PT-LawMom

The Washington Post has a story today about fearful Latinos in Prince William Co., VA who are scared to even leave their homes to go to the doctors for fear of harassment by police.

Radio stations and hotlines are fielding calls from immigrants asking whether it is safe to drive cars or visit public parks. Lawyers are advising parents to make emergency plans for their children and assets in case they are detained on suspicion of being in the country illegally. Volunteers are organizing meetings, and one woman, a U.S. citizen from El Salvador, has decided to launch a write-in candidacy for the Board of County Supervisors.

“I feel as if my own community is slamming the door in my face. Someone has to stand up and do something,” said Araceli Paname¿o, 42, a longtime Woodbridge resident who took a leave of absence from her job in Washington last Thursday to explore the possibility of running in the election next month.

“I could sell my house and say I am fed up, but this county is my home,” she said. “I want to stay and try to change the environment.”

Ten miles away, Mirabel Martinez, 25, sat on her doorstep last Thursday afternoon, phoning a list of volunteers to plan a strategy meeting at a taco restaurant. She, too, is a legal immigrant and homeowner from El Salvador who lives in a quiet county neighborhood. She, too, said she had felt a new sting of hostility, even from a local church, which demanded proof of residency when she went to pick up donated food for a needy friend.

“I showed them my voter registration card, and they said it was not enough,” Martinez said. “I am here legally. But I have a lot of relatives and friends who are still illegal, and I can imagine how scared they are. I want to tell them to not be afraid and try to live normally, but to be careful and not do things like drive with false licenses. We can’t be defeatist. We have to stay and fight.”

Not unexpectedly, the DREAM Act did not get enough votes to pass today.

The DREAM Act is up for a vote again tomorrow in the Senate. Please call your senator’s office to encourage them to cast a vote for this important legislation which will offer a path to citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants who attend university or join the military so that they can utilize their skills and not have to pay for the sins of their parents. Marisa Trevino of The Huffington Post has a blog post today explaining the provision and the various arguments for and against it.

The New York Times has a piece about Americans getting stuck in long lines coming back from Mexico into the U.S. However, it seems to me that the U.S. government is putting their money where there mouth is on terrorism. They’ve said forever that they don’t want terrorists crossing the border so they need to be checking everyone rather than randomly choosing people who “fit the profile.” You can’t say you want closed borders and then bitch when you too are subject to inspection.

That said, the locals who work and attend school along the border are facing major problems. I think there is an easy answer for that. Just like the airports have made exceptions for frequent business travelers to get clearances, the same should be done for locals along the border. Give them an EZPass or other such quick identification card with a photo ID or some type of biometric system and let them go on their way in a special lane.

I also wonder if the Canadian border is facing similar delays. I was watching Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central last night and he made a good point. Mexicans are almost more opposed than Americans to letting terrorists through the Mexican border because they know if that happens, that fence will be locked up tighter than anyone wants and both economies will be damaged.

Under a new law, undocumented immigrant victims of violent crime who cooperate with authorities in the arrest and prosecution of their attackers will be eligible to apply for a new U visa. The visa allows victims of crime to stay in the U.S. for up to four years and to be accompanied by family members. While I think this is good because it helps the government keep violent felons off our streets (especially those gang members and rapists who come from other countries to set up shop here), but I also wonder how strict the requirements will be. It’s not a nice thing to say, but oftentimes people who get involved with these felons are criminals themselves. I wonder how the USCIS will evaluate those cases so that it doesn’t end up like many criminal cases where a bad guy walks because he’s willing to flip on his friend. Don’t get me wrong, this new category is wonderful in that it will protect undocumented immigrants who are sometimes targets of violent crime because their attackers believe they will be too fearful to go to the police. I think this is a great benefit for them; I just hope that USCIS doesn’t allow criminals to stay here simply for turning on their buddies. You can read the USCIS fact sheets here:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/UvisaReminder16Oct07.pdf
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/U-visa_05Sept07.pdf

Pumpkinhead seems to be doing a bit better. Still kind of pale and not as hungry as usual, but no fever. I’m watching and we’ll see what happens.

I just realized how little time is left in the semester. I better start kicking it into high gear reviewing in preparation for finals because they will be here before I know it! I got CDs for both classes but my CD player in my car is broken and, even though I put them on my iPod, I’ve just been less interested in having a professor droning on and on during my commute than I was during the summer. In the summer, I listened almost daily, alternating between Sum & Substance cds and exam prep tapes. Granted, there was only 10 weeks in that semester so I guess if I think that way and start now, I’m almost on track.

This has been a completely insane week at work and it’s shaping up to be an insane month. Working through lunch, working late, taking work home, etc. We are definitely in the midst of a fall gear-up which probably won’t slow until mid-December when our foreign clients go on an extended work stoppage going into the holidays. Of course I got a fifth assignment added to my desk this week. She’s nice, but could I be more overloaded? At least they’re doing it to all of us so it’s really not just me. Can’t complain about that.

Our immigration attorney filed Chapin’s appeal on Tuesday. I helped her pull a bunch of cases and then read the doc before it went out and I feel really good about her position and the support to back it up. Ultimately it’s all up to the subjective view of the officer who reviews the appeal, but hopefully we’ll get a kind-hearted one. They basically made assumptions with no factual backup and failed to even inquire in the interview as to the discrepancy. Had they asked one question, they would have gotten all the info they needed to explain it away. Instead they made assumptions and you know what they say about people who assume…

Here are some great new PSAs from the American Immigration Law Foundation. Visit today for your copy, hang posters in your office or ask your local newspaper to publish them.

Ruben Navarette has another great opinion piece about immigration on CNN today.

The reader offered a scenario — “Where you hire people to clean your toilets, they decide to stay in your house and they bring friends. You end up paying for their schooling and other privileges.”

You see the problem: “Where you hire people to clean your toilets.” Hmm. These people are here illegally, and yet you hire them to clean your toilets, reserving the right to bellyache about them and what they’re costing you. It’s the first act — hiring illegal immigrants — that sets the rest of the story in motion. I have a solution: Clean your own toilets, or at least make sure that those who clean them for you are in the country legally. Or, shut up already.

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Oh, it’s true that the United States is a country of immigrants. But in this case, what matters is that this also happens to be a country full of people who hire illegal immigrants. There is only one reason why so many Mexicans want to come to the United States: because there are so many jobs waiting for them here.

Some Americans still prefer to blame Mexico for illegal immigration. Of course, why wouldn’t they? That sure beats taking their share of responsibility for it.

The New York Times also points out an important fact about illegal immigration that is paving the way for the harassment and racial profiling of Latinos nationwide — noncitizens do not have the same rights as citizens. No Miranda warning, no warrants, etc. The Times piece is an eye-opening one.

Immigration agents are not required to obtain warrants to detain suspects. The agents also have broad authority to question people about their immigration status and to search them and their homes. There are no Miranda rights that agents must read when making arrests. Detained immigrants have the right to a lawyer, but only one they can pay for.

While criminal suspects are generally sent to jails near the courts that hear their cases, immigration agents have discretion in deciding where to hold immigrants detained for deportation. Many suspected illegal immigrants who were detained in Nassau County, for example, were quickly moved to York, Pa., distant from family and legal advice.

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Even immigrants who have lived here legally for many years, lawyers said, can run afoul of the immigration laws with minor infractions or misdemeanors. A late filing of visa renewal papers or a shoplifting citation can quickly spiral into an order for the ultimate penalty: deportation. Immigrants who fight the orders have more limited bail rights than American criminals and can spend years behind bars while their cases inch through the overburdened court system.

Today’s Washington Post has an article profiling the various plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Prince William County, VA for its recent anti-immigrant legislation. One is a longtime Hispanic U.S. citizen who is worried because he doesn’t have to carry his passport with him and could be targeted unfairly. Another is a woman who is in the middle of seeking residency after leaving her U.S. citizen husband on the grounds of domestic abuse who has no current proof of her status pending a decision.

Magic Cookie recently asked me to clarify my position on illegal immigration and, since our conversation was held mostly in the comments, I thought it worth re-posting for those who missed it.

CM wrote:

Maybe you can help me out here. I tend to be very progressive in my politics, and I certainly believe everyone should be treated humanely and respectfully. I agree, of course, that children should not be targeted. But if people are in the country illegally, why shouldn’t they be deported? One argument I often hear is “Our economy depends on these people, who pay taxes and are good people” — well, that’s nice, but that means our policy needs to change. Even if illegal immigrants are a huge boon to the country, and even if we need a major overhaul of our system, our current law says that they have no right to be here. Is the problem that there is no way to treat them with dignity and still enforce the law? Or is it something else?

My response:
Well, CM, I think you said it. The policies need to change — not just our domestic policies on immigration but also foreign policies that contribute to the hardships people are fleeing. In terms of the 12 million immigrants who are here, I say by all means deport those who are engaging in criminal activity. But for the other 95% who are here, working, contributing to our tax system and social security and raising taxes, find a way to offer them a chance to work towards legalization or work here for a few years and then return to their home countries with the money they’ve earned. I don’t think mass deportations and harassment of otherwise good people is the right approach, especially when innocent children are involved. I do think that the U.S. needs to secure its borders because illegal border crossings are extremely dangerous to those attempting it, even more so these days. I also think that they need to implement a more rational, fair visa policy that doesn’t only cater to the wealthy. I cannot get visas for my in-laws to visit us because they are not yet of a certain age and don’t have the bank accounts and other paper “ties to their country” to prove that they will return. The immigration system is broken and the country needs to fix it, but if the only crime undocumented immigrants have committed is seeking a better life illegally when legal methods fail, I don’t agree that they should be booted out en masse.

CM replied:

Thanks for responding. That makes sense — the argument isn’t “don’t deport them because we like them, even though they’re breaking the law,” it’s “don’t deport them because the law is seriously flawed and they should stay while we fix it.” I guess my problem is that I rarely hear it said that way. People seem to have a knee-jerk response to illegal immigration issues, whichever side they’re on, either assuming that everyone absolutely deserves to be here regardless of the law or that they should all be shipped back to their home country. (And both sides, I think, tend to conflate “immigrants” with “illegal immigrants.”) You mentioned that you think it’s fine to deport people involved in criminal activity. Even with that, I have heard a lot of objections — again, maybe this is an issue of being worried about extremism and people being deported for jaywalking.

My response:
Especially for Spanish-speaking people, there’s a sense of racial profiling. Just because you look Spanish and speak Spanish doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. I think it’s fine to run an immigration check on someone arrested for a felony, but I don’t think cops should be doing it at traffic stops or busting into peoples’ homes or workplaces to seek them out. Talk about a waste of our tax dollars! In Prince William Co., VA, the legislature is considering a measure to seek out undocumented immigrants and it will cost $11 million to implement!!!

Judge Ellen Huvelle has temporarily blocked the Bush Administration’s attempts to ignore the environmental impact of building the border fence right through a protected area in Arizona. This is yet another example of the Bush Adminstration’s policies (like wire tapping, spying, torture, the war, etc.) that involve quick action and dealing with the fallout when it comes. Unfortunately Secretary Chertoff has the power, apparently, to disregard Judge Huvelle’s ruling and order continued work on the fence. What else is new?