighting to fix a broken system that harms us all. We must boldly declare that it is morally wrong to keep families apart, and that it is morally right to fix the broken system so that immigrants are treated with respect and mercy. At this crucial turning point, we must take the call of our scriptures seriously and act prophetically for justice. If Washington fails to make room for the strangers in our midst, we need to make it clear to Washington that we will do it ourselves.

Cries for Immigration Reform Fill Mission Dolores

The San Francisco Chronicle
By Bridget Huber

More than 500 people from communities throughout the Bay Area packed the pews of the Mission Dolores Basilica Thursday night for an interfaith service calling for immigration reform and looking to inspiration from the late President John F. Kennedy and the book of Isaiah.

Standing beneath the church’s celestial dome, Leticia Medina, a leader with the San Francisco Organizing Project, had a message for the nation’s political leaders: ”We, the people, want immigration reform.”

Clergy from Christian, Muslim and Jewish congregations gathered on the altar to read passages from Kennedy’s 1958 book A Nation of Immigrants, which called for a reevaluation of U.S. immigration law.

Pastor Michael McBride quoted from a section of the book praising immigrants’ contributions to U. S. culture and the economy. “This has been the secret of America,” he continued, “a nation of people with fresh memories of old traditions who dared explore new frontiers.”

Bishop William Justice commended the crowd for its social justice work and said, “As clergy, it is our role to inspire that work — to lead with prophetic voices, to encourage the weary workers … and to cry with you at the pain we see in our communities,” he said.

Lulu Rodriguez, one of the event’s organizers, said Kennedy’s words were chosen because they remain inspiring more than 50 years after he wrote them. “We need a leader like him, with a strong voice that represents us all,” she said.

At least a dozen clergy from the Bay Area spoke to a crowd that included contingents from as far away as Sacramento as well as City Supervisors David Campos and David Chiu. Senator Dianne Feinstein was invited to the event but did not come, and her staff person who was supposed to attend canceled at the last minute.


City Supervisors David Campos and David Chiu attended the event. In his remarks, Chiu called on the crowd to take action. "We are the lucky ones. We are the ones who are here. We are the ones who can fight," he said. More than a quarter of the nation’s 11.9 million undocumented immigrants live in California, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to make immigration reform a priority. But, many who favor the reforms are worried these efforts will be stonewalled in the increasingly partisan senate or shelved longer in favor of efforts to reform healthcare and right the economy.

Read more »

Ellis Island is Closed: Ash Wednesday Rally for Immigrant Rights

by Alex DiBranco
category: Immigration Detention
Published February 17, 2010 @ 02:53PM PT

Walking around town today, you might have noticed gray smudges on certain foreheads. Yes, it's Ash Wednesday, a time when many Christians repent personal and societal sins. This year, some are marking the start of Lent not just with a symbol on their skin, but also with a march to protest against a flawed immigration system.

Marchers organized by the Pax Christi Summit began at Ellis Island earlier today, as a reminder that "Ellis Island is Closed" to all your tired, poor, and huddled masses; they will arrive at the Elizabeth, NJ, detention center by 6pm. As immigrant rights activist Shivali Shah writes in the Faster Times, observers -- both lay people and nuns and priests -- on the march have chosen to use this day to "repent for the sins of their generation for how we treat immigrant detainees in the US."

The protesters are particularly focused on inhumane treatment in detention centers, where conditions often rival third world jails -- for actual criminals. The majority of these detainees have not committed a crime -- they only violated immigration laws, and illegal presence in the country is a civil/administrative, not a criminal, offense. Shah reports that the Elizabeth Detention Center is infamous for brutal treatment of detainees, including physical assault, lack of health care, and denial of access to legal representation or even to make a phone call. Five reported deaths at the center are dogged by cover-ups and mistreatment, as revealed by an ACLU/New York Times Freedom of Information Request.

"Our immigration laws and policies must be aligned with our humanitarian values," says Kathy O'Leary, NJ Coordinator for Pax Christi. At the moment, that's clearly not the case -- if our current immigration and detention system reflects our humanitarian values, then our society has certainly lost its way.

Love Thy Neighbor -- Pass Immigration Reform

The Huffington Post
Jorge-Mario CabreraDirector of Communications and Public Relations, CHIRLA
Posted: February 3, 2010 01:56 PM

Drowned by 1,000 and more voices chanting "Viva Luis Gutierrez" and "Tu Puedes, Luis" (you can do it, Luis), the Representative from Illinois of Puerto Rican descent got up to the podium at Our Lady of Angels Church, better known as La Placita, to lift the spirits of a peoples pummeled through the ages, and to point his finger at the Obama administration's lukewarm forging of a road ahead to overhaul the nation's broken immigration system.

He did so in an earnest fashion, typical of him. He did so, red faced and passionate, addressing the crowd in the beautiful Boricua lexicon, fully aware his words were drops of water in a desert of hope. Immigrant families, their children, men and women, students, immigration rights advocates, faith leaders, and union members all watched in awe and welcomed the immigration reform champion to the city's oldest Catholic house of prayer.

Rep. Gutierrez arrived heaven-sent to Los Angeles this week, invited by the venerable labor leader, Maria Elena Durazo, to speak to their annual congress about labor laws and workers' rights. He took time off to talk about immigration reform to hundreds of advocates who came from all over the state bearing hundreds of difficult questions. He addressed the possible timeline ("If by April we have not introduced something, we will not have reform in 2010"). He spoke of challenges ahead ("It will be difficult, no doubt about it. But to those who oppose my plan, let them propose a better one"). And, he called upon the White House to humanize the immigrant plight ("We are illegals when it's convenient. We are criminals when it's not an election. We are human beings, and we cannot let them forget it.").

The Congressman was not bluffing when he warned that our community risks bitterness and apathy after so much disillusionment and deadlines past. During the nationally-syndicated El Piolin por la Manana radio show, the legislator heard from a caller named Geovanni. "Why don't you give up, Mr. Congressman," asked the caller. "We are not wanted in this country; we are not going to get anything good from them." Rep. Gutierrez listened, breathed deeply and responded:

If my wife had given up on me whenever I did something wrong, we would not be together still after 33 years of marriage. When you love someone, you tell them they are doing wrong because you want them to be a better person. I want my president to be the best one ever. I want him to excel. We do not have the luxury of giving up, my people, we cannot let this president down. We need to tell him he's being ill advised.
The crowd at La Placita heard the same exact message, straight from the horse's mouth. The Congressman added, "my wife and I were united by love and God. No one, not even the president of the United States of America, can undo what God has made. When we say we value families, we cannot mean we value some families above others. If you love thy neighbor, we must approve immigration reform. No more family separations, no more raids." The thunderous applause echoed the sentiment and underscored the deeply felt resentment of a community in crisis. A woman sitting in the front row lifted a little girl above her head as if to say, no one will separate me from this child. No one.

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Pregnant and Shackled: Hard Labor for Arizona's Immigrants

Pregnant and Shackled: Hard Labor for Arizona's Immigrants

New America Media, News Feature, Valeria Fernández , Posted: Jan 26, 2010

PHOENIX, Ariz.— Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, an undocumented immigrant charged with using someone else’s identity to work, gave birth to a boy on Dec. 21 at Maricopa Medical Center. After her C-section, she was shackled for two days to her hospital bed. She was not allowed to nurse her baby. And when guards walked her out of the hospital in shackles, she had no idea what officials had done with her child.

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'Illegal Me'

In the wake of 911, after my return home from the Americorps, I met my future husband who was and is an "illegal immigrant". He invited me to go salsa dancing - I declined secretly hoping he would ask me to do something else, less daunting for a near 6’ gal. He was relentless and I finally accepted.

Raul and I got married on a beautiful day in June of 2006. We knew going into our marriage that there would be no way for us to legally stay in the states. I ask myself all the time, especially now with two little innocent baby girls, why I got us into this, knowing the repercussions of Raul’s trek across the Arizona desert. In my better moments I thank God for the wonderful man I share my life with and for the people I have come to know because of him.

Our story burns inside me because I know we are not alone. I hope this blog will create awareness, however small, of undocumented immigrants in the U.S and families just like mine.

The Prospects for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

January 21, 2010

Senate Democrats Press Advocates to Embrace Expanded Enforcement
The Prospects for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
By STEWART J. LAWRENCE

After months of procedural delay and understandable preoccupation with the economy and health care, the White House has quietly announced plans to introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate next month. The move surprised many political observers who have watched the Obama administration constantly postpone action on immigration reform in order to address a host of other policy issues.

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What King's Civil Rights Legacy Means for Immigration Reform

What King's Civil Rights Legacy Means for Immigration Reform


By Seth Hoy, Immigration Impact

Posted on January 18, 2010, Printed on March 9, 2010


Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose dream of equality and human rights changed the course of history. His legacy will be remembered this week by people of all colors and creeds who still believe in the American dream and who continue to fight for equality, civil rights and the basic human dignity they deserve. Over the weekend, thousands of human rights activists took to the street in Phoenix, Arizona, to march for civil rights and for "long-overdue federal action on immigration."

So how is immigration a civil rights issue? In a recent editorial, Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr., the pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Houston, connects Dr. King’s fight for equality with the struggle many immigrants face today.

Immigration is about human dignity and the nobility of parents of different tribes and nations facing the risk of coming to a foreign land, a land of opportunity, to work for a better tomorrow for their children…Dr. King invoked the truth, the truth being that all humans ought to be treated with a certain dignity. It would be natural for us to look to him as an example for fighting for a just cause.

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Follow MLK's guidance on immigration reform

Follow MLK's guidance on immigration reform
By THE REV. HARVEY CLEMONS JR.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 3, 2009, 7:41PM

It is nothing new for an African-American minister like me to look at Scripture and perceive that something is amiss in our society. That was Martin Luther King Jr.'s story. King dared to read Scripture and proclaim God gave all people the dignity and intelligence to choose which bus seat was right for them, even in Alabama. King's vision included more than justice for black folk. His vision included all God's children, red and yellow, black and white.

King's vision and struggles are important to remember as serious conversations about immigration reform are again beginning to brew, as indicated by the remarks last month of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Center for American Progress. Though the conversation concerning immigration in America is more ancient than King, King's vision provides a helpful tool with which to view the immigration struggle today. Immigration is about human dignity and the nobility of parents of different tribes and nations facing the risk of coming to a foreign land, a land of opportunity, to work for a better tomorrow for their children.

Nearly 18 months ago, a conversation with a Latino brother demanded that I move my understanding of the immigration issue past propaganda and common perception. Spurred by his passion, friends and I gathered with prominent immigration lawyers, leaders from the Greater Houston Partnership and the Latino community to learn how the immigration system was affecting the daily lives of people in our community and the well-being of our community itself.

The perception garnered from the media is often that undocumented immigrants simply go around the open door of the legal immigration system, but that morning I learned how an unworkable immigration system closes the vast majority of legal avenues for those who desire to immigrate legally. The perception from the media is often that immigrants do not pay taxes; that morning I learned undocumented workers pay taxes and to a much greater degree than what they consume in our state, with an estimated $400 million surplus. Also, I did not know undocumented immigrants contributed more than $17 billion to our state's economy, how an enforcement-only policy would cost our economy $651 billion in annual output, or how immigrant parents lived continually under the threat of being separated from their children. For too long, advocates who fear immigrants have acted as the primary molders of our perception concerning immigration, convincing us all too easily that their fears fall in line with reality.

To many, it seems strange that I, an African-American minister from the Fifth Ward, would focus much of my energy and resources to work along with other leaders in our city for immigration reform. Yet I am a Christian and a disciple with the call to see Christ in the humanity of all who suffer. This was the remarkable passion of King. Today, many others and I share this same passion. King saw the world from the perspective of God's love. God's love gave King the courage to work with all God's children so that the foolishness of fear-mongers would not cut the country off from its pursuit of a more perfect union.

Listen not to false prophets who wrap their politics around the fear of the immigrant. It is not a new song they sing. In fact, it is eerily similar to the songs sung not too long ago. They sang that slavery was God's way until that song sounded ridiculous. They altered the song and sang segregation was God's way until that too sounded ridiculous. Now the song of the false prophets paints the immigrant as a threat to, rather than a pillar of, American society; paints undocumented fathers and mothers working from sunrise to sundown as a drain of our nation's resources rather than a reminder of our heroic beginnings; and paints immigrant children as a national burden rather than our nation's blessing.

Napolitano closed her remarks on immigration by stating that immigration is “ingrained in our national character …. But we must modernize our laws for the 21st century so that this vision can endure. This is a task that is critical, that is attainable, and that we are fully committed to fulfilling.” Like in the days of King, we know much of what we need to do. The only question is whether or not we have the courage to continue the noble legacy with which we have been entrusted by working to be the land of opportunity for all people in all positions of life. Please join us at www.houstonimmigrationreform.org.

In Quake Aftermath, U.S. Suspends Deportations to Haiti

The New York Times
January 14, 2010
In Quake Aftermath, U.S. Suspends Deportations to Haiti
By JULIA PRESTON

Responding to the devastation from the Haiti earthquake, Obama administration officials on Wednesday temporarily suspended deportations of illegal immigrants from that country.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Haitian deportations would be halted “for the time being,” without specifying a time period. Immigration officials said it was clear they could be putting Haitians’ safety at risk by sending them back to a country staggering from the vast destruction of the quake. About 30,000 Haitians in the United States are facing deportation orders, immigration officials said.

Lawmakers and immigrant advocacy groups renewed calls for the administration to grant Haiti a special status that would shield Haitian immigrants in this country from deportation for an extended period and allow them to work legally. The Haitian government and advocates here have been asking Washington to grant the status, known as temporary protected status, since late 2008.

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To Overhaul Immigration, Advocates Alter Tactics

The New York Times
January 2, 2010
To Overhaul Immigration, Advocates Alter Tactics
By JULIA PRESTON

Lacing up new pairs of walking shoes with a flourish, four immigrant students set out on foot from downtown Miami on Friday, starting a four-month walk to Washington to protest what they called the Obama administration’s lack of action on legislation granting legal status to illegal immigrants.

Three of the four protesters, who are current or former students at Miami Dade College, do not have legal-resident status and risk detention by immigration authorities during the 1,500-mile walk.

The students’ trek showed the resolve and also some limitations of groups supporting an immigration overhaul that would include measures to legalize illegal immigrants. Those groups said this week that they would start a national campaign in January to pressure President Obama to push for the overhaul before midterm elections in November.

But as immigration enforcement has continued at a steady pace during the first year of the Obama administration, many illegal immigrants are clinging to jobs and families in this country and may be afraid to participate in public demonstrations. With unemployment holding at 10 percent, immigrant advocates acknowledge that their campaign could awaken passionate opposition in Congress and around the country.

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Fight on Immigration Reform Looms for Obama in '10

TIME
Fight on Immigration Reform Looms for Obama in '10
By Michael Scherer / WASHINGTON Sunday, Jan. 04, 2009

In the fall of 2007, federal agents raided 11 McDonald's restaurants in the Reno area, rounding up 56 employees on suspicion of working in the country illegally. A couple of weeks later, Barack Obama, then a long-shot candidate for President stumping through Nevada, got asked about the Bush Administration's policy of sporadic workplace immigration raids.

The candidate was unimpressed. "We are not going to solve the problem of 12 million immigrants here, 50 immigrants at a time," Obama said in October of that year. "I think this is much more for show than having a practical effect. We need comprehensive immigration reform."
(See pictures of immigrants in America.)

Two years later, that need is still unaddressed, and it's Obama's Administration that is the target of criticism. President Obama has eliminated the regular workplace roundups of illegal immigrants, but the crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants has, by contrast, increased. In November, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) announced 1,000 new audits of employers who were suspected of employing illegal immigrants. This followed the July announcement of audits of 654 companies, which included reviews of more than 85,000 employee records and the discovery of more than 14,000 suspect documents. As a result of the crackdown, thousands of undocumented workers were fired from their jobs.
(Read a report card on Obama's first year in office.)

"On the enforcement side, we are really stepping up our efforts to audit employers, to investigate employers for knowing violations, to fine them and to prosecute them when appropriate," says John Morton, Obama's choice as director of ICE. "We are doing it on a much larger scale than it was done before."

According to government records, 1,897 workplace enforcement cases were initiated between April 30 and Nov. 19 of 2009, compared to 605 cases during the same period a year earlier under the Bush Administration. In Los Angeles, the designer clothing company American Apparel fired about 1,800 employees in September following an ICE audit of employee records. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, the contract company ABM fired about 1,200 unionized janitors after a similar investigation.

The scope of the crackdown has raised objections from many of Obama's labor and civil rights supporters, who are demanding a more targeted enforcement effort focused on employers that provide poor work conditions or substandard wages. "These seemingly arbitrary audits represent a version of the flawed thinking that went into the Bush Administration's work-site raids," wrote Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern in a Dec. 11 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "Forcing the dismissal of such a tiny percentage of the hardworking men and women who work long days mopping floors, sewing our clothes, or handling meat on a factory line does not make us any stronger as a nation."

Morton says that the ICE audits, which involve individual checks of employee citizenship documentation, are intentionally broad and part of an effort to get companies to self-regulate. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has been marketing the voluntary use of the E-Verify program, an Internet-based system that allows employers to check the citizenship status of new hires. "We have to enforce the law, and the law isn't restricted to people who employ unlawful labor and have abusive working conditions," says ICE's Morton. "The law is that employers must hire people with work authorization."

The crackdown helps set the stage for a major legislative push for immigration reform in 2010, an effort that is supported by unions and the Department of Homeland Security. In a speech at the liberal Center for American Progress in November, Napolitano argued that the stronger enforcement efforts, combined with a more robust border-protection effort in the past year, set the stage for the passage of reform, which would provide a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in America. "Over the past year, as this Administration has pursued more effective strategies within the current laws, the picture of how exactly those laws need to be changed has become clearer than ever before," Napolitano said. "If we are truly going to fix a broken system, Congress will have to act."

Both Democratic and Republican strategists express hope and concern about a battle over immigration reform this year, which could yield legislation for the President to sign as soon as the summer. For Republicans, the concern is that a divisive battle could motivate Hispanic turnout for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. For Democrats, the concern is that independent voters, who are deeply concerned about high unemployment and a still sluggish economy, will see a major fight over citizenship for undocumented immigrants as an unwelcome distraction from other priorities. Democrats have already introduced an immigration bill in the House, and one is expected in the Senate early next year.

Groups opposed to Obama's immigration-reform effort have taken little solace in the stepped-up enforcement efforts, in part because the Obama Administration is not aggressively seeking to deport those workers who are fired for fraudulent paperwork. "Effective enforcement is pretty much past tense," says Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a conservative group that opposes giving a path to legalization for current undocumented residents. "The illegal workers are clearly allowed to remain in the country."

That said, few doubt that Obama will have an easier time selling the idea of reform that legalizes current undocumented immigrants if he can argue that the reforms would be accompanied by serious enforcement, something that never happened after the last legalization effort. "We know that one-sided reform, as we saw in 1986, cannot succeed," Napolitano said in November. "During that reform effort, the enforcement part of the equation was promised, but it didn't materialize."

All this suggests that 2010 is sure to see even more crackdowns on employers around the country for employing undocumented workers. The President who once dismissed immigration enforcement "for show" is now clearly trying to make a show of his own enforcement chops.