Sunday, June 28, 2009

Women and Minors, the new profile of Immigration

Erica
Source: La Jornada
Date: 6/26/09

women, children and Indigenous people- all who do not have previous migration experience, without networks, and are more likely to fall victims of human trafficker and are more likely to suffer acts of violence - are increasing in population in terms of immigrating.

"Hoy uno de cada cinco migrantes es una mujer, y cada vez es más frecuente la presencia de menores de edad viajando solos". = "Today 1 in every 5 immigrants is a women, and each time it is more frequent the presence of a a minor traveling by themselves."

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Organized Crime and enforcement authorities commit the majority of immigrant kidnappings in the border

Erica
date: 6-27-09
Source: NotiMex

The President of the "Comisión de Equidad y Género de la Cámara de Diputados", Maricela Contreras, announced that the organized crime (kidnappers) and authorities commit the majority of immigrant kidnappings in border zones.

out of 9,758 kidnaps that are documented, 9,194 was committed by organized crimes and enforcement authorities

In the aggressions committed against immigrants include: extorsion, theft, kidnapping, illegal search and seizures, beatings, presucutions, being thrown from a moving tain, sexual assualt towards women, rape, threats, psychological pressures, murder, etc.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

U.S. immigration officials sued for abusing civil rights

Posted by Dihui Zhu

LOS ANGELES, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Civil rights groups announced on Thursday they have sued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in federal district court for detaining immigrants in egregious and unsanitary conditions in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit filed on April 1 said detainees at the Los Angeles facility have no soap, drinking water, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sanitary napkins, changes of clothing or showers.

For more information click here

Friday, June 26, 2009

U.S. immigration reform more hopeful as immigrant rights groups press hard

posted by Dihui Zhu

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Immigrant rights groups gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday for a unity immigration conference to press the Obama administration for a comprehensive immigration reform.
They urged the government to provide a path to legalization for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and make it easier for family members to come to the U.S. for family reunion.

For information click here

Hundreds demonstrate in Los Angeles for U.S. immigration reform

Posted by Dihui Zhu

LOS ANGELES, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people demonstrated Monday in Los Angeles as part of a nationwide campaign to push for U.S. legislation to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.
Carrying signs that read "Economic Recovery Includes Immigration Reform," the demonstrators marched from the Our Lady Queen of Angels church to City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, where they held a rally calling for an immigration reform that they said would benefit all citizens.

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Aplican programa Paisano de Verano; esperan a 87 mil mexicanos

Mexico had implemented "Programa Paisano de Verano"  (summer paisano program), from June 26th through August 31st.This program has the finality to protect the immigrant's rights through their vacation time in Mexico. In this year Mexico estimates about 87 thousand Mexican immigrants will return to Mexico to spent their summer vacations with their families.



Maria Coca
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Tratantes plagian a mujeres migrantes

In Tabasco (Mexican state) Immigrant women from Central America are at risk of kidnap when they attempt to cross the Mexican border with the U.S. Efrain Rodriguez Leon from the Human Resources Committee states the reason of these kidnaps is to claim rescue to the families of these women already living in the U.S. in most of the cases.  


Maria Coca
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Obama avizora un presidente latino

President Barack Obama restated that the creation of an immigration reform is essential. He also confirmed to the media of visualizing a future president of hispanic origin in the white house.


Maria Coca

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Obama reitera compromiso con reforma migratoria

Obama emphasizes controlling illegal immigration from  Mexico at the U.S. border, but he also urges to legalized the millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S.
Maria Coca 
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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Three California counties to check inmates' immigration status

Posted by Dihui Zhu

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura counties will become the first in California to begin checking the immigration status of all inmates booked into jail, a newspaper report said on Thursday.
The move was part of a national effort to identify and deport more illegal immigrants with criminal records, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

U.S. citizens caught up in immigration sweeps

Posted by Dihui Zhu

LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Immigration raids of factories and other work sites often result in at least a short-term detention of lawful residents and even citizens, a newspaper report said on Thursday.
Such mistaken detentions are drawing increased attention and inviting calls on the Obama administration to rein in the controversial workplace raids, the Los Angeles Times said.
The surge in ICE workplace actions during the Bush administration spawned fierce complaints from employees caught up in dragnets at factories, slaughterhouses and poultry farms, the paper said.
Officials in Washington said last month that the Obama administration was expected to shift enforcement emphasis to target employers rather than workers, according to the paper.
Immigrant advocates have long pushed for such a change, while others say easing workplace enforcement will encourage illegal immigration.

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Impulsará una reforma migratoria a economías de EU y México


(Erica)

date of article: 6-15-09


The legalization of immigrant workers and the creation of an organized immigrant labor system will stimulate the bi-national economies, for their will be an increase in the capturing of taxes by the formation of jobs and there will be an increase in the remittances.

The vice president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Eliseo Medina, claimed that it is essential to create “bi-national solutions for bi-national problems”, for which Mexico needs to assimilate that an immigration reform implies divided responsibility.
On the same page, he claimed that positive effects in the border security will emerged, such as controlling the flow of immigrants to the north, and reducing the possibilities of contraband and/or organized crime.

In a recent press conference, Eliseo Medina revealed that the US government allocates at least 18 million dollars for border patrolling. Medina further claimed that the immigration reform would contribute to suppress the economic crisis in the US and in Mexico, while at the same time increase border security and the labor conditions of 12 million immigrant workers in the US.


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Alert against the increase of “white supremist” in the US


(Erica)


Date of article:6-16-09

A study released by the Conference for the Education about Civil Rights alerted about an increase in “white supremist” groups and their hate crimes against minorities in the US. The number of these groups increased 54% since 2000, and that increased was nourished last year by the fear of immigration, the economic crisis, and the election of Obama.

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified 926 paramitlary groups, compared to 602 groups 8 years ago.

The President of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), Wade Henderson, called for measures to be taken (approve laws) that would ensure punishments for those who engage in hate crimes against minorities.

An author of the report, Michael Liberman, speaker for the League Against Defamation in Washington said that more than 7,500 hate crimes were documented in 2007, the causes (in order from more frequent) racial prejudices, religion, and sexual orientation.

Of all the hate crimes motivated by ethnic and/or national origin of the victim in 2007, almost 60% of those affected were Hispanics, a 50% increase since 2003.


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Number of detained illegal immigrants in its lowest point since 1973


(Erica)


Date of article: 6-16-09


The number of detained illegal immigrants in the United States decreased in its third consecutive year in 2008, 723,000, 18% less than the previous year and the lowest number in 35 years (information provided by the Department of Internal Security).

Findings:
- 2000: 1.68 million were detentions by the Border Patrol
- 2005: 1.18 million were detentions by the Border Patrol
- 2008: 723,000 were detentions by the Border Patrol
-Of those detainees:
-91% from Mexico
-2.7% from Honduras
-2.3% from Guatemala
-1.8% from El Salvador
-98% of the detentions occurred in the US-Mexican border region/area
-The average illegal immigrant who attempts to cross the border in 84% of the cases is a male and 71% of the time anywhere between the age of 18 and 34.


According to the report, there are different factors of the decrease of detentions, including the economic recession and the increase surveillance of the border patrol.These figures coincide with what the Mexican government recently reported, that on average immigrants who seek employment in the United States decreased to about 300,000, from a half a million annual crosses detected previous years.The highest number of detentions so far occurred in 1986, when the United States captured 1,693 million people, just before the Immigration Reform occurred.

But this data just reflects “detentions, and not individuals”, given that any person who is captured can try to re-enter the US again and again until he/she succeeds.The report also noted that after 911 the deportation figures have increased. Just in 2008 323,000 people were deported, a 20% increase.

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Exigen fijar fecha para la reforma migratoria

Maria Coca

ICIRR
protested that president Barack Obama has not set the date for congressmen to discuss the promised immigration reform. ICIRR claims that the white house postponed the reunion of June 8th to Wednesday 17th and now this reunion has been postponed again, but this date has not been set yet...

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

How the Recession in U.S. Affect the Employment Based Immigration

How the Recession in U.S. Affect the Employment Based Immigration
Post by Dihui Zhu

The procedure to apply Employment Based Immigration
1 Apply perm card (labor card)
2. Apply I-40
3. Turn in I-485 and get green card

During the recession many companies laid off their employees. Is the Labor Department stricter when they examine and approve application for the Employment Based Immigration? Analyze this problem based on four aspects:
1. The number of application for perm card didn’t change because the applicants for employment base immigration, most of them are in high-tech companies and their positions are irreplaceable.
2. The speed of examination slows down because the conservative people in the Congress think too simple process is not good to the American employees
3. The standard is changing specially the ratio of Audit is increased
4. Things to be aware: stick to the correct procedure, prepare for the Audit from labor department.

For more information click here

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Obama is not in a hurry to re-enforce the frontier

(Maria Coca)
Felipe Calderon, mexican president re-enforce the border by sending an extend amount of army troops. However, President Barack Obama is a lot more interested in sending troops to Afghanistan. President Obama shows persistence to provide another 250 soldiers in addition to the 150 already covering the frontier in the fight for drug trafficking and terrorism.
President Obama insisted on the use of strategies instead of military tactics to enforce security on the border with Mexico; with this president Obama " emphasizes the practice of sophisticated technological tactics to detect human movements on the frontier line, the increment of federal agents to prevent arm traffic into Mexico, and the creation of a new intelligence of FBI at El Paso, and Texas to examine the problematic of Mexico."
Since DHS has faced problems to finish Project 28, this technology hasn't been able to put in practice, so Mexico has to rely in their own sources to fight narco-traffic and illegal immigration (although mexican sheriffs declined any help in this regard because as they stated this is a federal problem), so Mexico is alone in the fight with narco-traffic on the frontier.

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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Undocumented Immigrants vs Public Benefits

Dihui(Dican) Zhu

Public Charge: Public Service Announcement

Are you an immigrant? Did you know that you might have the right to use public benefits without any problem from immigration or without affecting your application for legal residency? Yes, this is true, regardless of whether or not you have the proper immigration documents. If you are undocumented you can still qualify for some public benefits like Medi-cal and food assistance programs! If you are pregnant, have a serious medical emergency, or have breast or cervical cancer, you may qualify for free medical care through Medi-cal. Also, many counties will give your children health insurance even if they do not have immigration documents. Using these benefits will not prevent you from becoming a legal resident. If you or your children are already legal residents, you may qualify for more programs. Call the legal Aid Society of San Mateo County for more information. The number to call is 1-800-381-8898.

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Friday, June 5, 2009

Legisladores mexicanos buscarán en EU acuerdos en migración y control armas

(Erica)

Mexican Legislators seek (in the United States) to advance on a mayor weapon control and advance an immigration reform. This will take place in the "XLVIII Reunión Interparlamentaria México-EU" which will take place in Seattle, Washington.

PRD Senator, Claudia Corich, feels that such meeting should serve as a means to solicit "a regularation of the immigration situation that approxiamtely 12 million undocumented immigratns who work in the United States, of whom about 7 million are Mexican".

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Coalición de grupos lanza nueva campaña en favor de reforma migratoria

(Erica)


English:
WASHINGTON, (AFP) - A coalition of civil groups, unions, businessmen and religious entities announced this Wednesday a new campaign in favor of an integral immigration reform in the United States, a couple of days before a meeting between president Barack Obama and congressmen to open the debate in April.

Spanish:
WASHINGTON, (AFP) -Una coalición de grupos civiles, sindicatos, empresarios y entidades religiosas
anunció este miércoles una nueva campaña en favor de una reforma migratoria integral en Estados Unidos, a pocos días de una cita del presidente Barack Obama con congresistas para abrir el debate.


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